Board
Angelos Stergiou,MD, ScD hc
Chairman of the Board
Angelos Stergiou, MD, ScD hc
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Angelos Stergiou has more than 20 years of biopharma experience and is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. Prior to founding SELLAS in 2012, Dr. Stergiou co-founded Genesis Life Sciences, Ltd. (now Genesis Research), a boutique health economics and pricing-reimbursement and health access company, where he served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2009 to 2011. From 2002 to 2009, Angelos held international positions of increasing responsibility in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including PAION AG, Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, BioVest International, Analytica International and Anavex Life Sciences. During this time, Dr. Stergiou held roles ranging from Head of Clinical Research and Vice President of Product Development, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer with responsibility for medical affairs, clinical research and development, pharmacovigilance, clinical operations, project management, regulatory affairs, biostatistics and chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC).
Angelos has led and overseen research endeavors in all phases of clinical development across many indications, including CNS, cardiovascular, oncology, respiratory and autoimmune diseases, and has a broad understanding of all aspects of clinical development and medical affairs. He has designed and implemented research projects in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe. He was a member of the joint steering and oversight committee of PAION AG with Forest Laboratories, Inc. He also led the Phase 3 development of a therapeutic cancer vaccine, BiovaxID, into completion which was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology plenary session in 2009 and holds a patent on the technology.
Angelos holds a Doctor of Medicine from the US American Institute of Medicine and a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College and received his Bachelor of Sciences degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College with a major in Pre-Medicine, Biology and Chemistry.
Angelos was until recently a member of the Board of Trustees at Kentucky Wesleyan College and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, an active member of the World Medical Association, a member of the American Academy of Physicians in Clinical Research, a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Marianne Mertens, PhDBoard Member
Marianne Mertens, PhD
Supervisory board director
Marianne joined Apollo in September 2021 bringing more than ten years of experience in the life science industry spanning venture investing, strategy consulting and research. She is responsible for Apollo’s investment and company building activities. Prior to joining the Apollo team, Marianne was a Principal with Wellington Partners, a pan-European Venture Capital firm investing in early- and growth-stage Life Science companies. In this role she led Wellington’s investments in Confo Therapeutics and Imcheck Therapeutics, and supported portfolio companies across different stages of development. Before Wellington Marianne was an Investment Manager in the Life Science Team of High-Tech Gründerfonds where she managed a portfolio of seven companies and concluded the initial investments in Cardior Pharmaceuticals and Verovaccines. She represented the fund on the Boards of preOmics and coramaze technologies. Earlier in her career Marianne worked as a management consultant and supported pharmaceutical and medtech companies relative to strategy, portfolio and business unit development. Marianne obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree with distinction in Biotechnology from the RWTH Aachen University and The Scripps Research Institute, and conducted her PhD research focusing on the molecular imaging of cardiac regenerative medicines. Her research has been honored with several awards and published in high-ranking journals.
Mariëtte van der VeldenBoard Member
Mariëtte van der Velden
Supervisory board member
Mariëtte van der Velden has over 10 years experience as an investor in Dutch life sciences and health care companies. For BOM Capital she realized many investments (25 million euro invested capital) and managed a portfolio of up to 13 ventures. In 2018 Mariette decided together with business partner Han de Groot to start and manage a new seedfund, Curie Capital, which now has a strong portfolio of promising health care companies making a significant impact to improve the health and life of patients.
Prior to her investor career, Mariëtte held management roles at pioneering biotech companies like Genzyme and Uniqure, in the international field of orphan drugs, gene therapy and viral vaccines and GMP manfacturing services. Through her work as Business Developer at the Amsterdam UMC she helped many spin-out companies in the start-up phase and became Managing Director for a spin-out company in diagnostics.
Anela VukojaBoard Member
Anela Vukoja
Supervisory board member
Anela joined Apollo in 2020 and has since been helping shape R&D strategy and clinical development plans in the fund’s venture creations. She takes an active role and supports companies both as an advisor and operator as needed. She currently serves on the board of directors of several companies including Samsara Therapeutics, Booster Therapeutics and Refoxy Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Anela helps evaluate new investment opportunities and initiates company creation projects, especially in the area of neurodegeneration and brain health. Before joining Apollo Health Ventures, she worked at a boutique consulting firm Catenion where she has managed international projects for Big Pharma and biotech upstarts regarding R&D strategy and advised top tier VC’s and hedge funds on their investment decisions. Anela holds a PhD in neurobiology from the Free University of Berlin and her work was published in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals.
Adinda WoelderinkObserver
Adinda Woelderink
Board Observer
Adinda is an Investment Manager at the ROM Utrecht Region. She invests in innovative companies in Life Sciences, Digital Health and MedTech that are located in Utrecht area. She holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in Innovation Sciences, Medical Biotechnology and has been working for over 18 years in different positions at the intersection of Science, Business and Venture Capital.
Within the ROM Utrecht Region Investment team, she worked on several investment rounds and serves as shareholder representative/observer to the boards of portfolio companies. Prior to her investment career at Oost NL, she was involved in coaching of 30+ startups towards investor-readiness, successfully raising 16 million euro early-stage funding. Earlier she held positions as manager of product development education as well as business development manager of the Netherlands Proteomics Center where she was responsible for the technology transfer of inventions and a PoC fund in biomolecular mass spectrometry & proteomics (12 investments). On consultancy/project basis she worked on a large project for (former) Organon in Oss (NL) and New Jersey (US).