Meet our Team
We know great work begins with great people. Our skilled international team has a breadth of experience in life sciences, disease biology, biotechnology, and clinical in vitro diagnostics and is dedicated to supporting the medical community and helping improve patient care. It’s challenging work, but together we strive every day for improving the health of people worldwide and the sustained growth of the company.
Management
Deborah Bergmann
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Deborah Bergmann has been an integral part of SphingoTec's journey from its inception, contributing significantly across various domains, including research and development, marketing, sales, and business development. Her role has been pivotal in securing the company's first routine users, driving sales conversion of reference customers, and overseeing SphingoTec's out-licensing activities.
Deborah Bergmann holds a Master's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Potsdam. Alongside her robust scientific background, Ms. Bergmann's leadership skills and aptitude for international cooperation have facilitated the company's expansion into global markets, underscoring her multifaceted contributions to the organization's success.
Dr. Florian Uhle
Managing Director and Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Uhle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role, having spent 15 years in healthcare. Before joining SphingoTec, Florian Uhle, Ph.D., was Director of Medical Affairs at Inflammatix Inc., a development-stage diagnostic company focusing on acute and critically ill patients. Prior to that, he held several leadership roles within the University Hospitals Heidelberg and Giessen, focusing on leading diagnostic research activities and innovation-oriented initiatives. So far, he co-authored >100 peer-reviewed publications in renowned scientific journals such as Science, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Critical Care.
He holds a diploma in Biology from the Justus-Liebig University, a Master of Science in Clinical Research and Translational Medicine from the University of Leipzig, and a Ph.D. in Translational Critical Care from the Justus-Liebig University. He completed the International Graduate School „Molecular Biology and Medicine of the Lung“ within the Excellence Cluster Cardiopulmonary System at the Universities of Giessen and Marburg Lung Center.
Dr. Andreas Bergmann
Chief Scientific Advisor
Dr. Andreas Bergmann is a serial entrepreneur having founded and co-founded more than 10 companies. He has been active in the biotechnology industry for over 25 years and has been leading the discovery, and routine adoption of important blood biomarkers, as well as the development of drug candidates for critical care diseases. Today´s diagnostic standard in sepsis, Procalcitonin (PCT), was developed under his supervision as Chief Research Officer and co-founder at B.R.A.H.M.S AG. The company was successfully sold to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for 480 USD in 2009.
Dr. Andreas Bergmann holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Technical University Berlin. He is an inventor or co-inventor of more than 100 Patent families and has authored and co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Dr. Bergmann is also member of the Executive Board of the “Waltraut Bergmann Stiftung zur Förderung der Krebsforschung” and a member of the Board of Trustees at “Sepsis Stiftung”.
Nicole Witzmann
Chief Financial Officer
Nicole Witzmann brings over eight years of corporate finance experience in the healthcare industry, focusing on early- and growth-stage companies.
She previously served as CFO at InfanDx, a diagnostic biotechnology start-up. Prior to that, she played an instrumental role as Head of Finance at Adrenomed AG, where she led the financial oversight and fundraising efforts. Nicole Witzmann holds a Master's degree in Business Communication from the University of Applied Sciences Berlin (HTW Berlin).
Advisory Board
Dr. Florian Kainzinger
Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Florian Kainzinger serves as a Managing Partner and the Founder of Think.Health Ventures since 2015. Before joining Think.Health Ventures, Mr. Kainzinger has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Labor Berlin between 2011 and 2015, the joint diagnostic organization of the Charité – university medical center and the Vivantes Network for Health Group with more than 400 employees on 12 sites in Berlin. Labor Berlin currently is the largest hospital-connected laboratory network in Europe – with more than 25,000 hospital beds being served by its lab organization.
Prior to Labor Berlin, Mr. Kainzinger worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, a strategic consulting firm serving European healthcare clients. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Munich (Dipl.-Kfm.) and a Ph.D. in health economics from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Dr. Gerald Möller
Chairman of the Advisory Board
Dr. Möller has over 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. He held several senior management positions at Boehringer Mannheim, including CEO of the worldwide operating Group. Following the company’s acquisition by Roche, Dr. Möller was named Head of Global Development and Strategic Marketing Pharmaceuticals, and a member of Roche’s Executive Committee.
