BioInnovation Institute’s Board of Directors under the three-year establishment phase is welcoming a new member. Regina Hodits has joined the board to bring additional, international experience and perspective for the further support and development of BioInnovation Institute.
“I am very honored to join the very experienced profiles on the board. Throughout my career, I have had the pleasure to work with several of them, and BioInnovation Institute has already shown to be on a successful path”, says Regina Hodits who is the Managing Partner of the venture capital company Wellington Partners in Munich.
Chair of the BII Board of Directors, Sten Scheibye emphasizes Regina Hodits’ experience from several European initiatives within translational research as valuable for the continued development of BioInnovation Institute.
“Throughout the past 20 years, Regina Hodits has worked with life science investments, and Wellington Partners currently has investments of €400M across Europe. With her deep understanding of the venture capital markets combined with solid insights into the space we are operating in, she can contribute a lot at our discussions. As an extra benefit she is already active in the Danish and Nordic markets.”, says Sten Scheibye.
We asked Regina Hodits a few questions about her new role.
How did you first learn about BioInnovation Institute?
I came across BioInnovation Institute as our portfolio company, Stipe Therapeutics, is a graduate from the BII Creation House. There are quite some brick and mortar incubators around Europe that only offer labs and offices, but I started to inquire about BII and realized that it is much more than that. We are seeing a lot of interesting projects come out of the ecosystem in Denmark and have recently invested in the Danish start-up, SNIPR Biome, so I was interested to learn more.
Why did you decide to take on the board position?
It is a big, but important commitment to help early-stage innovation reach the market and in Wellington Partners, it is our philosophy to engage in this. I find the incubation structure very interesting because there is a ton of hurdles to overcome when translating an idea into a novel solution. To have all the help you will need under one roof, like at BioInnovation Institute, is the right way to go and I believe BII can become a gold standard for this.
What will be your main interests in the development of BII?
I see a very professional and successful setup at BioInnovation Institute and I believe, I can bring additional experience from similar initiatives for early-stage innovation, such as Innovate UK and Helmholtz Validation Fund. Personally, I also find it interesting how we could work on a smooth transition for companies that graduate BioInnovation Institute and build a strong alumni network to support a continuous exchange of experience and new ideas even after graduation.
Regina Hodits’ bio
Regina is a Managing Partner at Wellington Partners Life Sciences (WPLS) and represents the WPLS funds on the Boards of Ayoxxa, Carisma Therapeutics, Endostim, GTX Medical, SNIPR Biome, STipe Therapeutics, Themis and TRiCares. She was a founding investor in Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic), Middle Peak Medical (acquired by Symetis / Boston Scientific), and an external director at GlaxoSmithKline’s Respiratory TA Board. Since joining the industry in 2000, she has become an influential investor in the European VC industry, focusing on early-stage and growth deals in Life Sciences. She currently serves as the Spokesperson for the Board of the German PE and VC Association (BVK).
Before joining WPLS, Regina led the European life sciences efforts of Boston-based Atlas Venture. She was the founding investor in Bicycle Therapeutics, F-star, and Jenavalve, and served on several Boards, including U3 Pharma (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo), Nitec Pharma (now part of Horizon Pharma NASDAQ HZPN), Egalet (NASDAQ: EGLT), and Novamed (acquired by SciClone NASDAQ SCLN). Before, Regina worked for Apax Partners, and built her extensive network in the global healthcare industry during her tenure at McKinsey. In the 90s, Regina gained initial insights into the fast-growing biotech sector as post-doctoral researcher at the MRC Cambridge UK. Regina studied chemical engineering in Vienna and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry.
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