Senior Management Team

Kees Been | President and Chief Executive Officer

Prior to joining EnVivo, Kees was CEO of Bionaut Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company using a proprietary cell-based discovery platform to advance drug candidates for cancer and inflammation. Prior to joining Bionaut, Kees spent four years at Biogen where he directed the Oncology Business Unit and, as Senior Vice President of Business Development, led all of Biogen’s deal-making efforts and portfolio management activities. Major deals he oversaw include the collaborations with Elan on Antegren (now Tysabri), with ICOS on the oral LFA-1 antagonist, and with EOS Biotechnology on breast cancer target discovery. Prior to joining Biogen in 1999, Kees held executive positions with Monsanto Life Sciences Company and was mainly involved in corporate change projects and large growth strategies in Latin America. From 1988-1995, Kees worked at Gemini Consulting where his last position was Vice President, responsible for building the pharmaceuticals practice. He began his career as a scientist on the Interferon-gamma project at Biogen in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds an MBA degree from INSEAD in France and graduated from the University of Agriculture in Holland, majoring in Molecular Biology and Process Engineering.

Stephen DiPalma |Sr. Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Steve has 25 years of broad experience in healthcare and the life sciences. Most recently, he was the Chief Financial Officer for RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a leader in RNAi therapeutics that Steve helped to take public in 2008. Prior to RXi, he was founder, President and CEO of Catalyst Oncology, Inc., a specialty diagnostic company focused on personalized medicine approaches to various forms of cancer, which Steve merged with a public diagnostics company in August 2007. Prior to founding Catalyst, Steve was the Chief Financial Officer for several biotech companies focused on drug discovery and development, including Milkhaus Laboratories, a clinical-stage drug development company with a lead program in benign prostatic hyperplasia, Phytera, Inc., an international biotech company involved in natural products-based drug discovery, and Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, a public biotechnology company where Steve contributed to a successful turnaround. In 1988 to 1995, he co-founded Athena Diagnostics, a specialty diagnostic testing firm in the neurology field that subsequently merged with a public biotech company, and served as Chief Financial Officer until 1995. Steve began his career in healthcare as division controller for The Health Data Institute, a subsidiary of Baxter International. He earned an MBA from BabsonCollege and holds a BS in finance and information systems from the University of Massachusetts.

Dana M. Hilt, MD |Sr. Vice President, Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer

Dana Hilt has had more than 15 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. After receiving his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston he trained in Internal Medicine at Harvard and Neurology at Johns Hopkins. He was then on the staff of the NIH for five years performing both basic molecular neurobiology research and clinical studies at the NIH clinical center. Dana then was in the Neurology and Molecular Biology Departments at the University of Maryland School of Medicine before joining Amgen to establish a clinical neuroscience group that focused on the potential therapeutic applications of neurotrophic factors in degenerative neurologic diseases. He subsequently held senior development and management positions as Chief Medical Officer at Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Ascend Pharmaceuticals, and Critical Therapeutics. During this time Dana was involved in the development of a variety of potential therapeutics including drugs for Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, Alzheimer’s Disease, oncologic diseases including malignant glioma, chronic pain, metabolic disorders, and inflammatory conditions.  At Envivo Pharmaceuticals Dana is responsible for the development of a drug candidate after it is nominated into development from basic research. Dana has co-authored more than 75 publications and book chapters in basic and clinical neuroscience and has participated, chaired, or organized a number of national and international symposia

Gerhard Koenig, Ph.D. | Sr. Vice President, Research and Chief Scientific Officer

Gerhard brings more than 15 years of research and development experience to EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, with a focus on drugs for neurodegeneration, specifically Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease and cognition enhancers in general. Gerhard came to Envivo in 2003 from Fidelity Biosciences Group, EnVivo’s lead investor. Before working with Fidelity Biosciences as the Vice President of Scientific Evaluations & Programs, Gerhard spent more than 10 years at Bayer Corporation in West Haven, CT and at Bayer AG, Germany in various functions, including Director of the Dementia Research Department at Bayer AG. In this last function, he was responsible for the pre-clinical CNS research pipeline with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases. That work resulted in the introduction of several small molecule compounds into early clinical development. At EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Gerhard is responsible for the research strategy and operation and the delivery of development candidates. Gerhard also works closely with the Business Development group to effectively represent EnVivo to potential partners. Gerhard has co-authored major scientific publications, patents and reviews of new research findings in prestigious journals. Gerhard received his M.S. and his Ph.D. degrees in Molecular and Cellular Biology, graduating suma cum laude from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Jean-Marie Vallet, Ph.D., MBA | Vice President, Business Development

Dr. Vallet joins EnVivo from Cyrma Consulting, LLC. Dr. Vallet has over 20 years experience in a variety of research, marketing and business roles in life sciences, including in 14 years the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to founding Cyrma, Dr. Vallet most recently served as Vice President of Business and Commercial Development at Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he led the company’s business development initiatives. Prior to Guilford, Dr. Vallet held senior level business development and marketing positions at Pierre Fabre (France), Parke-Davis (Germany), Warner Lambert (USA) and Bristol Myers Squibb (USA), completing numerous R&D, commercialization and M&A agreements with global pharmaceutical and life sciences companies in Europe and the US. Dr. Vallet started his career as a genetic engineer at the Geneva Branch of Battelle Institute, an American research contract and consulting organization. Progressing through a number of domestic and international positions, Dr. Vallet retired from BMS as a Vice President of Business Development for the European Region. He holds a Master of Biochemistry from University of Orsay Paris XI, France and a D.E.A. of Quantitative Genetics from the same university. He was a Research & Teaching Assistant in the Molecular Biology Department of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, which sponsored his doctoral work. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1985 and a Masters of Business Administration from IMD in 1988 (International Management Development, Switzerland). Dr. Vallet is a member of the Licensing Executive Society and a member of the Business Development Group of the US Bio-industry Association.