He has been an investment advisor at HBM Partners for 12 years and an active board member of many innovative life science companies such as Illumina Inc, B.R.A.H.M.S. AG, MTM Laboratories AG and Morphosys AG. From 2003 to 2016, Dr. Moeller served as Chairman of FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), a product development and implementation partnership financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Marek Kozlowski
Member of the Advisory Board
Marek Kozlowski (PhD) combines 20 years of experience in research, industry and company building across life science and healthcare with a focus on therapeutics, diagnostics and research tools. He is currently a Senior Investment Director at NRW.Venture and a board director at 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals, Abalos Therapeutics, SphingoTec, Resolve Biosciences and Emergence Therapeutics (sold in 2023). Marek is trained as biotechnologist (MScEng, Warsaw University) and molecular biologist (PhD, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Ludwig Maximilians University).
Dr. Matthias Fehr, CFA
Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Matthias Fehr has over twenty years of experience in private and public equity investment management and research. He served as senior sell-side analyst at Lombard Odier for biotech and medical technology industries and he is a former scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Dr. Fehr holds a MSc and PhD in chemistry from ETH Zurich and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst since 2002. Currently, he is a board member of Swixx Biopharma, Sphingotec, Numab and Farmalatam.
Dr. Rainer Strohmenger
Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Rainer Strohmenger joined Wellington in 1997 and became a Partner in 2000 with responsibility for the Life Science portfolio. During his 24 years in venture capital, he has been responsible for the financing of more than 25 portfolio companies, 7 of which were taken public (including Actelion/acquired by J&J, Oxford Immunotec/acquired by PerkinElmer and immatics), and 9 were successfully exited through trade sales (incl. MTM Laboratories acquired by Roche, Definiens acquired by AstraZeneca and invendo medical acquired by Ambu). Dr Strohmenger represents Wellington on the boards of portfolio companies Adrenomed, AMBOSS, eGenesis (observer), iOmx, Koa Health, NEUWAY, Quanta and SphingoTec. Prior to joining Wellington, Dr Strohmenger was involved in research work in the fields of cardiovascular physiology and health economics. He holds a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Economics degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich (Germany), and was trained at the Entrepreneurship Center of MIT, Boston (USA). Dr Strohmenger is a Member of the Venture Capital Council at InvestEurope and a Member of the Senate of the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW).
Thomas Krause
Member of the Advisory Board
Thomas Krause is currently managing director of the leading regional venture capital company Brandenburg Kapital. During his 20 years in the venture capital industry, he accompanied several biotech and medical technology companies as an active investor representative, supervisory or advisory board member from the early start-up phase to a successful exit. In addition to his commercial studies, he completed the MBA BioMedTech at the University of Potsdam. Mr. Krause is a member of the Venture Capital Working Group of the Schmalenbach Society for Business Administration.
Dr. Ute Kilger
Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Ute Kilger is licensed as a German and European patent attorney and is assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as academic institutes in all kinds of patent related issues concerning the obtaining and enforcement of property rights, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, contract negotiations, and licensing agreements. Her counseling is driven by the understanding that a patent strategy has to add value to the company. She manages large patent portfolios in view of the business strategies as well as the cost-benefit analysis. She is involved in patent infringement processes where she is representing her clients in nullity suits up to the German Federal Supreme Court of Justice. Furthermore, Dr. Ute Kilger is a lecturer for the MBA BioMed course “Intellectual Property” (IP) at the University of Potsdam, as well as for the SPARK educational program of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and for the IP Management and Contract Laws at the HTW in Berlin. Moreover, she is giving courses in the Charité program. Best Lawyers 2016 is counting her as one of the most important patent attorneys in the field of biotechnology in Germany. Since August 2009, she has been working as a partner of BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT.
Leadership Team
Dr. Tobias Hartmann
Director Product Development
Dr. Oliver Hartmann
Director Research & Biostatistics
Michał Bagrowski
Head of Key Account Management
Sabine Podewski
QMB & Senior Quality Manager
Ruxandra Lenz
Head of Marketing & Communication
Axel Schulze
Head of Laboratory
Susanne Jäkel
PRRC
