Team & Advisory Board
OUR PEOPLE
We built a team with deep experience in serial entrepreneurship, MedTech product development and Spiden’s key science disciplines.
OUR TEAM
Leo Grünstein
Co-founder & CEO
Founder of LG Capital, a Family Office focused on incubation of “big idea” ventures
Serial entrepreneur, investor & Co-Founder of more than two dozens international start-ups, with multiple VC investments and successful exits (e.g. MoneyPark, acquired in 2016 for CHF 153m)
Previously project manager at McKinsey & Co. & Analyst at HSBC’s M&A team
MBA Columbia Business School, B.A. St. Gallen University
Daniel Thürig
VP operations & strategy
Former Associate Partner at McKinsey & Co. with 8+ years of experience in management consulting, focusing on strategy, M&A, and business building for major high-tech manufacturers and service providers
Operational experience in Design-to-Value, procurement and production programs for high tech products
MA in Economics University of Zurich
Övünç Okyay
Co-founder & venture builder
Managing Director LG Capital
Previously PE investor at The Carlyle Group’s $500m MENA Fund, analyst at Morgan Stanley and consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Diverse industry expertise with strong experience in investing, strategy and portfolio management
MBA Columbia Business School; M.Sc. Production Engineering TU Berlin
Designed and built at scale ML pipelines for leading global companies in healthcare, banking, retail and renewables
Data Science Lead at Databricks (Andreessen Horowitz backed AI/distributed computing start up now valued at $6bn+). Founded and lead team to create first production forecasting pipeline
First North America ML Engineer for AI company QuantumBlack; global top ranked employee co-leading analytics transformations for McKinsey
Thunder Shiviah
Chief analytics officer
Liz Peruski, PhD
Biomedical science team lead
10 years experience in biomedical research at top U.S. & European institutions; Postdoctoral researcher at MIT and EPFL (competitive funding from the Whitaker Foundation)
Next-generation brain and spinal cord implants; building bio-compatible microfabricated circuitry; analyzing tissue response to short- and long-term implants
MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University
Jean-Christophe Blancon, PhD
Biophotonics lead system designer
10 years of research experience in physics, materials science, and optics-photonics at Rice University, Los Alamos National Lab, Université de Lyon, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Recipient of the 2018 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize for Semiconductor Physics and of the 2019 Highly Cited Researcher
Ph.D. in Physics from Université de Lyon and M.Sc. in Optics & Photonics from KIT
Paolo Livi, PhD
Opto-electronics development team lead
10 years of experience in R&D conducted both in the academia (ETH Zurich) and in the industry (Dectris Ltd.)
PhD in Electrical Eng., from ETH Zurich
Design of analog and mixed-signal CMOS integrated circuits (ASICs); design of novel sensors and of integrated sensing systems (bio-chemical sensors, hybrid photon counters); ultra-low power electronics
Joo Siang Ng
Opto-mechanical engineer
15 years of experience in product design engineering across precision optomechanics, fluidic handling, and motion systems. Former Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer at Qiagen
Successfully completed 10+ product design cycles (concept to commercial launch). Portfolio spans surgical microscope binoculars, video tubes and accessories; nucleic acid purification, fluidic handling and NGS platform for life science and molecular diagnostic use
Luis Miguel Jara Casas
Electronics engineer
5 years of experience in applied electronics research for high energy physics at CERN
Deep expertise in ASIC testing and characterization, especially in radiation harsh environments; radiation effects to electronics for pixel detectors, total ionizing dose (TID), single event effects (SEUs) and data acquisition systems (DAQ) development
MS in Electronics Engineering and in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid
Andrea Sterzi, PhD
Senior photonic engineer
10 years of research experience in Physics, focused on designing and operating a wide range of optical spectroscopy techniques at several institutions such as Empa (ETH, Switzerland) and at the international synchrotron facility Elettra (Trieste, Italy)
Designed and developed a market-oriented deep-UV Raman spectrometer for on-line monitoring water quality by evaluating pesticides and drugs content
PhD in Physics from the University of Trieste and BS in Physics from University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Brescia
Jannes Jegminat, PhD
Machine learning engineer
Deep expertise in recursive Bayesian inference, combining dynamics and uncertainty
5 years of academic research experience focusing on computational models of human behavior and synaptic learning; ran the AI-team at the student think-tank reatch
PhD in Computational Neuroscience from UZH. MS and BS in Physics from the University of Heidelberg
Gabriela Santilli, PhD
Senior biochemist
7 years of experience in biochemistry and analytical chemistry; postdoctoral researcher at UZH
Strong expertise in separation, identification and quantification of biomarkers, method validation, quality control, design and analysis of experiments, and operating and maintaining analytical instruments
PhD in Sciences from ETH Zürich, MS in Physical Chemistry from UFSCar/Embrapa Brazil
Nemanja Andric, PhD
Data scientist
5 years of experience in interdisciplinary research conducted in academia
PhD in Computational Engineering from ETH Zürich
Expertise in the area of computational science, data-based modelling and data engineering, numerical methods, probability theory and statistics
Andrey Katz, PhD
Data scientist
18 years of academic research in world top institutions: CERN, Harvard University, University of Maryland and University of Geneva
PhD in theoretical physics from the Technion
Major contributions in theoretical and astroparticle physics
