About Us

Matt Cooper

Chief Executive Officer

Founder / co-Founder of 6 companies, most recently Inflazome (acquired by Roche in 2020). Senior advisory, SAB or NED roles in 20 other biotechs. Founding Director of the Centre for Superbug Solutions, the Community for Open Access Antibiotic Discovery & Centre for Drug Discovery and Design at the University of Queensland. Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Ireland, Cross-field Highly Cited Researcher, JA Ōmura Japan Medal, Institution of Engineering and Technology Award for Emerging Technologies, UK Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist. >500 patents and scientific publications.

Richard Bungay

Chief Operating Officer

Richard brings over 30 years of executive leadership experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. His career includes senior roles such as CFO and COO at Mereo Biopharma, and both CFO and CEO at Chroma Therapeutics. He also held a key role at Diurnal, where he initially served as CFO and later stepped up as CEO to help lead the company through its acquisition by Neurocrine Biosciences.

Richard has been instrumental in raising over $250 million across venture capital, public markets, grants, and debt, and has successfully led the negotiation and execution of numerous business development deals.  With a proven track record across VC-backed biotech start-ups and global pharmaceutical companies, Richard has deep operational expertise spanning the full lifecycle of drug development — from research through to commercialisation.

Marianne Martinic

Chief Scientific Officer

Marianne gained her PhD in Immunology from the ETH Institute of Technology, Zurich. Her postdoctoral work at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology and The Scripps Immunology Research Institute focused on autoimmune disease mechanisms. In 2010, Marianne joined Pfizer La Jolla’s Cancer Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics department, leading viral- and antibody-based immunotherapy programmes, bringing two into clinical trials. Marianne moved to Idorsia Pharmaceuticals in 2017 as Head of Immunology Pharmacology, where she advanced four small molecule assets to clinical stages and provided translational support to phase 2 and 3 programmes.

Kim Matthews

SVP Preclinical Development

Kim is an experienced DMPK scientist having worked in large pharmaceutical (GSK), CRO (Biofocus, CRL) and biotech companies (Inflazome, Cerevance). Kim has successfully led the DMPK strategy from early discovery through preclinical development and the clinical pharmacology strategy for five molecules advancing through phase 1 and 2 clinical studies. She has provided DMPK expertise to projects in various therapeutic areas (including CNS, inflammatory, pain and ocular) and across a diverse range of target classes. Prior to industry, Kim completed her academic training at University of Kent, Université de Bordeaux and Kings College London.

Claire Harris

VP Head of Complement

Claire gained her PhD studying the complement system at the University of Cambridge and has been researching complement and disease for more than 30 years (>140 publications). She is an elected Board member of the European Complement Network (2022-present), elected Councillor of the International Complement Society (2017-2023), and is Co-lead of Complement UK. She was awarded a personal Chair at Cardiff University in 2013 and was appointed Professor of Molecular Immunology at Newcastle University in 2016 with a research focus on complement therapeutics. She moved to the biotech industry in 2020 (Gyroscope Therapeutics) and continues to research complement and its role in disease.

Claudia Berger

SVP of Clinical Operations

Claudia is a proven expert in the field of clinical development and has been focusing on clinical trial operations and project management for more than 15 years. Claudia joined Sitala as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations and holds a position as Chief Clinical Operations Officer at ImmunOs Therapeutics.

Prior to this she served as Director Clinical Operations at Inflazome Ltd, an Irish company recently acquired by Roche.  Claudia has headed clinical operations at several biopharmaceutical companies such as Kinarus AG and Delenex Therapeutics, leading Phase I/II clinical programs, including profiling, biomarker and proof-of-concept studies with both biologics and small molecules and establishing quality assurance systems. Between 2007 – 2012, Claudia held several positions of increasing responsibility at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR).

Claudia holds a Master of Science Degree in Pharmacy and a Diploma as a University Professional of Advanced Studies in Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Joanna Tufnell

Head of Regulatory Affairs

Joanna has 39 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs covering drug development, from FIH to Phase 4, including approvals of Orphan Designations, MAAs, NDAs, BLAs, PIPs, INDs and CTAs and obtaining Scientific Advice. Joanna has been a Global Regulatory Lead, Head of Regulatory and Senior Assessor in the Biotechnology Unit at the MHRA. She is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), Fellow of The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (FTOPRA), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM). She has a BSc and first-class Batchelor of Law (LLB).

