Team

OUR TEAM

Our team has extensive experience in managing investments, structuring and negotiating deals to maximize returns by actively adding value to our companies.

We have a complementary range of expertise ranging from entrepreneurship, healthcare (biotech/medtech/e-health), industry, product development, financing as well as private equity and fund management experience.

We have a unique ecosystem with shared resources from the Passage de l’Innovation and operational experts with extensive experience in the different areas of creation and development of start-ups in Health Tech.

Bernard Gilly

Chairman

Bernard Gilly

Bernard launched the iBionext ecosystem in 2012 by successfully co-founding several high potential Health Tech start-ups. He is currently non-executive chairman of seven companies and CEO of GenSight Biologics and BrainEver.

Prior to that, Bernard was Chairman and CEO of Fovea Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company he founded in 2005 and sold to Sanofi in 2009 for €370m before becoming Senior VP of the Ophthalmology Division of Sanofi until 2012.

From 2000 to 2005, Bernard was a Partner at Sofinnova Partners. He founded and invested in several companies, including Sequoia Pharmaceuticals (USA), Faust Pharmaceuticals (France, now Domain Therapeutics) and Cellzome (Germany).

Prior to joining Sofinnova, Bernard was President and CEO of Transgene, a company he drove from its early financing round in 1994 to its dual listing on the Nasdaq and the Nouveau Marché (Now Euronext-C) in1998, successfully raising €160m.

Before Transgene, Bernard spent 6 years as VP R&D at Pasteur-Mérieux-Connaught, now Sanofi Pasteur. He managed 1,200 scientists and R&D engineers at three major facilities (France, the United States and Canada) and served on the group’s executive committee.

Alexia Perouse

CEO & Managing Partner

Alexia Perouse

From 2005 to 2015, Alexia was Partner and Head of Healthcare at Omnes Capital (Ex-Crédit Agricole Private Equity). She co-headed the management of the 26 innovative funds in venture capital (from fund raising to distribution and liquidation) as part of the transition of Crédit Agricole Private Equity into an independent management company. Focused on disruptive technologies, Alexia has grown the healthcare investments from 15% to 50% at Omnes. She started a new Medtech portfolio and invested in miniaturization, minimally invasive technologies, and connected devices by anticipating moves in industry trends. She focused on balancing the healthcare portfolio between biotech and medtech, with a focus on short investment cycles. When Omnes funds had the necessary financial capacity, she took the lead successfully and set up international syndicates when possible. Over this period, she sat on more than 10 board of Directors in both private and public companies and was involved in 8 exits by Trade sale or IPO.

Alexia joined the Venture Capital space in 1999 as investment manager at Sofinnova Partners, where she was involved in the selection and creation of several successful investments (Innate Pharma, Addex Pharmaceuticals, Faust Pharmaceuticals).

Prior to switching to venture capital, Alexia started her career as a project leader at Chiron Vaccines and participated in many WHO and Children Vaccine’s Initiative meetings to explore future biotech needs in Emerging countries. She later joined Parteurop Développement where she oversaw many operational missions to identify M&A opportunities and define the strategy of several French and US start-ups.

Alexia holds an MAE from IAE and an MSc in Neurosciences from University of Life Sciences – Inserm, Lyon.

Muriel Badawi

Partner

Muriel Badawi

Muriel has managed several financing rounds (seed, venture, growth and IPOs) for iBionext companies. She has extensive financial, legal and regulatory expertise in fundraising for private and public companies.

In 2014, Muriel managed the IPO of Pixium Vision, with 39.5M€ million raised on Euronext Paris.

Then, she acted as VP Finance at GenSight Biologics, a company in the iBionext ecosystem, which raised 36M$ in a Series B crossover round with European and US investors in 2015, followed by a 45M€ IPO on Euronext Paris in 2016.

Prior to joining iBionext, Muriel was an Associate Booz & Company (now Strategy&, PWC), focusing on corporate strategy in its Financial Services and Private Equity practice. From 2006 to 2010, Muriel worked in banking and asset management for TD Bank and Fidelity Investments in Canada.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD and a B.Sc. in Management/Finance from HEC Montreal.

Christophe Bancel

Venture Partner

Christophe Bancel

Christophe Bancel, M.Sc., M.Eng, M.B.A is co-founder of Gecko Biomedical, an iBionext company.

Gecko Biomedical develops disruptive surgical solutions for patients, based on a versatile platform of polymers developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). He serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Director.

Since its inception in 2013, Christophe has driven the development of the company leading to the completion of its first clinical trials in 2016 and CE mark in 2017. The company has raised up to €30M in equity and €10M in non-dilutive financing, supporting the set-up of a State-of-the-Art manufacturing facility in North of France.

Christophe Bancel has a track record in the healthcare industry ranging from start-up to midsize biopharma. He was Franchise General Manager at UCB, leading the Central Nervous System Operations in France. Prior to that, he held several corporate and strategic positions at UCB, including Pricing and Markets Access in the US (Atlanta, GA), Global Marketing (Brussels) and Patient & Market Insight (Brussels). He also worked for Serono (Now Merck Biopharma) in multiple Sales and Marketing positions. He started his career in biotech, as Business Developer at Transgene (Boston, MA) and then was a co-founder and Director of Corporate & Business Development at Faust Pharmaceuticals (now Domain Therapeutics).

Christophe is a graduate from Ecole Centrale Paris (Master of Engineering), holds a Master in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Tokyo (Todaï) and an MBA from INSEAD.

Stéphane Losik

Middle Office Manager & Investor Support

Stéphane Losik

Since 2008, Stéphane has worked in several Private Equity firms, where he acquired a wide range of skills related to all aspects of funds administration.

Prior to joining iBionext, Stéphane worked at Bpifrance Investissement (French Sovereign Wealth Fund) as financial controller.

From 2006 to 2007, he was internal auditor for Credit Agricole Poland.

Stéphane holds a Master’s Degree from University Paris XI.