Expertise in statistical analysis, mathematical modeling and machine learning
More than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals
Lucas Binggeli
Business development associate
6 years of experience in Banking & Insurance
Master Candidate in Business Innovation and CEMS Master in International Management at University of St. Gallen
B.Sc. in Business Administration with specialisation in Strategy & Managing Dynamics from Bern University of Applied Sciences
Ana Perez Carrillo
Associate communications & administration
Over 3 years of international working experience (Mexico, USA, Switzerland) in the Hospitality Industry and in the startup scene
Currently pursuing a MScBA major Business Development and Promotion at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
BA International Hospitality Management from Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and UVM in Mexico
Fernanda Isabel Lavorato
Laboratory technician
Over 6 years of experience in clinical analysis laboratories in renowned health care institutions in Argentina
Broadly cross-trained in molecular biology, hematology, serology, microbiology and chemistry. Phlebotomy procedures interacting directly with patients in ER, ICU, OR and recovery
Laboratory Technician from Dr. Ignacio Pirovano Hospital in Argentina
ADVISORY BOARD
Christian Casal, PhD
Serial VC & PE investor with multiple successful exits
Formerly CEO of McKinsey Switzerland, and member of McKinsey’s Global Board, mostly focusing on financial services (Head of EMEA Banking)
Various Board positions in Switzerland incl. Lucernefestival, and Tafeln Schweiz
PhD and M.Sc. in Business Administration from University of St. Gallen
Stephen Oesterle, MD
Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates in Palo Alto since 2015; serving on several boards (e.g. Baxter)
Formerly Medtronic’s Senior Vice-President for Medicine and Technology and a member of the Medtronic Executive Committee for 14 years
Served on the faculty at Stanford and Harvard Medical Schools while directing the Invasive Cardiology Services at Stanford Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital
Mervyn Singer, Prof.
Prof. of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London with over 30 years’ research experience in sepsis, multi-organ failure, infection, shock and hemodynamic monitoring
Developed a hemodynamic monitor reducing length of stay after surgery, co-developed the UCL Ventura CPAP device to support breathing of COVID-19 patients
Co-chaired the Sepsis-3 International Task Force that redefined sepsis (Singer JAMA 2016); paper has had >3 million views and is one of the most heavily cited in the scientific literature over the past 5 years
Petra Jantzer, PhD
Managing Director with Accenture focused on technology and digitization
VP of the Board of Advance – women in business society
Formerly Partner with McKinsey, where she worked for 17 years, focused on Pharma, Biotech & Technology
Post-doc, PhD and M.Sc. in Biology and Immunology at Ludwig-Maximilians University
Omer Dzemali, Prof.
Chief Physician of the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery in the City Hospital Triemli Zurich
Ca. 20 years of exp. in cardiology
Full Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, State University Tetova (Macedonia); Lecturer in Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main and University of Zurich
Doctorate in Medicine from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz
Edoardo Charbon, Prof.
Full Professor of EPFL with over 25 years of exp. with CMOS sensors, biophotonics, ultra low-power wireless embedded systems, ultra high-speed and 3D optical sensors
Advised numerous organizations, including Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, and the Carlyle Group
Diploma (ETH Zürich), M.S. (UCSD) and Ph.D. (UC-Berkeley) in Electrical Engineering
Joyce Wong, Prof.
Prof. of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University with more than 20 years of experience in development of novel biomaterials
Research interests include theranostics (detection and treatment) for cardiovascular diseases and cancer; tissue-engineered and nanoparticle strategies for cardiovascular diseases
Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Simon P. Hoerstrup, Prof.
Chair & Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (Uni Zurich) and Founding Co-Director of Wyss Zurich (Uni & ETH Zurich)
Prof. of Biomedical Engineering at TU Eindhoven, Associate Member of the Department of Health Science Technology at ETH Zurich, associate faculty of the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Co-Founder of a series of medtech and biotech spin-off companies
Laura Figulla, PhD
Associate Partner Transaction Advisory at E&Y
Co-Founder/CEO of coramaze technologies GmbH (founded 2013), where she built a class III implant medical device start-up from scratch, raising >10m EUR in funding
Co-Founder/part-time COO of DEVIE medical GmbH, a startup at early-stage development of a disruptive drug-eluting-valve technology
PhD in Health Economics from University Essen
Stefano Ciampolini, Prof.
Serial healthcare and medical technology entrepreneur in Europe and the US with multiple successful exits in the dialysis and renal care sector
Adjunct Professor of Imperial College Business School in London, Mentor at Imperial Enterprise Lab’s Venture Mentoring Service as well as a member of the Chair of Entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich. Jury member of Venture Kick, Switzerland’s largest startup accelerator program
MBA from Imperial College Business School and degree in economics from Kingston University in London
Lui Forni, MD
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University of Surrey and Royal Surrey Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Wide ranging research experience ranging from basic physical chemistry through to patient centred clinical trials
Research interests focus on extracorporeal techniques and novel biomarkers for acute kidney injury translating research from the bench to the bedside. Published extensively particularly in critical care nephrology
EXPERTS