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Bring experience together for legendary results.

Gokhan Batur

Gokhan Batur

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Gokhan Batur

Venture Partner

Gokhan Batur

Gokhan Batur joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023.

He has 19 years of healthcare industry experience. Formerly he was the CEO at Polyphor, a late-stage publicly listed Swiss biotech focused to oncology and anti-infectives. Prior, he assumed various management roles at MSD, lastly serving as Executive Director, Global Brand Leader, Antibiotics, responsible for leading the entire Merck antibiotics portfolio managing multiple in-line and pipeline products and sales of ~2B$.

In addition to his role at XGEN, Gokhan is a board member at APIM Therapeutics and corporate advisor to several biotechs in Europe and the US.

LocationZurich, (CH)
Mariagiulia Davide

Mariagiulia Davide

Analyst

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Mariagiulia Davide

Analyst

Mariagiulia Davide
Mariagiulia Davide is with XGEN as Analyst since October 2022. At XGEN she supports the investment activities of the fund as well as management company operations, including ESG related functions. Mariagiulia was formerly Business Analyst in Tethis S.p.A., a Genextra portfolio company focused on the development of innovative solutions in the field of oncology diagnostics. Previously, she had experience as public sector consultant in EY, in non-profit entities, and as entrepreneur with her own business. Mariagiulia graduated with honors in Economics and Management of Government and International Organizations at Università Bocconi.
LocationMilan, (IT)
Keith Dawkins

Keith Dawkins

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Keith Dawkins, MD

Venture Partner

Keith Dawkins
Keith Dawkins joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. He is a Board Member of Ventric Health, a Board Member of JenaValve Technology Inc, a Board Member of Protembis GmbH, and Chairman of the Board of InnovHeart s.r.l,. He was previously Global Chief Medical Officer of Shockwave Medical Inc, and Global Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Boston Scientific Corporation. He qualified in medicine from Guy’s Hospital, London University and continued his cardiology training in Oxford, and at the Royal Brompton and St George’s Hospitals, London. He was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University Medical Center on a Fulbright Scholarship, and President of the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society.
LocationLondon, (UK)
Federica Draghi

Federica Draghi

Founder & Managing Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Federica Draghi, PhD MBA

Founder & Managing Partner

Federica Draghi
Federica is Managing Partner at XGEN Venture and is a board observer for Protembis. Before founding XGEN in 2021, she was Investment Director at Italian based Genextra, and in such capacity still serves as board member and co-investor of a number of Genextra companies including Kuste Biopharma and InnovHeart. Previous companies include Erydel and Congenia where she was interim COO. Federica was also a post doctoral fellow at the MRC in Cambridge (UK) where she focused her studies on structural biology of mitochondrial proteins. Federica is active in the life science community as co-founder of Italian Angels for Biotech (IAB) and past board member of Assobiotec. Before completing her MBA at Columbia University, Federica received PhD working in the field of  protein crystallography, and an MSc in biochemistry, summa cum laude, from La Sapienza University of Rome.
LocationMilan, (IT)
XGEN VENTURE - Paolo Fundarò

Paolo Fundarò

Founder & Managing Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Paolo Fundarò

Founder & Managing Partner

XGEN VENTURE - Paolo Fundarò
Paolo is Managing Partner at XGEN Venture and is board member for TES Pharma, Genespire and board observer for Nouscom. Before co-founding XGEN in 2021, he was in Genextra since its inception in 2004, serving as CEO up to 2022. Paolo is also board member and co-investor of a number of Genextra companies including InnovHeart and Targimmune Therapeutics. Previous companies include EryDel and Intercept Pharmaceutical where he served also as Chairman until the Alfasigma acquisition in 2023. Prior to Genextra, he gained several start-up experiences, including e.Biscom/Fastweb Group (2000-2004), and as investment banker in London (1997-2000). Paolo is co-founder of Italian Angels for Biotech (IAB). He holds a cum laude degree in B.A. & Finance from Bocconi University.
LocationMilan, (IT)

Bertil Lindmark

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Prof. Bertil Lindmark MD, PhD

Venture Partner

Bertil Lindmark joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. Professor Lindmark has a long and successful career in bio pharma with leading global roles in AstraZeneca and Almirall as well as in several biotech companies. His focus in respiratory, immunology and cancer has led to global drug approvals and successful launches. He has also been involved in several IPOs, major funding events and acquisitions. Among other roles, he currently holds the position of Chairman of the Board at Aqilion AB and Chief Medical officer at Galecto Inc (NASDAQ: GLTO). Professor Lindmark received his PhD in  molecular epidemiology from Lund University, Sweden.
LocationCopenhagen, (DK)
Michele Manto

Michele Manto

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Michele Manto, MBA

Venture Partner

Michele Manto
Michele Manto joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. Mr. Manto is Chief Commercial Officer at Galapagos, a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative medicines. He joined Galapagos in 2017 to build the commercial organization and capabilities from the ground up and successfully launch its first product. Previously, Mr. Manto held various commercial leadership roles at AbbVie, most recently as General Manager, Global Marketing Rheumatology. He started his career as a management and strategy consultant at McKinsey&Company. Mr. Manto holds an MBA from INSEAD and a degree in engineering from the Politecnico of Milan.
LocationAmstelveen, (NL)
Roberto Molinaro - Sr Analyst

