f-star hires Kevin FitzGerald as new CEO

2009-05-01

“Kevin FitzGerald joins f-star as new CEO starting from May 1st, 2009.”
Kevin FitzGerald, founder and CEO of Isogenica, joins f-star on May 1st as CEO and
managing director. Gottfried Himmler, founding CEO of f-star, will assume the role of
CSO and will be responsible for research and IP.
Dr Kevin FitzGerald was CEO and a main board member of Isogenica Ltd. which he
founded in 2000. During his time with Isogenica, Kevin co-invented the company’s
core technology, secured over £6.5m of equity finance, negotiated the acquisition of
a Finnish biotechnology company and negotiated and closed deals with a wide range
of major life science companies including AstraZeneca, Amgen, Centocor, Pfizer,
Wyeth, Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare and UCB Celltech. Kevin led Isogenica
to a full-year profit of more than £1.1m during 2008.
Prior to establishing Isogenica, Kevin was a member of the senior management team
at Actinova Ltd., the UK subsidiary of Active Biotech AB. Prior to this, Kevin spent
seven years at Cambridge Antibody Technology plc. (acquired by AstraZeneca in
2006) where he was among the founding group of scientists.
Kevin studied for his PhD in the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter FRS at the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge and for his MBA at Aston Business
School (awarded with distinction), following receipt of a Sainsbury Management
Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering, London. Kevin was elected a
fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 2006.
“We are happy to have an experienced entrepreneur in the f-star team and look
forward to the next step of company development, which will involve the development
of proprietary product candidates and valuable partnerships” says Anthony Rees,
Chairman of the supervisory board.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr FitzGerald said: “I am joining f-star at an
incredibly exciting time and I am looking forward to contributing to the creation of a
very strong portfolio of products and high value partnerships. I am impressed by the
broad applicability of the modular antibody technology and by the real differentiation
of f-star’s technologies with respect to other scaffold and antibody companies.”
About f-star
f-star is an antibody engineering company based in Vienna, Austria and Cambridge,
UK. The Company develops improved therapeutic antibodies and antibody fragments
based on its Modular Antibody Technology, which allows the introduction of
additional binding sites into antibodies and antibody fragments by engineering the
non-CDR loops of constant or variable domains. Using Modular Antibody
Technology, antibody fragments with antibody functionality and long half-life but
much smaller size (Fcab™) or full antibodies with additional functionality (mAb
squared) can be created.
f-star was founded in 2006 and has raised so far EUR 13.0m in in grants and equity.
Investors include Aescap, Atlas Venture, Novo AS and TVM Capital. In its advisory
board, the Company is supported by pioneers in the field of monoclonal antibodies.
f-star has 25 employees and research operations in Vienna, Austria and in
Cambridge, UK.
For more information, visit www.f-star.com