Meet the LifeScience ORG CEO
Sven Zimmermann - Inotrem
What called you to lead?
I’ve never stayed anywhere longer than four years—or shorter than two.
Because I have a project-based mindset, something needs to change during that period. But academia never changes.
During my university years, I was captivated by the problem-solving aspect of the intricacies of biological processes, but I could never see myself pursuing an ever-increasing level of specialisation because it prevented me from translating research into something beneficial and impactful for patients. I did my PhD and a post-doc, but then I felt a need for a change.
The transition into finance might seem like a sharp turn, but it was a natural progression. It was the early 2000s, an exciting time for life sciences with the human genome recently sequenced, and waves of innovation and investment rippled through the field. Banking offered a chance to stay close to the pharmaceutical industry science, but with the immediacy and dynamism I craved.
My leap into finance taught me the importance of strategy, numbers, and the commercial underpinnings of scientific discovery. It also gave me a taste for leadership—shaping a company’s direction, working through transactions, and seeing projects to completion.
After leaving finance, I was involved in several transactions within the biopharma industry as a CFO, as a chairman, and as a board member and I remember thinking, I’d like to try my hand at the top job. If the environment and the research were right, I wanted to take everything I’d learned—across science, finance, and leadership—and apply it to the CEO role for something I believed in.
Sven’s full profile is available for our members inside the community.