NORWAY WINNER:
Konstantinos Alevizopoulos APIM Therapeutics
CEO Insight... Q
current company?
Meeting key scientific and development milestones on a continuous basis over the last 4 years and being able to recruit investor funds in a tough financing environment are company achievements that I am particularly proud of.
Q How did you do that?
It all depends on good science and strong chemistry within the team. Nothing could ever be achieved without scientists delivering good results and our CSO has done an excellent job in that area. Being able to communicate the results to the investor community was also a key factor to our achievements. Of course, long prior experience in the field always plays a major role in driving the project forward and meeting the milestones.
Q
What education or prior experience helped you succeed at your current
company?
Managing small-size biotech companies requires some unique skills. For example, biotech companies typically operate under very tight budgets. Thus, appropriate utilization of funds, successful identification of contract research partners and good design of experiments are key factors of success. Being the CEO of a company also requires good communication skills, a wide network of contacts and lots of flexibility. This is exactly the type of experience that I have acquired having worked in biotech over the last 13 years.
Q
What lessons did you learn on your way to becoming a CEO?
That there can be no success of any kind in the absence of a strong team with complementary science and business skills.
What are your most important professional achievements at your
Q Q Q Q Q Q
What lessons have you learned as a CEO?
The most important lesson is not to give up. If you have a good technology, it will pay in the end.
What are the key success factors for a CEO?
Business success for a CEO is measured almost exclusively by the CEO’s ability to raise funds and catalyse/execute a good exit deal for his/her investors and shareholders. On a personal note, a key success factor for me is to be able to offer a new experimental therapeutic option to patients.
What are the key challenges for a CEO?
I think the most important challenge for a CEO these days is to raise funds. With the VC sector adapting a very conservative investment approach, the pharma sector dealing with lots of challenges, the changing regulatory/reimbursement systems and the financial crisis, this task is getting increasingly difficult.
How did you overcome those challenges?
There is no special recipe to follow. What worked to our benefit was good scientific results and efficient use of our existing funds. Working in a virtual mode definitely contributed to our success. However, this is a continuous battle as we need to repeat all that in the near future.
How do you manage the relationship with your Board of Directors?
I base my relationship with the Board of Directors on trust and transparency. At the end of the day we are all on the same boat.
What advice do you give to rising CEOs?
Put the corporate interest on top of your Finance Monthly CeO AwArdS 2013 15
priorities; there can be no personal success if your company fails.
Q Q
Q
How do you manage organizational politics, and conflicting personalities, interests, and views?
By being open and remaining humble. The CEO should always give the good example.
How do you see the future of your industry?
I am personally worried about the growth prospects of biotech & pharma. Despite signs of return of trust in some areas, I see the industry further shrinking in the upcoming years.
What advice would you give to policy makers to help the economy and your
business?
There is no single solution that I could recite. In the discovery stage, bridging the gap of academia to industry by providing more seed funding may facilitate commercialization of new technologies. On the development angle, making clinical trial design more effective and faster is another area where regulators could play a major role. Additional key measures may be taken on commercialization of therapeutics to maximize entry of new drugs in the market.
Contact:
Konstantinos Alevizopoulos Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer APIM Therapeutics AS
c/o NTNU Technology Transfer AS Sem Sælandsvei 14 Kjemiblokk 1, 3etg
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
EUROPE
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