Our Expertise - Your Success

Dr. Wafik Bardissi has been working in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years and has held various executive positions. He is the chairman and CEO of Minapharm Pharmaceuticals, a regional pharma and biopharma leader in Egypt and the Middle East. In 2001, Wafik founded the first state-of-the-art biotech manufacturing operation in Africa and the MENA region. In 2010, he signed the deal to acquire ProBioGen. He is also the founder and CEO of Amplifon Middle East s.a.e., a subsidiary of Amplifon spa, a multi-national world leader in hearing technology services. Following his studies in medicine and surgery, Wafik pursued his research interests in business information technology (MSc.), operational research (MSc.), and complex decision sciences and artificial intelligence (PhD) in the UK. In 2010, Wafik was honored with the Knighthood (cavalry) of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great by his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in recognition of his pioneering social work.

Dr. Shaheer Bardissi serves as Co-CEO and executive board member at Minapharm Pharmaceuticals, an Egyptian biopharmaceutical company with multiple global subsidiaries. Shaheer is responsible for the growth strategy of the Minapharm group in the field of immuno-oncology, vaccines, and cell and gene-based therapies in collaboration, as well as Minapharm's biological portfolio expansion throughout the African continent. Shaheer previously worked at BioNTech and contributed to the successful development of immunotherapeutic technologies in the field of cell and gene therapy. Shaheer obtained his PhD from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, with a focus on gene-based immunotherapy. Prior to that, he completed his master of science in molecular medicine at University College London, bachelor of science in biomedical ​s​ciences at King's College London, and also holds a master's of science in quantitative management science and healthcare data analytics from Duke University, North Carolina, USA.

Amr Shabrawishi has been working in the medical, pharmaceutical, and biopharmaceutical fields for more than 25 years. He is the vice-chairman of Minapharm Pharmaceuticals, a leading regional pharma and biopharma manufacturer based in Egypt, with markets in Africa and the Middle East. He is also the chairman and CEO of Shabrawishi Hospital, a private multi-specialty hospital in Cairo, Egypt, the chairman of Egyptian Biological Science Co., a leading company for the collection and processing of blood and plasma for therapeutic usage, and a member of the board of directors of the British International School Cairo, the leading non-profit British school in Cairo. Amr Shabrawishi is member of the board of Viral Inactivated Plasma Systems (VIPS), a Swiss-based company with proprietary mini pool plasma viral inactivation and fractionation technology. He earned his bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery (MB, BCh.) from Cairo University. 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wiltrud Treffenfeldt is an experienced leader who has held several executive leadership positions with multinational companies, including Dow, Dow AgroSciences, and ​​Degussa/Evonik. She successfully built international teams in Europe, the United States, and Saudi Arabia. From 2011 – 2019, she was the chief technology officer for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India. During her tenure, she focused on customer innovation and co-creation. In her role, she actively supported the merger of Dow and DuPont and the consecutive split into 3 new companies. Since her retirement, she has been working as an independent consultant for SMEs and research organizations, where she uses her knowledge and experience in the chemical, agro, pharma, and industrial biotech industries. Throughout her entire career, Wiltrud was actively involved in scientific committees and organizations such as Dechema, OECD, GVC and VCI. She was a member of both bioeconomy councils of the German government and is a member of the senate of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Since 2020, she has been a member of the supervisory board of the BRAIN Biotech AG. Her educational background is food & biotechnology (TU Berlin). She earned her professorship at the University Hannover, where she taught biochemical engineering for 17 years. 

Klaus Nestler has been a member of the supervisory board of ProBioGen since 2010. He is a managing director at ACXIT Capital, a Frankfurt-based investment bank, where he advises life sciences companies on M&A transactions as well as on financing and leveraged buyouts. Before joining ACXIT Capital, he was the founder and CEO of BioConnect AG, a specialist advisory firm focused on venture capital and M&A transactions for corporate customers in the biotechnology, medical technology, pharma, and diagnostics sectors. Klaus Nestler started his professional career with SBC Warburg, the investment banking arm of Swiss Bank Cooperation, where he advised on cross-border M&A transactions and capital market projects for companies in the healthcare sector, with assignments in London and Zurich. He holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim and was a banking apprentice at Dresdner Bank. 

Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Dieter Volk, MDPHD, is a trained clinical immunologist and was the head of the Institute of Medical Immunology at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin until 2021. He was also the founding director and speaker of the BIH-Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) and head of the department of immunology of the Labor Berlin-Charité Vivantes GmbH. He is now a senior professor at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Prof. Volk's focus is on translational immunology, with an aim towards developing and implementing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. He has contributed to over 1,000 scientific papers (h-index >104). More specifically, his research includes the development of immune biomarkers for patient stratification and the monitoring of therapy response as well as new immunotherapeutic approaches in the fields of transplantation immunology, immunopathogenesis of virus infections in immunocompromised patients, and regenerative medicine. He is particularly interested in new cell and gene-based therapies. Transdisciplinary work and close collaboration with industry partners have allowed him to implement innovative new approaches. BCRT and the Institute of Medical immunology have generated a number of successful biotech spin-off companies, including Jerini AG, JPT GmbH, ProBioGen AG, Cellserve GmbH, Cytolon GmbH, and most recently CheckImmune GmbH. Prof. Volk has been actively involved (lead or steering committee) in several FP6/FP7/H2020/Horizon Europe EU-funded consortia, such as RISET, One study, BioDrim, PACE, HipGen, Reshape, RESTORE, and GeneTIGA. 

Ralf Wagner is Univ.-Prof. for medical microbiology (virology) at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Regensburg, Germany. His team is involved in several aspects of vaccine research including preclinical and clinical development. He served as chair, co-chair, and board member of various public-funded vaccine clusters (e. g. EU, Gates Foundation, NIH, BMBF, Research Foundations). Ralf Wagner is an inventor and co-inventor of several patents and author of numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications. He is start-up ambassador for his University, consulting life-science venture funds and co-founder of several biotech companies. Amongst others, he established Geneart AG (Regensburg), a previously public biotech company. During his leadership (CEO/CSO; 2000-2012), Geneart grew to more than 230 employees and 2 subsidiaries in Canada and the US. He was awarded with Germany's Founders Award (Top 3), the "Step Award", and the "European Biotech Award". After the acquisition by Life Technologies Inc., he led the integration process and served as VP Synthetic Biology within the US Corporation (2010-2012).