Precision Therapeutics
for Brain Diseases

Kees is the chief executive officer of Kynexis. He was formerly in executive leadership positions as CEO at BIAL Biotech and Lysosomal Therapeutics (acquired by BIAL), companies focused on the discovery of new classes of drugs for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. He also served as president and CEO of EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (which became Forum Pharmaceuticals) and as executive chair of Paros Bio. He successfully built and led these companies from early-stage research to drug development for patients with genetic forms of Alzheimer’s (PS-1 mutation carriers) and Parkinson’s (GBA1 mutation carriers) and cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS). Prior to that, Kees was senior vice president of business development at Biogen, where he led all deal-making efforts and portfolio management activities. He began his career as a scientist at Biogen in Geneva, Switzerland, after earning his Master of Molecular Biology and Process Engineering from the University of Agriculture, Wageningen, the Netherlands. He has a Master of Business Administration from the INSEAD Business School in France.

Dr. Jens R. Wendland is the chief medical officer at Kynexis and is based in Boston, MA. He was trained as a physician in Germany. Following an internship in adult psychiatry, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Drs. Dennis Murphy and Francis McMahon at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD, on the genetics of psychiatric disorders. Before Kynexis, Jens held various pharmaceutical industry positions of increasing responsibility at Roche, Pfizer, Nestlé Health Science, and Takeda. His focus is on neuroscience, rare diseases, drug development, and translational medicine, with particular emphasis on using human genetics to identify compelling drug targets and responder sub-populations.

Thomas is the chief business officer at Kynexis, bringing extensive experience in company creation and validating new technologies within drug development (immunology, gastroenterology, women's health, and CNS) and industrial biotechnology. Before joining Kynexis, he co-founded the clinical-stage company Freya Biosciences to pioneer the development of immunotherapies in women’s health. Previously, he was at the Flagship Pioneering company, Kaleido Biosciences, as vice president of business development and immuno-oncology. Having lived and worked in China, Brazil, the U.S.A., and Denmark, he has brought several products to market at biotech leaders Novozymes & Chr. Hansen within biofuels, infant nutrition, and synthetic biology, and led the creation of the pharmaceutical division at Chr. Hansen. Thomas is involved in several start-up incubators and co-founded the dual degree, M.Sc. in Bioentrepreneurship, at Copenhagen Business School. He holds an M.Sc. in Systems Biology from the Technical University of Denmark and Stanford University.

Nancy is the chief development officer at Kynexis, and brings more than 25 years of experience in drug development in the global pharmaceutical industry, including Johnson & Johnson, UCB, and Galapagos NV. In her roles, she was responsible for the strategy and development of various highly innovative products in the immune-inflammation and neuroscience therapeutic areas. Nancy is a pharmacist by training and holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.