A founding partner of the Nordic Life Science Venture fund, Eir Ventures. Prior to launching Eir Ventures, Stephan was part of setting up Novo Seeds, the early stage company creation and investment arm of Novo Holdings. During his 12 years at Novo Seeds, he led creation and funding of more than 25 companies in Europe, with a particular focus on Scandinavia.

Claudia has an international legal background and 20 years’ experience from the Life Science industry, both as external and in-house legal counsel. She is specialised in R&D and business development related legal matters covering all types of commercial and R&D specific agreements, outsourcing and compliance aspects as well as complex research collaboration, partnerships and strategic licensing transactions with biotech, pharma companies and academia.

Alex is a multicultural (Canada/France) engineer and experienced Venture Capitalist (traditional and corporate venture) with a demonstrated history of working in Cleantech (during the tough years from 2011-2016) and Deeptech with over 45 transactions under his belt. Skilled in Venture Capital, deal-making, developing early staged businesses into successful companies as well as performing exits and creating value for shareholders.

Prior to joining DSM in 2020, Akshat sat on both sides of the table as an entrepreneur and investor. He started his entrepreneurial career by building WTEnergy, India's first carbon-trading platform and advisory services company, after which he embarked on his venture capital career at Sequoia Capital. Akshat has since gained extensive experience investing across the lifecycle of startups – with more than 45 investments totaling over 400 million euros and portfolio management for PGGM Private Equity, Max India, and Rockstart. At DSM, Akshat is responsible for investments in Europe and Israel in areas related to Nutrition, Health, and Biosciences. An Indian national currently living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Akshat holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business, and master’s degrees from the University of Amsterdam and the Delhi School of Economics.

Nethaji is a world-renowned plant biochemist and synthetic biologist passionate about developing nature-inspired and sustainable solutions for various industries such as pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, bulk manufacturing and energy. She has worked with world-leading synthetic biology companies and has a track record of high impact publications and patents. She was previously a research group leader at the Center for Synthetic Biology at the University of Copenhagen where she developed biosynthetic production platforms for natural and novel cannabinoids, and previously led multidisciplinary research project on biosynthetic vanillin production from the lab to commercialization.

Jonas has 10+ years of investment, corporate finance, and strategy experience from both philanthropy, private equity and venture capital as well as from investment banking. Before joining The Footprint Firm, Jonas was Head of Strategy & Special Projects and member of the Senior Leadership Team in the Novo Nordisk Foundation, with responsibility for impact investments and philanthropic strategy in both health and sustainability. Also, Jonas served on the Investment Advisory Board of Den Sociale Kapitalfond Invest and has been involved in the corporate governance development of the Novo Nordisk Foundation group of companies. Prior to this Jonas worked at Novo Holdings, the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s investment company, covering an array of life science investments in sustainability, health and biotech companies, ranging from early start-ups to large mature companies in both the private and public space. Moreover, Jonas worked for a leading Danish M&A advisor FIH Partners, where he advised on a variety of transactions. Jonas holds a Master of Science in Applied Economics and Finance as well as a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Copenhagen Business School.