Board of directors

Hans Ivar Robinson

Board of directors

Hans Ivar Robinson, Executive Chairman and Co-founder

Mr. Hans Ivar Robinson joined the board of Nextera in 2010. Hans Ivar has 30 years professional experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry which includes more than 10 years with foundation, active development and investments in biotech companies. He has held several leading international positions in pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer, and several board positions in biotech companies. This includes being currently executive chairman and co-founder at Nextera, chairman and co-founder at Zelluna Immunotherapy and non-executive director at Accession Therapeutics. His experience covers a broad specter in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. This experience includes top management, commercial operations, business development, and broad experience in foundation and development of biotech companies from early non-clinical to clinical stages. He has extensive experience working with investors and investment banks including capital raising, private placements, mergers, and IPOs. Hans Ivar Robinson is the founder and CEO of Birk Venture and holds a M.Sc. from Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Per-Oluf Olsen

Per-Oluf Olsen, Non-Executive Director

Mr. Per-Oluf Olsen joined the board of Nextera in 2010. Per-Oluf is founder of Olsen Capital & Consulting and co-investor in Birk Venture. Mr. Olsen has 29 years experience from the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry. He has top-level management experience from both small and large organizations within Pfizer e.g. Country Manager Norway /Denmark, Italy, Regional Executive Director for Central and Eastern European Region.

In 2008/2009 he held the position as CEO of Pronova BioPharma AS. His experience covers all areas of the business from R&D to running a large organization in one of Europe’s biggest market. Mr. Olsen holds a Bachelor in Medical Laboratory Sciences (Bioengineer) from Fysikjemikerskolen, Rikshospitalet, Oslo and a Marketing degree from BI Norwegian Business School.

Anders Tuv

Anders Tuv, Non-Executive Director

Mr. Anders Tuv joined the board of Nextera in 2012. Anders is Investment director in the Life Science seed fund Norwegian Radium Hospital Research Foundation.

Mr. Tuv is an experienced investment and business development professional with broad experience from the Health Care and Biotech industry covering strategy and business development, start-ups, licensing deals, fundraising, CFO positions, due diligence, and IR. His experience also includes due diligence work on international M&As in other industries. In Ernst & Young he was part of the management team in Consultant Group.

Mr. Tuv also serves on the board of directors of other portfolio companies. He holds an MBE degree.

Dr. Martin Welschof

Dr. Martin Welschof, Non-Executive Director

Dr. Martin Welschof joined the board of Nextera in 2013. Martin is currently the CEO for BioInvent, Sweden. Managing Director and co-founder of Affitech A/S in Oslo/Norway and Copenhagen/Denmark. Prior to joining Affitech A/S, he was the Director of Technology at Axaron Bioscience AG, Heidelberg, Germany. During his period at Axaron he worked also in the parent company of Axaron Bioscience, LYNX Therapeutics Inc. in Hayward California.

Martin brings significant senior executive experience in the biotech sector having launched and built successful businesses focused on drug development and drug discovery platforms. He holds a PhD in the field of recombinant antibody technology from the University of Bielefeld, Germany. Martin also serves on the board of UTR AS and APIM Therapeutics.

Dr. Bent Jakobsen

Dr. Bent Jakobsen, Non-Executive Director

Dr. Jakobsen joined the board of Nextera in 2021. Bent is a pioneer in T cell receptor (TCR) technology. He founded Immunocore (NASDAQ: IMCR), a soluble TCR based company, in 2008 and has served as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Board Member since that time. He is also the scientific founder of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: ADAP), an adoptive TCR cell therapy company, where he was Chief Scientific Officer until 2015 and also served on the board.

Before that, he was Chief Scientific Officer of Avidex Ltd, a company he founded in 1999 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford to develop novel TCR-based drugs, and which was the predecessor to Adaptimmune and Immunocore. Bent was head of the Immune Receptor Group at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) in Oxford from 1993 to 2000.

Prior to this, he was a Senior Research Fellow of the Danish Natural Research Council, Aarhus, Denmark, and after that a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. Bent is a Visiting Professor at University of Oxford, has authored numerous scientific papers and is considered a world expert in the field of TCR immunology. In 2015, he was recognized for his contribution to medical science with an election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Nicholas Cross

Nicholas Cross, Non-Executive Director

Mr. Nick Cross joined the board in 2022 following an investment in the company. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor over many decades based in Oxford in the UK where he has been active across several fields including life sciences, a sector of particular strength in the local area. He was a co-founder of Oxford Asymmetry which IPO’d in London before being acquired by Evotec, an early investor in Doctors.net which was acquired by the Japanese M3 Corporation and an early investor in Oxxon Pharmaccines which was acquired by Oxford Biomedica. More recently he was a co-founder and chairman for the first five years of both Adaptimmune and Immunocore which have subsequently listed on Nasdaq. He is currently chairman of Accession Therapeutics, SynaptixBio and Etcembly, early stage life science businesses bringing novel technologies to the field.

Mr. Cross holds a law degree from Oxford, an MBA from London Business School and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has lived and worked for part of his career in the United States where he served on the board of Oxford Semiconductor Inc. a fabless chip company he co-founded.