The Team

Management

Neil Goldsmith
Founder
LinkedIn

Neil is a serial biotechnology entrepreneur with 35 years’ experience of the life science sector, having built companies from the ground up in multiple sectors (industrial biotech, therapeutics, lab instrumentation, sensors & diagnostics, services) and countries (UK, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, USA, India).

  • From 2004 to 2017 Neil was founder and CEO of Evolva SA, a pioneering synthetic biology company that scaled multiple products to market, and that went public in Switzerland in 2009. Before that Neil founded, or played a key early role in, amongst others, TopoTarget (cancer therapeutics, IPO Copenhagen), Biotage (microwave chemistry, IPO Stockholm), GX Biosystems (suicide systems for GM microbes), PNA Diagnostics (DNA diagnostics, trade sale to Boehringer Mannheim, now Roche), BIAcore (biosensors, IPO NASDAQ) & Scientific Generics (technology consultancy, IPO LSE). Neil has a 1st class honours degree in Zoology from Oxford University.

Andy Gardiner
Founder
LinkedIn

Andy has worked for nearly thirty years with early-stage biotech companies as CEO, CFO, non-executive director and founder. He has run companies in both crop-protection and plant genetics. In the 2010s he took a five-year excursion outside biotech, helping to build and exit a digital commerce company.

  • Andy is a former board member of Swedish animal/human vaccine company Isconova (acquired by Novavax) and CEO of UK plant-genetics start-up Norfolk Plant Sciences. Other previous roles include: Personal Chemistry/Biotage (Swe), InSecta (UK/Spain), Isconova (Swe) and Immudex (DK). He is a co-founder (with Neil) of Double Bioventures. Andy has an MBA from London South Bank University and a BSc in Physics from the University of Manchester.

Luc Gruner
COO
LinkedIn

Luc began his career as a research scientist at Total, before transitioning into business development. He has forty years’ experience in sales and marketing, strategic planning and in C level roles (CEO, CCO, CBO,), having worked in multinationals as well as family-owned and startup companies.

  • Luc spent considerable time working in the water treatment, food & beverage and paper/pulp chemical industries but for more than twenty years has worked in biotech in commercial roles. He has been instrumental in negotiating, acquiring and managing partnering projects in markets such as nutrition, feed, F&B, F&F, healthcare, building an extensive network in Asia including Japan. Previous companies include Evolva, VeriZyme, BimKemi, Hercules, BetzDearborn, WR Grace.

    Luc has a PhD in physical chemistry from the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg and an AMP from INSEAD.

Advisors

Jørgen Hansen
Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor
LinkedIn

Jørgen is a molecular and fermentation biologist who has worked in the biotech sector for more than 30 years. He has led a large number of industrial biotech programmes, and developed multiple fermentation-derived products from lab scale to multi-tonne scale production and launch.

Esben Halkjær Hansen
Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor
LinkedIn

Esben is a molecular biologist with nearly 20 years’ experience developing fermentation-based products and of developing microbial strains. He has lead several projects within this field and taken them from idea phase, though-scale-up and into production.

  • Formerly Principal Scientist and Program Manager at Evolva. Esben has a PhD in Molecular Biology/Pharmaceutical Science from the University of Copenhagen.

Simon Porphy
Scientific Advisor
LinkedIn

Simon’s key expertise is fermentation science, process development and scale-up. He has more than ten years’ industrial experience, leading several projects from concept stage, through scale-up to the pilot-plant production stage. Previous companies include DuPont and Thermo Fischer. In 2016, he co-founded MicroSynbiotiX with Antonio.

  • Simon holds a Master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Auckland.

Antonio Lamb
Scientific Advisor
LinkedIn

Antonio is a Swedish molecular biologist and entrepreneur from California with expertise in the animal and human pharmaceutical industries. He is a co-founder of MicroSynbiotiX (now acquired by Sundew), developing plant-based oral vaccines and therapeutics for the aquaculture industry.

  • Antonio obtained his B.Sc. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his M.Sc. from the University of Basel in molecular biology, and is currently in the Microbiology and Immunology PhD program at the University of Zurich/ETH Zurich. Antonio also works as a scientist at the Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, where he conducts CRISPR genetic screening of advanced 3D cell culture models to find new druggable disease targets.

Kurt Buchmann
Copenhagen University
LinkedIn

Professor of Parasitology and Aquatic Pathobiology at Copenhagen University. Kurt has been researching parasite diseases in fish for the past nearly 40 years, with experience in pathology, immunology, vaccinology, pathogen/host interactions, disease control and aquaculture.

  • He has developed methods (in vitro and in vivo) to assess the effects of various treatments on a variety of fish diseases. Kurt has a long history of in managing projects and programs (Sustainable Control of Fish Diseases in Aquaculture SCOFDA, Fishnet, Danish Fish Immunology Center and Network DAFINET). He has a PhD in Parasitology from Copenhagen University.

Claus Sternberg
Danish Technical University
LinkedIn

Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering, DTU. Claus’s main area of research is Microbial Ecology and Physiology, with a particular focus on biofilms and bacteria.

For Sundew, Claus advises on the engineering aspects of scaling up fermentation processes. Claus has extensive experience in collaboration with other academic groups as well as with industry partners.

Elisângela Zeoli
Sales
LinkedIn

Elisângela is a pharmacist with a career experience built in innovation process, development of new products, business development and commercial operations. She has worked in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare .

Elis, previously worked for the Innovation Centre at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, helping Danish companies to open doors in Brazil. She has an excellent track record driving dynamic business relations, and managing and developing strategic partnerships in Brazil and Latin America. 

Niels Henrik Henriksen
Dansk Akvakultur


Niels is a veterinarian who has been a health consultant for Dansk Akvakultur, the umbrella organization for Danish Aquaculture, since 2001.

He has thorough knowledge of the state of health of Danish aquaculture, both conventional and organic, and has conducted field trials regarding water quality and health prevention (vaccination) at a number of Danish aquaculture farms.

  • His expertise includes all aspects of fish diseases (diagnosis, treatment, prevention and eradication); and EU and national veterinary legislation. He has led and participated in a number of fish disease research projects.

Shane Willis
Sales
LinkedIn

Shane graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Master's in Aquaculture and has worked in the aquaculture industry for almost 30 years. He has worked with a range of species, focusing mainly on ornamental fish in farming, importing, exporting, wholesaling, and retailing . He has held senior management positions in companies within the ornamental fish industry, and worked on consultancy projects for various industry, NGO and government groups in Australia, the Caribbean, and SE Asia.

  • Shane has also lectured at the Australian Maritime College and University of Tasmania in aquaculture including biosecurity, fish health management and intensive aquaculture production technology. Shane is the Managing Director of National Aquaculture Training Institute Pty Ltd (NATI), which offers training and consulting services for the aquaculture and ornamental fish industry, and also is the current President of Ornamental Fish International and a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Ocean University.