Vasilisa (Vaska) Sazonov

SVP & Global Head of Commercial

Vaska brings over two decades of global pharmaceutical leadership spanning commercial strategy, market access, and general management. She has shaped new product portfolios, led major launches, and driven in‑market performance through data‑driven decision‑making, cross-functional collaboration and leadership of high‑performing teams.

Before joining Sitala, Vaska led the Cardio‑Renal‑Metabolic business at Novartis International, delivering portfolio growth, successful launches and improved competitive positioning. As Global Commercial Head of Therapy Area eXploratory, she guided a strategic pivot from ophthalmology to rare renal diseases, including the acquisition of Chinook Therapeutics, and played a key role in two organizational transformations. She also represented Novartis on the Board of Anthos Therapeutics.

Vaska previously held leadership roles at AbbVie and Allergan and spent 15 years at Merck & Co., including time as a Country GM and more than a decade in strategic and operational pricing and market access.

She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Economics from Purdue University, an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York, and a PharmD from the University of Ljubljana. She has published and lectured widely on access to medicines and international healthcare systems. Vaska has lived and worked across the US and Europe and is now based outside London with her family.

Rebekah Coleman

Financial Controller

Rebekah is an accomplished Financial Controller with over 13 years of experience in finance and accounting, bringing extensive expertise across multiple sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, education, construction, and the public sector.

An ACCA-qualified professional, Rebekah has a proven track record of delivering robust financial leadership, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and implementing effective financial controls to support sustainable business growth.

Prior to joining Sitala, Rebekah held Financial Controller positions within a yacht manufacturing organisation and a primary care medical practice, where she was responsible for overseeing full-cycle financial management, strategic reporting and operational efficiencies. Her earlier career includes senior finance roles in both private and public sector environments, providing a strong foundation in financial governance, planning and performance management.

Rebekah combines strong technical expertise with strategic insight, supporting executive decision-making and contributing to the long-term financial health and operational success of the organisation.

Laura Hartwell

Head of People & Culture

With over 20 years experience in Human Resources, Laura thrives at the heart of a dynamic environment, ranging from high-paced hospitality and innovative start-ups to transformative education sectors.

Laura’s career has been built on a foundation of people-first values, organisational agility, and a flair for adapting to ever-changing business landscapes. Alongside her professional journey, Laura took time to grow personally—raising a family and immersing herself in the rich, multifaceted culture of the Middle East. These years shaped not only her global mindset but also sharpened her emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity, and communication skills across diverse teams and leadership styles.

Reena Halai

Head of Biology

Reena completed her PhD in molecular and structural biology at The University of Queensland before continuing onto a post doc for six years. She then moved to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire as a Research Administrator, and then Project Manager, for the Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Initiative. Prior to her PhD, Reena had also spent time at GlaxoSmithKline and UCB Biopharma. Prior to Sitala, Reena was the Biology Programme Manager at Inflazome (acquired by Roche in 2020).

Chris Thomson

Head of Discovery

Chris is an experienced medicinal chemist and drug hunter, with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. After his degree in chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Chris learned medicinal chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories, gaining an insight into neuroscience.

After 12 years at MRL, he moved to Novartis, where he delivered clinical candidates into development for both gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in the UK, and neuroscience in the US. In 2017, he returned to the UK to set up the Integrated Drug Discovery group at Pharmaron, gaining experience in how CROs operate. Chris has authored over 30 patents and publications over his career.

Frans Roodt

Head of Clinical Operations, APAC

Frans is a clinical research expert with over 25 years experience across biopharma, biotech, and CROs.

He has held leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Inflazome (now Roche), CSL Seqirus for KPS, Novotech and most recently as owner and director of Frans Roodt Clinical Research Consulting. His work spans global trials in Immuno-oncology, Vaccines, Immuno-sciences and rare diseases with a focus on first-in-human and early phase studies. Frans holds a B.Med.Sc (Hon) in Pharmacology.

Jo Ferro

Senior Executive Assistant to CEO and Office Manager

Jo has over 25 years experience supporting senior executives and is a highly accomplished C-Suite Executive Assistant and Office Manager who has made her mark across diverse environments, including biotech, technical, healthcare, and academic organisations, specialising in biotechs.

