Dr Werner Lanthaler Chief Executive Officer

Dr Werner Lanthaler (born in 1968, Austrian citizen) was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Evotec on 06 March 2009. From March 2000 to March 2009 he was Chief Financial Officer at Intercell AG. During his tenure, Intercell developed from a venture-backed biotechnology company into a global vaccine player. Dr Lanthaler played a pivotal role in many of the company's major corporate milestones including the product approval of Intercell's Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine, the company's acquisitions and strategic pharma partnerships, as well as the company's Initial Public Offering in 2005. Previously, from 1998 to 2000 Dr Lanthaler served as Director of the Federation of Austrian Industry, and from 1995 to 1998 as Senior Management Consultant at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He holds a doctorate in economics from Vienna University, earned his Master’s degree from Harvard University and holds a degree in Psychology. Further, Dr Werner Lanthaler serves in the Board of Directors of AC Immune SA (since July 2018). 

Dr Cord Dohrmann Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Cord Dohrmann (born in 1964, German citizen) joined Evotec as Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Management Board in 2010. Dr Dohrmann has spent over 25 years in biomedical research at leading academic institutions and in the biotech industry. He started his academic career in 1983 studying Biology at Tübingen University in Germany and conducting research as a DAAD scholar at Duke University, Durham, USA. Dr Dohrmann completed his MA thesis at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen and subsequently enrolled at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology in 1996. Dr Dohrmann continued his career as a Shiseido research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston before joining a Max Planck Institute spin-off company, DeveloGen, in 1999. During his ten-year tenure, he served the company in various management positions including CEO, leading DeveloGen from a start-up to an internationally recognised metabolic disease company. Dr Cord Dohrmann is a member of the Supervisory Boards of Eternygen and Breakpoint Therapeutics, a Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Facio Therapies and a Board Observer of Immunitas Inc. He has been advising the European Commission, the Max Planck Institute as well as various venture capital firms. In February 2021, Dr Dohrmann was appointed to the German Council of Science and Humanities.

Dr Matthias Evers Chief Business Officer

Matthias (born in 1973, German citizen) was appointed as Chief Business Officer of Evotec on 01 May 2022. Matthias is responsible for business development, digital technology, and strategy across the entire company. Prior to joining Evotec, Matthias accumulated 20 years of experience as Senior Partner with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company where he co-led R&D in Life Sciences globally and served on the Firm’s most senior Knowledge and People Committees, respectively. He also spearheaded venture-type, company building efforts for biotech and health tech companies in Europe. Matthias gained significant exposure to the U.S., China, India, and Europe, where he helped R&D organisations to excel at innovation through large-scale performance transformations, innovation programmes, and novel approaches for maximising value from new assets, capabilities, and technologies. His areas of expertise include convergence of biology and technology, which he published widely around “The Bio Revolution”, as well as creating patient benefits from ecosystem-wide, cross-industry collaboration (e.g., in the context of public-private partnerships or industry fora he helped create like in Medical Affairs or Regulatory Affairs). Further, Matthias has served as advisor and speaker at high-profile science events, including the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and Global Biotech Revolution’s GapSummit for young researchers.

Matthias was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH) and holds a Ph.D. based on his work in molecular biology and bioinformatics from the University of Bochum (Germany) where he also earned his MSc in Biochemistry. He is founding member of the Competence Center Biointelligence e.V. and has led the jury of the Science4Life e.V. startup competition for many years. 

Dr Craig Johnstone Chief Operating Officer

Dr Craig Johnstone (born in 1970, British citizen) was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Management Board of Evotec on 01 January 2019. Dr Johnstone joined Evotec in May 2012 as SVP Drug Discovery and Innovation Efficiency. From April 2015, Dr Johnstone was Directeur General and Site Head, Evotec (France) SAS, and from January 2017, he was appointed Global Head, Integrated Drug Discovery. Dr Johnstone is a successful drug discovery leader with over 20 years’ experience particularly in the areas of diabetes, inflammation and oncology. Between 1994 and 2012, Dr Johnstone served in a number of project, function, matrix and leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Prosidion and Rapier Research where he led teams and groups, which discovered numerous candidate drugs for clinical development including AZD1656, which reached PhIIb for Type II Diabetes. During this time, Dr Johnstone also developed expertise in LEAN-inspired process excellence in drug discovery and developed a keen interest in the interface between creativity, innovation and process improvement to deliver the highest performance drug discovery, advising teams and implementing multi-site, international change initiatives to drive performance. Dr Johnstone is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chartered Chemist (FRSC CChem) and holds BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in organic and organometallic synthesis and is an accredited LEAN Sigma Black Belt. He has published more than 70 patents and papers in drug discovery, medicinal and synthetic chemistry, innovation and LEAN methods applied to the inventive processes of drug discovery. Dr Johnstone does not hold any memberships in supervisory bodies.

Laetitia Rouxel Chief Financial Officer

Laetitia Rouxel (born in 1973, French citizen) joined Evotec as Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board on 01 April 2023. Rouxel has more than 25 years of finance experience in various sectors such as Life Sciences, Food, Cosmetics and Building industry. A graduate of the French Business school ISG, she started her career with finance and commercial roles in the Pharma industry at Pfizer and J&J. She went on to work for the French multinational food-products corporation Danone, where she covered various leading Finance positions in multiple regions for R&D, Medical and Baby Nutrition based in France and in the Netherlands. She then joined the beauty company Coty in Switzerland, where she became divisional CFO. Before joining Evotec, she was Global CFO of Wavin, a solutions leader for the building and infrastructure industry.

 

Last updated: April 2023

 

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