Sten Verland, Ph.D – Non Executive Director

Sten Verland is founding partner at Sunstone Capital. His primary investment focus includes drug development, vaccines and stem cells, and he has more than 20 years experience as an international executive, entrepreneur and venture investor in biotech companies as well as pre-clinical and clinical CROs. Currently, Sten also serves as non-executive chairman of Action Pharma A/S and Zymenex A/S.

After completing his doctorate, Sten held a number of academic positions in the field of biomedical research including the position of Assistant Professor in Immunology at the University of Copenhagen.

In 1994, Sten headed a Management Buy-Out of a contract research organisation (CRO) specialising in laboratory animal science and non-clinical development. Under his leadership the company successfully introduced a range of new services and technologies within the field of transgenic animal research. After 4 years as a major shareholder, Sten merged the company with another Danish biotech company thus forming M&B A/S with a staff of 100. The company was acquired by Taconic, Inc., New York, in 2000.

In 1998, Sten participated in the foundation of Synarc, Inc., San Francisco, and served for 4½ years as VP, General Manager Europe. During his tenure, Synarc developed from a small start-up clinical service provider into the world's largest central radiology service company dedicated exclusively to global clinical trials. With 6 offices around the world and a staff of 220, Synarc managed over 150 clinical trials, involving more than 60,000 patients at 1,500 sites worldwide. Sten was responsible for gaining market leadership on the European markets, negotiated acquisitions in Germany, France and the Netherlands and closed numerous service agreements with major pharmaceutical companies.

From 2003 to 2007, Sten operated his own investment company where he co-founded or invested in 7 life science companies and served as non-executive director on 16 Boards. Sten holds a M.Sc. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Copenhagen.

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