Known for her discretion, poise under pressure, and strategic mindset, she has become an indispensable asset to executive teams navigating fast-paced environments.​ She excels at managing high-level administrative functions, coordinating C-Suite, board and leadership activities, investor relations, including the listing on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, as well as coordinating the logistic strategies of several M&A deals, worth over £2bn, and a record-breaking IPO acting as a vital communication bridge between executives, teams, and external partners.​

Whilst working in biotech, including the fastest growing biotech in Europe, she has showcased her adaptability and ability to thrive in complex, innovation-led organisations. In addition to traditional EA responsibilities, Jo brings expertise in office operations, technical, conference and event management she has a natural talent for anticipating needs, streamlining systems, and ensuring the day-to-day rhythm of the executive office supports broader organisational goals.

Jhartzen Ranimae Calimag

Assistant Management Accountant

Jhartzen is a finance professional with experience across public sector, education, construction, and corporate environments. Holding dual bachelor’s degrees in Accountancy and Management Accounting and currently progressing through ACCA, she brings strong capability in financial operations, analysis, internal controls, and organisational reporting.

She has worked across multiple industries, gaining experience in both audit and finance while consistently delivering high‑quality outputs and supporting sound financial governance. Jhartzen pairs her technical strengths with a thoughtful, team‑oriented approach, helping organisations maintain robust financial processes and clear, reliable reporting.

Matt Cooper

Chief Executive Officer

Founder / co-Founder of 6 companies, most recently Inflazome (acquired by Roche in 2020). Senior advisory, SAB or NED roles in 20 other biotechs. Founding Director of the Centre for Superbug Solutions, the Community for Open Access Antibiotic Discovery & Centre for Drug Discovery and Design at the University of Queensland. Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Ireland, Cross-field Highly Cited Researcher, JA Ōmura Japan Medal, Institution of Engineering and Technology Award for Emerging Technologies, UK Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist. >500 patents and scientific publications.

Peter Thompson

General Partner, OrbiMed

Peter joined OrbiMed in 2010 and is a General Partner of OrbiMed. Peter has over 25 years of industry experience. He held executive positions at Becton-Dickinson and Chiron, co-founded and was CEO of Trubion Pharmaceuticals, co-founded several OrbiMed portfolio companies, and serves as a Director on many portfolio company boards. He was on staff at the National Cancer Institute following his internal medicine training at Yale University. Peter earned his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Mathematics as well as his medical degree from Brown University.

Marco Boorsma

General Partner, Forbion

Marco is a General Partner and joined Forbion in 2007. Marco has over 30 years of industry experience. He has a special interest in bringing his background in biotechnology, operations, and business development experience from both small and large businesses to the Forbion Ventures portfolio, and to establish, build and manage new companies as part of Forbion’s build strategy.
Marco served on the board of several companies that were sold in billion-dollar M&A transactions or listed on NASDAQ. He was the founding CEO of gene therapy company VectorY for the first year before taking a board seat. He currently also serves on the boards of Calluna, Rectify, Orbis, and Sidera. Marco earned his PhD in biotechnology from ETH Zurich.

Shahzad Malik

General Partner, Advent

Shahzad Malik is a Founding General Partner of Advent Life Sciences, one of the leading trans-Atlantic venture investors focused on building innovative Life Sciences businesses in the UK, Europe and the USA. In over two decades of venture investing at Advent, he has been actively involved with numerous successful investments in Europe and the U.S. in the biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics arenas. Shahzad practised as an interventional cardiologist, and was involved in basic science research before moving to the commercial world via McKinsey.  He has an M.A. in physiological sciences from Oxford University and a MB, BChir from Cambridge University

Robyn Guymer

Robyn Guymer AM is Professor of Ophthalmology at Melbourne University and a deputy director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia. She is also a senior retinal specialist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. She is a clinician scientist who leads a team of researchers primarily investigating Age related macular degeneration (AMD) and has co-authored over 450 peer reviewed papers. She is currently investigating new strategies for treating early stages of AMD and is working to identify novel imaging and functional biomarkers and surrogate endpoints to improve the feasibility of conducting early intervention trials.

She has been a principal investigator in many industry sponsored trials, serves on several pharmaceutical advisory boards and is a member of several international working groups on macular diseases. She is an inaugural fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Jeffrey Heier

Jeffrey S Heier, MD, is the Director of the Retina Service and Director of Retina Research at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (OCB), one of the largest multi-specialty ophthalmology practices in the United States. Dr. Heier served as Co-President & Medical Director from 2016-2020. He is also the Chief Scientific Officer at Ocular Therapeutix.