Roberto Molinaro

Sr. Analyst

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Roberto Molinaro, PhD

Sr. Analyst

Roberto Molinaro - Sr Analyst
At XGEN since 2022, Roberto supports the team in deal scouting and due diligence activities. Before joining XGEN he was Business Development Associate at San Raffaele Hospital, Milan. Roberto has 10+ years-experience in Nanotechnology and Personalized Nanomedicine (>40 publications, >2500 citations) spent between Houston Methodist Research Institute and Harvard Medical School as postdoctoral fellow, and University of Urbino Carlo Bo as assistant professor. In 2021 he received the IAAM Young Scientist Medal from the International Association of Advanced Materials for his contribution to “Applications of Nanotechnology”.
LocationMilan, (IT)

Monica Pala

Administrative Manager

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Monica Pala

Administrative Manager

Monica Pala is with XGEN since 2022. Monica is responsible for administrative duties of the Company, including bookkeeping, tax, reporting and payments. She also assists the team with compliance and regulatory matters. Prior to joining XGEN she was part of the Genextra team since 2007 where she was Administration Manager managing bookkeeping and finance for Genextra and portfolio companies. Previously she held different finance positions in advertising agencies FPM and TBWA. Monica earned a laurea degree in Economics from Università Cattolica, Milan (IT).
LocationMilan, (IT)
XGENVENTURE - Laura Pizzi

Laura Pizzi

Office Manager

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Laura Pizzi

Office Manager

XGENVENTURE - Laura Pizzi
Laura Pizzi is with XGEN since 2022 as Office Manager and Executive Assistant. She manages all office operations and coordinates corporate duties of XGEN . Prior to joining XGEN, Laura has had several experiences in other Investment firms, including Genextra, Indaco Venture Partners, and Europa Investimenti. Laura holds a degree in Public relations from IULM University.
LocationMilan, (IT)
Xgen Venture - Luca Quagliata

Luca Quagliata

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Luca Quagliata, PhD, BCMAS, COA

Venture Partner

Xgen Venture - Luca Quagliata
Dr Luca Quagliata joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. Luca is VP and Global Head of Medical Affairs for the Genetic Science Group at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Before joining Thermo Fisher, Luca worked as Senior Director and Team Leader of the Molecular Diagnostics Division at the Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Luca is trained in Medical Biotechnology (Naples, Italy), holds a Ph.D. in Vascular Medicine (Heidelberg, Germany), a Certificate of Achievement (COA) in Genetics (Harvard, Boston), was a visiting fellow at the NCI-NIH (Bethesda, USA), and is a Board-Certified Specialist in Medical Affairs (BCMAS).
LocationNapoli, (IT)
Victor Savevski

Victor Savevski

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Victor Savevski

Venture Partner

Victor Savevski
Victor has joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. He is the Chief Innovation Officer, AI Center Director at Humanitas and Adj. Professor at Humanitas University in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health Systems in Medicine. Victor has launched over 50 digital health products, health media platforms, websites, apps and digital therapeutics, currently being used by over 90 million users. Now focused on R&D on clinical and research applications based on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. Collaborations on numerous A.I projects developed with his team of data scientists, manager and physicians and other international institutions.
LocationMilan, (IT)
Daniele Scarinci - Founder e Managing Partner

Daniele Scarinci

Founder & Managing Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Daniele Scarinci

Founder & Managing Partner

Daniele Scarinci - Founder e Managing Partner
Before co-founding XGEN in 2021, Daniele was Investment Director in Genextra since 2006. Daniele is Chairman of Tethis, where he served as CEO between 2020 and 2022, and board member of Kuste Biopharma and Page Therapeutics. Prior to Genextra, Daniele held several strategic and financial planning collaborations in different sectors (retail, tlc, media, tech etc), and business planning & investor relations in e.Biscom/Fastweb. Daniele holds a cum laude degree in in Economics of Financial Markets, Rome University of Tor Vergata.
LocationMilan, (IT)
Companies
XGEN VENTURE - Bastian van der Baan

Bastiaan Van der Baan

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Bastian Van Der Baan

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE - Bastian van der Baan

Bastiaan van der Baan joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023.

He has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a key focus on oncology and diagnostics. Most recently he was the Chief Clinical Officer of Agendia, a breast cancer molecular diagnostic company. Bas is an independent director of Thetis Spa in Milan, LIXTE biotechnology, Pasadena CA. He co-founded ThromboDx, a liquid biopsy company, Qameleon Therapeutics, a company developing synthetic lethal drug combinations for cancer treatment, and Oncosence, an oncology drug development company using senescence as target for drug development.

LocationAmsterdam, (NL)
Simona Varani - Associate

Simona Varani

Associate

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Simona Varani

Associate

Simona Varani - Associate
Simona Varani is with XGEN as Associate since October 2022. Before joining XGEN, Simona was Intellectual Property (IP) manager at Fondazione Telethon where she was responsible for building and managing the institution’s patent portfolio. Prior to that she was partner at Zebra Ventures, a firm specialized in IP strategy and business development in life sciences, and previously IP manager at Bioxell, an immunology focused biopharma company. Simona also dedicated several years to academic research, she holds a master of Intellectual Property Law from the University of Strasbourg and a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Milano.
LocationMilan, (IT)
Marija Zecevic

Marija Zecevic

Venture Partner

XGEN VENTURE / PEOPLE

Marija Zecevic, PhD

Venture Partner

Marija Zecevic
Marija Zecevic joined XGEN as Venture Partner in 2023. She is an accomplished executive with over 20 years of experience in the biotech industry including both public and private companies across the US and Europe. She is currently serving as the Chief Business Officer at a neuroscience drug discovery and development company in Boston. Marija previously held executive roles at Proteostasis Therapeutics, Allozyne, and BioXell, where she executed key licensing and partnership transactions. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich and an M.S. in International Healthcare Management from Bocconi School of Management.
LocationBoston, (USA)