Board of Directors

Gaby is the co-founder of Ixaka bringing together the licence partner, the investors and management team within Ixaka. He represents the principal shareholders and funders of Ixaka. He is the founder and Managing Director of Wharton Asset Management, a private London based family office specialising in private equity investment in diverse sectors including healthcare and biotechnology. Gaby has over 20 years of experience in finance and investment.

Huw is the CEO of Evgen Pharma (LON: EVG), UK listed a clinical stage drug development company focussed on the development of sulforaphane-based compounds, a new class of pharmaceuticals. Huw is is currently Non-executive Chairman of Chronos Therapeutics Ltd in Oxford UK. During his time at Chronos he extracted the company from Oxford University, raised substantial grant and equity finance and led Chronos’ acquisition of three early research programmes in brain disease from Shire PLC. He was surprised and pleased to have been awarded European CEO of the year 2016/17 for drug discovery by European CEO Magazine, alongside leaders in their sectors from Adidas, Unilever and Spotify.

Previous posts include: NED, then rescue CEO, Ardana PLC; non–executive chairman, Ashbourne Pharmaceuticals; president Europe, CV Therapeutics Inc; SVP, Elan Pharmaceuticals and various roles of increasing responsibility at SmithKline Beecham (GSK). In his varied career he has launched dozens of new medicines in several countries, completed tens of M&A transactions and managed many drug development programmes. Huw holds a PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of Birmingham, he is a passionate SCUBA diver and wine lover but never combines the two.

Christian was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Ixaka in April 2021.  Christian is also a founder and a current director of both Chronos Therapeutics Limited and Sibelius Limited, both Oxford based.  He has extensive corporate experience in the Life Science and Biotech space. Christian was previously CEO of Oxford Biodynamics (LOND: OBD), an Oxford University Spin out in 2007, a world leader in 3D Genomics, which went public on the AIM market in 2017.

His started his career at the Boston Consulting Group working in Europe and the United Sates.  He then moved to the Dutch conglomerate Hoogovens at the UK Holding as director of several of the subsidiary companies. He then became a Vice President of Fox Pitt Kelton where he worked on the mergers and acquisitions of US Regional banks, both in the UK and in the US, returning to run a venture capital firm in conjunction with Ensign Trust.

Christian read PPE at Lincoln College, Oxford

Laurent is a serial biotech entrepreneur and senior executive in the industry. He is co-founder, CEO & Chairman of Parthenon Therapeutics, a precision oncology biotech based in Boston. Laurent has completed pharma/biotech transactions worth over $3B in biobucks and raised > $250M. He is an inventor and authored over 70 papers and patents.

Laurent has led and/or contributed to the identification and development of seven novel medicines (Xeljanz®, Hemangiol®, Javlor®, Renflexis®, Brenzys®, Ontruzant®, Hadlima® – biologics and small molecules) addressing unmet medical need across multiple disease areas that generate > $3B in annual sales.

Laurent has also led business and R&D functions in both pharma and biotech (US and EU), including CEO of Kymera Therapeutics, head of R&D with Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals, and positions of increasing leadership responsibilities on the business and science fronts at Pfizer, Merck, and Pieris contributing to the advancement of 21 drug candidates into clinical development across multiple disease areas and modalities.

He studied chemistry and pharmacology (Ph.D.) at Vanderbilt University and completed postdoctoral training at UNC/Chapel Hill and Duke University where he was the recipient of an American Heart Association Fellowship.

Vicente is the co-founder of Ixaka and has over 30 years’ experience of investing in healthcare, real estate and other businesses in Spain and Europe. Vicente is the founder of ESTADISTA, specialising in private equity holdings in diverse sectors including healthcare and biotechnology. Since 2009 he has focused on scientific research, development and innovation in biotechnology, licensing from public institutions a large number of preclinical advanced therapies, drugs and medical devices.

Joe Dupere was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Ixaka (formerly Rexgenero Ltd) in February 2015. Joe has more than 20 years of business development, M&A, operational and research management experience in the biopharmaceutical and investment banking sectors. Prior to Ixaka, Joe was Head of Business Development at Riemser Pharma GmbH, Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank and previously Vice President of Healthcare Investment Banking at Bear Stearns. He has been a Senior Scientist in CNS discovery research at Glaxo Wellcome.

Joe received a First Class B.Sc. in Neuroscience from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Nick Robbins-Cherry joined Ixaka in October 2021. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, Nick has worked in a variety of finance and commercial roles in international pharmaceuticals, technology services, software, and telecoms businesses. He has over 20 years of experience in fund-raising, public markets and private equity backed businesses.

Prior to Ixaka, Nick was CFO of a PE backed telecoms infrastructure business, Vorboss Limited. Before that, he was CFO at Midatech Pharma PLC, a listed pharmaceutical business with R&D
facilities in the UK, a manufacturing operation in Spain and commercial operations in the US. He successfully steered Midatech through its IPO on AIM, a dual listing on NASDAQ and subsequent fundraises.

Nick holds an MBA from Henley Business School and a BSc in Pharmacology from Bath University.