Dr. Heier is the Past President of the Retina Society, a former member of the Executive Committee of the American Society of Retina Specialists, the Past President of the New England Ophthalmological Society, and a member of the Macula Society.  He is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the country for new treatments in exudative and non-exudative macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, venous occlusive disease, vitreoretinal surgical techniques and instrumentation, and diagnostic imaging of the retina.  He is a scientific advisor to many biotechnical or pharmaceutical companies, lectures nationally and internationally, and has authored numerous, peer-reviewed works.

Dr. Heier received his medical degree from Boston University, completed an internship and residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, and vitreoretinal fellowship at OCB/Tufts School of Medicine.  He served as a physician in a Combat Support Hospital in the Persian Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star.

Nadia Waheed

Dr. Nadia K. Waheed, MD, MPH, is Professor of Ophthalmology and a vitreoretinal surgeon at Tufts University School of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer at Ocular Therapeutix. Dr. Waheed co-founded the Boston Image Reading Center (BIRC) and leads the OCT Research Lab at Tufts Medical Center.  Her research has focused on the evaluation of OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) and OCTA (OCT Angiography) parameters as endpoints in clinical trials. She has collaborated extensively with the lab led by Dr. James G. Fujimoto to deploy novel OCT and OCTA technologies prior to commercialization.

Prior to her position at Ocular Therapeutix, Dr Waheed held the role of Chief Medical & Development Officer at Beacon Therapeutics, and before that, was Chief Medical Officer and Head of Clinical Development at Gyroscope Therapeutics — both clinical-stage gene therapy companies.

Dr. Waheed has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, co-authored and edited three ophthalmology textbooks, and has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on multiple clinical trials. Her work has been recognized by both the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Macula Society with achievement awards.

Marion Munk

Prof. Marion R. Munk is a trained MD, PhD, Uveitis and Medical Retina specialist. She is Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research at Augenarzt-Praxisgemeinschaft Gutblick AG,  Professor at Inselspital, Univ Hospital Bern and adjunct professor at the Northwestern University, Chicago, USA, Director of Eyegnos Consulting and Chief Medical Officer at Isarna Therapeutics. Marion is author of > 270 scientific articles. Her major research interests cover image processing, image analyses, artificial intelligence, macular diseases and uveitis. She is Research chair at the International retinal Imaging Society (InTRIS), member of the Editorial Board of IOVS, Acta Ophthalmologica, Ocular Inflammation and Infection, Ophthalmologica, BMC Ophthalmology and EyeNet and is providing peer-review for a long list of scientific journals within Ophthalmology.

Peter Kaiser

Peter K. Kaiser, M.D. graduated magna cum laude with Highest Honors from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a vitreoretinal fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute where he was awarded a Heed Ophthalmic Fellowship , before joining the vitreoretinal department of the Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland, Ohio where he is the Chaney Family Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology Research and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

As a National Eye Institute and National Institute of Health RO1-funded principal investigator, Dr. Kaiser leads a team involved in the evaluation of vascular biology in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). In addition, Dr Kaiser is actively involved in clinical research having served as Study Chairman for numerous major, multi-center, international clinical trials, and principal investigator in over 60 trials evaluating new treatments for AMD, DR, and other retinal disorders. He is the director of Center for Ocular Research and Evaluation (CORE). Dr. Kaiser has been honored to receive the Lew R. Wasserman Award from the Research to Prevent Blindness and the Macula Society’s Young Investigator Award. Complementing his research endeavors, Dr. Kaiser serves on numerous scientific advisory boards and addresses his research interests as an invited speaker at national and international conferences. He is a major contributor to the medical literature having authored 7 textbooks, 30 book chapters, and more than 450 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Retinal Physician, Associate Editor of International Ophthalmology Clinics, Associate Editor of American Journal of Ophthalmology and serves on the editorial boards of American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina, Retina Today, and Ocular Surgery News. Dr. Kaiser has been recognized by American Society of Retina Specialists Honor and Senior Honor Awards, along with the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement, Senior Achievement, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. He has been listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” every year since 2002 and named one of the “150 Top Innovators in Retina” by Ocular Surgery News, selected as a charter inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame in 2017, and appeared on the biannual Ophthalmologist’s “Power List” in 2016, 2018, and 2020 as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology. He is the team ophthalmologist for the Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association).