Management

Advisory Board

Prof. Francis Garnier, CNRS, France

Francis Garnier is the inventor of the first organic transistor. Prof. Garnier has worked for more than 20 years in the field of conducting polymers. In 1990 he was the first in the world to publish an article and to get an international patent on organic transistors. In 1994 he produced for the first time an all-polymer transistor by printing methods. This work, published in Science (1994), was quoted in the front page of the New York Times. The work of Prof. Garnier was the object of approximately 250 scientific publications and 15 patents. Professor Garnier is considered as one of the pioneers of the organic electronics by companies such as IBM, Nortel, and Philips.
Prof. Garnier is in charge of the Laboratory of Molecular Materials Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France.His current research goals are concentrated toward the biological recognition of DNA and antibodies, and also toward the use of organic semiconductors for building new types of solar cells.

Prof. Butrus T. Khuri-Yakub, Stanford University, USA

B. T. Khuri-Yakub has been Professor of Electrical Engineering (Research) at Stanford University since 1982. His current research interests include in-situ acoustic sensors for monitoring and control of integrated circuits manufacturing processes, micromachining silicon to make acoustic materials and devices such as air borne and water immersion ultrasonic transducers and arrays, and fluid ejectors, and in the field of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation and acoustic imaging and microscopy.
Professor Khuri-Yakub has authored over 300 publications and has been principal inventor or co-inventor on over 50 patents. He received the Stanford University School of Engineering Distinguished Advisor Award in June 1987.

Dr. Massimo Malvetti, University of Luxembourg

Massimo Malvetti holds a PhD (1990) in theoretical atomic physics from the University of Karlsruhe where he was involved in academic research from 1986 to 1995 before he spent two years in research at the Goodyear Technical Center in Luxembourg. He was then lecturer (1998) and professor (2000) at the Institut Supérieur de Technologie in Luxembourg which became a part of the University of Luxembourg. He was elected by his peers to serve as the first Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication in October 2003.

Dr. Gérard Schockmel

Gérard Schockmel is an MD, who was Assistant Professor at the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Diseases of the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. He developed a highly sensitive test for measuring HIV levels in an infected person’s blood. The test received FDA approval and was marketed worldwide by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche. He then became Clinical Science Leader at Roche in Basel, Switzerland and was worldwide responsible for the drug NeoRecormon which in 2000 achieved sales of 400 million Euros. Dr. Schockmel was co-initiator of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd., an in-dependent biotech company that was spun-off of Roche with a starting capital of 130 million Euros. At Basilea he was Head of drug development and project management. Since 2003, Dr. Schockmel is Director for several laboratories of hospitals in Luxembourg.

Cédric Latessa

Cédric works as an Associate for a private equity fund investing in high-tech companies active in the TMT sectors. Prior to that, Cédric held three long-term internship positions in three early-stage TMT Venture Capital funds in three countries and a one-year long position at the European Investment Fund as a Junior VC officer. Cédric has three masters’ degrees (European Politics, Business and Corporate Finance), including two from Sciences-Po Paris. Cédric’s interests lie in nanotechnology, new materials, microelectronics and clean energy technologies. He joined PE-Lux first as a “coach” (helping the project to become a company) and then help founding the company and seats in the Advisory Board.

Gary O. Martini

Gary represented the government of Switzerland officially with Microswiss from 1993-1998, where he was responsible for marketing and strategy in regards to nanotechnology. He is an investor in Swiss CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology). CSEM is mainly active in the fields of micro/nanotechnology, microelectronics, systems engineering, and information and communication technologies. He co-founded the APTE Association in 1996, a global co-operation and knowledge management organization, of which he is President. In addition, he is the co-coordinator of the APTE Medical Devices Special Interest Group. Gary Martini works as a member of the board for various companies and advises public institutions and companies in the industrial and financial sectors. He is also engaged in various industrial projects and European consortia, amongst others Eureka- and EU-projects.

Alex Papanastassiou

Alex currently contributes to a number of projects helping customers deploy new services, manage existing operations and bridge the gap between business and technology. Over the past 5 years Alex has been active in several start-ups or start-up projects, be it as an early helper or a co-founder in the fields of microelectronics and MEMS, software, IT services and wireless LAN roaming services. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Alex was manager for strategic programs at MasterCard and before that he was Director Product Management for MACH, the leading GSM roaming clearing house. Alex earned a Master of Science in Management from Solvay Business School at the State University of Brussels (Université Libre de Bruxelles) in 1995.