Board Of Directors

Michel Lussier* serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Lussier co-founded Cardio3 Biosciences SA the company which became Celyad SA. Mr. Lussier currently serves also on several Boards of Directors: iSTAR Medical SA and Gabi Smart Care SA as Chairman, Occlutech AG as board member. Previously, Mr. Lussier founded MedPole SA and its  North American affiliate Medpole LTD, a Medtech and cell therapy incubator for start-up companies, serving as CEO until July 2020. From May 2014 until September 2020, Mr. Lussier also served as the CEO of Metronom Health Inc, an early stage medical device company founded by Fjord Ventures. Prior to that, from 2002 to 2013, he worked for Volcano Corporation, where he served in global leadership positions. Mr. Lussier started his career with Medtronic where he held a number of technical, marketing, sales than general management roles. Mr. Lussier obtained a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Electrical Engineering and Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Montreal. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Chris Buyse brings more than 30 years of international financial expertise and experience in introducing best financial management practices. He is currently Managing Director of FUND+, a fund that invests in innovative Belgian Life Sciences companies, Between August 2006 and June 2014, Mr. Buyse served as the Chief Financial Officer and board member of ThromboGenics NV, a leading biotech company that is listed on NYSE Euronext Brussels. Before joining ThromboGenics, he was the Chief Financial Officer of the Belgian biotech company CropDesign, where he coordinated the acquisition by BASF in July 2006. Prior to joining CropDesign NV he was financial manager of WorldCom/MCI Belux, a European subsidiary of one of the world’s largest telecommunication companies and he was also the Chief Financial Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer of Keyware Technologies. Mr. Buyse holds a Master’s Degree in applied economic sciences from the University of Antwerp and a Master of Business Association from Vlerick School of Management in Gent. He currently serves, in his own name or as permanent representative of a management company, as member of the board of directors of the following publicly and privately held companies: Bio Incubator NV, Pinnacle Investments SA, CreaBuild NV, Sofia BVBA, Pienter-Jan BVBA, Life Sciences Research Partners VZW, Inventiva SA, The Francqui Foundation . Hyloris pharmaceuticals and EyeDPharma SA. Mr. Buyse is also Board observer at the Foundation Louis-Jeantet (CH).

Serge Goblet holds a Master’s Degree in Business and Consular Sciences from ICHEC, Belgium and has many years of international experience as director in Belgian and foreign companies. Mr. Goblet is the managing director of TOLEFI SA, a Belgian holding company and holds director mandates in subsidiaries of TOLEFI.

Mr. LiPuma is a Director in Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Intellectual Property Group based in San Francisco, where he focuses on a wide variety of investment opportunities in connection with intellectual property, life sciences, and academic institutions. Prior to joining Fortress in 2018, Mr. LiPuma headed business development for Kastle Therapeutics, a private equity backed biotechnology company acquiring ultra-orphan drugs. Before joining Kastle, Mr. LiPuma was with OrbiMed Advisors, a life sciences focused asset management firm.  At OrbiMed, Mr. LiPuma worked on royalty monetizations, direct lending to late development stage and early commercial stage life sciences companies, and several private equity transactions focused on acquiring legacy assets from big pharma. Mr. LiPuma started his career as an investment banker at Leerink Partners. Mr. LiPuma holds a B.A. from Hamilton College.

Dominic Piscitelli brings more than 20 years of industry experience, including debt and equity financings, in-licensing transactions, acquisitions, marketing partnerships and commercial product launches (XTANDI® and Tarceva®). Since September 2019 Dominic has served as the Chief Financial Officer of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company, that completed its initial public offering in April 2020. Prior to joining ORIC, Mr. Piscitelli was CFO of AnaptysBio, a Nasdaq-listed biotechnology company, where he helped raise over $500 million in an IPO and follow-on financings. From 2012 until 2017, Mr. Piscitelli was Vice President of Finance, Strategy and Investor Relations at Medivation and played a key role in its acquisition by Pfizer. Previously, he served as Senior Director of Collaborations and Operations Finance at Astellas Pharma. Prior to that, Mr. Piscitelli served in various roles of increasing responsibility culminating as the Vice President, Treasury & Management Finance at OSI Pharmaceuticals, and played a significant role in their acquisition by Astellas. Mr. Piscitelli began his career with KPMG and is a certified public accountant. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA from Hofstra University (New York).

Ms. Shah is a Managing Director in Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Intellectual Property Group based in San Francisco, where she focuses on a wide variety of investment opportunities in connection with intellectual property and technology. Prior to joining Fortress in 2013, Ms. Shah worked for Intel, most recently heading Intel’s Global Wireless Patents group, overseeing the Intel’s patent procurement, licensing, transaction and monetization activities for Intel and their development partners. At Intel, Ms. Shah also held wide-ranging and deep technical responsibilities, as well as led Intel’s standards bodies interactions. Before joining Intel, she was with the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney, and Fish & Richardson where she worked on patent prosecution, licensing and ITC litigation matters. Ms. Shah is recognized as one of the World’s Leading IP Strategists by Intellectual Asset Magazine in the IAM 300, awarded to individuals with an established track record in developing and rolling out world-class IP value creation programs. Ms. Shah began her legal career as an examiner in the United States Patent Office and was an engineer in the auto industry. Ms. Shah holds a J.D. from Cleveland State University along with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Wayne State University.

Marina Udier, Ph.D., currently serves as CEO of Nouscom after joining as Chief Operating Officer in 2016 from Versant Ventures, where she was Operating Principal. Prior to Versant, she held senior development and commercial roles at Novartis in Basel including work as a Global Commercial Head. Previously, Dr. Udier worked for McKinsey & Company in the US, working with Healthcare Fortune 500 companies in areas of marketing, strategy and pricing. She has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Yale University.

Hilde Windels is an advisor in the life sciences industry. She brings over 20 years of experience in biotech with a track record of business and corporate strategy, building and structuring organizations, private fundraising, mergers and acquisitions and public capital markets. Ms. Windels has worked as Chief Financial Officer for several biotech companies, amongst those Belgium based molecular Dx company Biocartis where she started as Chief Financial Officer CFO in 2011. She transitioned to the co-Chief Executive Officer role in 2015 and became interim Chief Executive Officer in 2017. She took up the CEO role of MyCartis in early 2018 and of its spin-out Antelope Dx mid-2019.

Ms. Windels is a member of the board of directors of Erytech and MdxHealth. She holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (Commercial Engineer) from the University of Leuven (Belgium).

Filippo Petti is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Company, and Executive Director. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Petti worked in healthcare investment banking both at Wells Fargo Securities and William Blair & Company. Prior to his roles in investment banking, Mr. Petti spent several years in equity research covering U.S. biotechnology companies both at William Blair & Company and Wedbush Securities. He began his career as a research scientist at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focused on drug discovery and translational research, and later transitioning into corporate development with the company. Mr. Petti holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University, a Master of Science from St. John’s University and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.