Seasoned executives join Swiss startups

VertX IQ has welcomed Tamara Jost as our new Chief Technology Officer, bringing a wealth of fintech expertise to drive innovation and enhance the startup’s technology capabilities. Founded in 2020, VertX IQ is a financial services and technology company dedicated to helping institutional investors—such as pension funds, family offices, and investment funds—manage investment performance and risks efficiently. The company’s SaaS software integrates and displays all asset, liability, financial, actuarial, and operational data on a cloud-based platform. Additionally, it processes and analyzes large amounts of data, assesses the current position, and simulates future outcomes. With Tamara as CTO, the company is now poised to scale its technology.

Convoltas expands management team
Fabian Gloor joined the energy company Convoltas in February as Sales Manager, complementing the four-member management team. With nearly ten years of experience, Fabian played a central role in strategic energy procurement, fleet management, and the implementation of sustainable infrastructure measures—such as photovoltaics and charging stations—for a leading Swiss retailer. His responsibilities included serving as the construction owner's representative for solar systems, overseeing branch renewals across Switzerland, and developing new shop concepts. Additionally, he managed tenders, executed nationally significant projects in areas like shopfitting, real estate, and energy, and led teams of up to 45 employees.

Haya Therapeutics welcomes Chief Business Officer
HAYA Therapeutics is a precision medicine company developing programmable therapeutics that target regulatory RNAs derived from the dark genome—a cell information processing unit—to reprogram pathological cell states across a broad range of diseases, including cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, as well as cancer. Richard Law has joined the company as Chief Business Officer. With over two decades of experience in drug discovery and business development, Law brings extensive expertise in creating biopharma partnerships, driving company growth, and securing life sciences funding. For more than a decade, Dr. Law held key roles at Evotec, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Business Development, where he led biotech investment strategy, preclinical asset partnerships, and drug discovery collaborations. Previously, he was the company’s Global Head of Computational Chemistry.

iOnctura appoints new CBO
Biotech startup iOnctura, which is focused on combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers, announced the appointment of Elizabeth Holt as Chief Business Officer. Elizabeth is a seasoned corporate strategist, company founder, and senior leader, with a proven track record in successfully negotiating fundraises, partnerships, and exits. Most recently, she co-founded Aiolos Bio Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to respiratory diseases. Aiolos Bio was acquired by GSK in February 2024 for a total value of $1.4 billion. Elizabeth also played a key role in strategy, fundraising, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities at Gyroscope Therapeutics, which was acquired by Novartis for up to $1.5 billion in 2022.

Additionally, the company has appointed Mark Velleca as the Board Chair of iOnctura. Mark is currently the CEO and Board Chair of Black Diamond Therapeutics (BDTX) and also serves as Board Chair of Myeloid Therapeutics. Prior to this, Mark served as CEO of G1 Therapeutics (GTHX) until 2021, when he took the company public and led the development of its first therapy (COSELA®) from IND filing to FDA approval. Mark was also a co-founder and Senior Vice President of CGI Pharmaceuticals, where he managed the company from its inception through clinical trials of multiple drug candidates.

(RAN)
Image L-R: Tamara Jost, Fabian Gloor, Richard Law and Elizabeth Hoot