Board of Directors

PreComb’s Board is composed of two of the founders and our lead investors with broadest experiences in corporate governance.

Peter Steiner

President of the Board

In addition to his extensive experiences as senior manager at ESBATech/Novartis, Peter has also served as a Board member of Insilico Biotechnology AG for more than 10 years.

Jens Kelm

Board member

As co-founder and CTO, Jens was president and member of the board of directors of Insphero AG for more than 7 years.

Patrick Aisher

Patrick Aischer - Kinled

Board member

Patrick is an Anglo-Austrian serial entrepreneur who has been active in early stage businesses since 1990. Throughout his career, he has created and invested in over fifty businesses, exiting twelve via IPO (in London, New York, and Madrid) and twelve via trade sale/licensing deal. Patrick is Chairman of Kinled Holding, a Hong Kong-based private investment company established in 1924, with offices in London, Shanghai, Vienna, and Zurich. Kinled holds a portfolio of more than 50 companies in the life sciences, digital and financial technology industries. He is a Director of Olipan Investments (TdT5) Inc. which specializes in later stage life science private equity investments, and is a member of the Swiss Corporate Finance and Private Equity Association. A strong advocate of seed funding academic research into innovative business concepts, Patrick is also a Director of the Central European Biotechnology Incubator Accelerator in Vienna.

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Anke Caßing, PhD - HTGF

Board observer

Anke has many years of experience in strategic marketing and business development in medical technology, biotechnology and in pharmaceutics. She is a Principal at the High-Tech Günderfonds (HTGF), responsible for more than a dozen portfolio companies in the biotechnology and med-tech field. Before joining the HTGF, she developed the product portfolios of international companies ensuring their future growth. Anke holds a PhD in biochemistry from MPI Munich and studied economics.

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Dr. Anke Cassing

Strategic advisory board

The PreComb executive management is supported by a diverse team of high-profile strategic advisors from the biotech/pharma industry as well as from experts in clinical and preclinical research.

All members of the advisory board have Practical Pharma Industry experiences with Roche, Novartis, Schering, Alcon & GSK. Together, they have created more than 200 Jobs in Biotech, Pharma and Research.

Advisors at a Glance

  • Successful biotech exit for 589 mio USD
  • Broad experiences in pharma, bio- and medtech and health data businesses
  • Managment and partners of large investment funds
  • Creation of more than several hundred jobs in life-science industry


Dominik Escher, PhD

Dominik Escher is a co-founder and Executive Chairman of CDR-Life AG and a founding partner of Puros Bioventures. Previously, he was a founder and CEO of ESBATech AG, which was acquired in 2009 by Alcon (Novartis) for USD 589 million. As a biotech entrepreneur, he raised USD 89 million for ESBATech to develop novel antibody fragments from discovery to maturity, delivering multiple clinically successful products (e.g. Brolucizumab). Dominik obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich and also holds a Masters Degree in Education with specialization in Management and Organization from the ETH of Zurich.

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Dominik Escher, Advisor of PreComb
Andrew Thomas, Advisor of PreComb

Andrew Thomas, PhD

Andrew Thomas is a managing partner of Helvetica Capital and a founder of the IPSO Group. Previously, he was a founding Executive Board member of the Swiss Industry Science Fund (SISF) and Global Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Roche where he was responsible for development of small molecule drugs in different therapeutic areas including oncology. Andrew holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of St. Andrews.

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Patrick Griss, PhD

Patrick Griss is co-founder and Executive Partner of Zühlke Ventures, the early-stage investment arm of the Zühlke Group. He is an active investor and board member in several technology companies and an expert for digital strategies and business models. Patrick holds a PhD in Microsystem Technology from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

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Helge Bastian

Helge Bastian, PhD

Helge Bastian is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 30 years of global leadership experiences and global business responsibilities at leading life science and healthcare corporations in Germany, Switzerland and the USA, including QIAGEN, SGS, Sigma-Aldrich, Indivumed, Thermo Fisher Scientific and M2GEN. He currently serves as Board Member for Molecular Assemblies, a San Diegan synthetic biology company, and as independent advisor to start-up companies in Europe and the USA developing innovative solutions to advance next generation sequencing and molecular diagnostic solutions. Dr. Bastian studied at the universities in Kiel, Goettingen and Munich, Germany and holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the Max-Planck Institute, Goettingen, Germany. He is an alumnus of the Columbia Business School, New York.

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