Artur Aira previously served as Executive Vice President and COO of AddLife AB (“AddLife”). AddLife is a spinoff from AddTech AB and is the Nordic market leader in several niche areas of diagnostics, biomedical research and laboratory analysis, as well as medical technology. During his tenure, AddLife grew organically and via acquisitions to over 600 employees with annual sales of over US$250 million and completed a successful IPO in 2016. Prior to AddLife, Mr. Aira held senior level positions at Addtech AB and was President/ CEO of Addtech LifeScience.

Jan Boesen focuses on deal origination and developing various corporate strategies for the European market. Using his long-term management experience in the biotech and diagnostic industry, he advises on and supports international mergers and acquisitions.

Jan Boesen has over 20 years "hands on" experience in the Life Sciences industry of which 16 years were in executive positions. He obtained his Ph.D. degree at Leiden University in 1992. He held various management positions in clinical development, operations and business development at Introgene (now Crucell-J&J). From 1999-2005, Jan Boesen was CEO of Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (AMT) B.V. (now UniQure, a publicly trading company). During this period, AMT brought a gene therapy for lipoprotein lipase (LPL) deficiency (Glybera) to the clinic. In 2012, Glybera became the first gene therapy approved by the European Commission. Furthermore, he was General Manager of BioConnection (spin-off from Organon-MSD) and COO of ISA Pharmaceuticals, a company developing therapeutic vaccines. From 2008-2015 he was CEO of IBL International, which develops, produces and sells immunodiagnostics products. During this period, IBL was transformed into a niche player with 50% increased turnover and 86 employees. In July 2014, IBL International was sold to the Tecan Group (Switzerland) for €29 million by Achelous Partners.

Akshay Nadkarni is involved in multiple activities across the firm ranging from leading full sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions to in-depth technology and corporate valuation analysis.

Akshay has managed over 25 M&A transactions with a combined transaction value of over $1.2 billion over the past ten years. He is focused on grasping the key value drivers of international life science clients in order to identify creative strategic M&A opportunities. As part of the M&A team, Akshay has managed cross-border transactions involving companies in several healthcare and life science fields, including life science technologies/tools/reagents, in vitro diagnostics, molecular diagnostics, CRO and other outsourced life science services, biopharmaceuticals, specialty pharmaceuticals, generics and healthcare IT. In addition, he has undertaken research involving emerging companies in various healthcare and biotechnology sectors. Akshay holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Finance from New York University.

Katja Neuer focuses on deal origination in Germany and globally with a focus on the CRO market. She has developed and leverages a very broad network in this industry since 2008.

Katja Neuer is a chemist by training and studied at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She completed her PhD thesis at the University of Technology in Munich, Germany in the area of analytical chemistry and started her professional career more than 20 years ago in the environmental healthcare sector, with a strong focus on technical chemistry. In 2008 she joined INTERLAB, a leading central laboratory for clinical trials in Germany which was later acquired by Synlab (acquired in 2015 by Cinven). During her tenure at INTERLAB, the client base grew significantly as a result of her network. In 2011, Katja became Director of Business Development at MLM Medical Labs, a Germany based central lab with a focus on clinical trials. During her time at MLM, she built a business development team from scratch and helped grow the company from 20 employees to over 80 employees and double-digit M€ revenue. In December 2019, MLM was sold to the US based life science focused private equity fund, Great Point Partners, LLC, by Achelous Partners.

As President of Achelous Partners, Mark is a leading investment banker to international public and private life science companies. He has a successful history of cross border mergers and acquisitions and cross border joint ventures.

Mark has significant expertise in the US listing process and in all forms of financing available to domestic and international companies. He leverages his extensive contacts both on Wall Street and in the international financial markets to maximize financial opportunities for our clients with market makers, international traders, institutional public and private funds and high net worth investors.

Mark was general outside legal counsel to Citibank's ADR Division, undertaking over 300 transactions involving non-US companies listing on NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange. He was head of Greenberg Traurig's International Corporate Finance Group, where he advised and assisted non-US companies to issue securities in the US capital markets, representing companies from Australia, the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Mark was also a Partner with the US law firms of Brown & Wood and Parker Chapin, specializing in securities and corporate finance. Mark holds a Juris Doctor from New York Law School and is a member of the New York Bar Association.

Based in Los Angeles, California, Marius Sava has over a decade of investment banking experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory. Marius has directly participated in transactions with aggregate value of more than $1 billion. He has advised owner managed and publicly traded companies on a number of transactions including buy side, sell side, negotiated sale, divestiture, and strategic investment mandates. Marius’ advisory experience spans several industries, most notably the life science and healthcare industry in which he specializes. His client list has included leading healthcare corporations such as Ansell, Covance, Life Technologies, Novozymes, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

Marius is an alumnus of the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Stephan Wnendt focuses on deal origination in Germany and globally with a focus on clinical trial service providers as well as medical device companies and contract manufacturers.

Stephan Wnendt has almost 30 years of experience in various segments of the global life science sector. Since 2000 he has worked in executive positions throughout Germany and the US. After finishing his PhD at the University of Technology in Berlin he joined Grunenthal, a mid-sized pharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for projects on recombinant thrombolytics, immunomodulating drugs and pain research. After Grunenthal, Stephan joined the medical device company, JOMED (now Abbott), as managing director of one their largest production plants. Under his leadership a drug-eluting stent project had been launched. In 2003, Stephan became CEO of the cell therapy company, Kourion Therapeutics. Stephan led Kourion through its merger with ViaCell, Inc. (now Perkin Elmer) and ViaCell's subsequent IPO on NASDAQ. Stephan later served as Managing Director of Paion Deutschland, a biotech company with a focus on neurological diseases. In January 2008, Stephan joined Germany based MLM Medical Labs, a central lab focused on clinical trials. At that time, MLM had six employees and a limited client base. Under Stephan’s leadership, the company grew to over 80 employees and double-digit M€ revenue. In December 2019, MLM was sold to the US based life science focused private equity fund, Great Point Partners, LLC, by Achelous Partners.

In addition to his business career, Stephan has completed a habilitation in biochemistry at the RWTH Aachen University in 1999 and was awarded with a honorary professorship in 2012.

Eric Zitter focuses on deal origination with a focus on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Eric has researched and traveled globally searching for M&A opportunities for Achelous Partners’ international client base.

Previously, Eric was a Business Development Analyst at Quintiles Transnational, where he conducted research on potential blockbuster late Phase III/registered drugs as targets for new business opportunities, analyzed competitor companies as targets for possible acquisitions, and launched the company’s first weekly internal newsletter consisting of latest drug news, new drug approvals, and pipeline information. Eric holds a joint Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Bioengineering with a minor in Applied Economics from Cornell University.