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Management
 Dr. Christophe J.
Echeverri (Lead Founder, CEO/CSO):
Dr. Echeverri’s training as a molecular cell biologist began with a
B.Sc. (Hon.’s, 1990) and an M.Sc. (1992) in Biology, both completed at
the University of Ottawa, Canada, studying cytoskeletal processes
underlying mammalian neuronal differentiation and cell division. He
then completed a Ph.D. in Cell Biology (1998) at the University of
Massachusetts (Worcester, MA), focusing on the role of
microtubule-based motors in a wide range of cellular processes
including cell division. In 1998, he joined the laboratory of Dr.
Anthony Hyman at the EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany) as a postdoctoral
research scientist, where he co-directed the genomic RNAi screening
project with Dr. Pierre Gönczy (Gönczy et al.,
2000, Nature 408: 331). In October 1999, Dr.
Echeverri co-founded Cenix with Drs. Gönczy and Hyman, both of
whom remain close scientific collaborators of the company. Having
built-up the company from concept stage to its first profitable year,
Dr. Echeverri continues to fill CEO and CSO duties today. Along the
way, Dr. Echeverri was also recognized as one of the world's Top 100 Young
Innovators for 2003 by MIT's Technology
Review magazine.
 Dr. Birte Sönnichsen (Chief
Operating Officer, Director of Discovery Programs): After her
Biology studies at the University of Göttingen, Dr.
Sönnichsen completed a Dr. rer. nat. carrying out detailed
research on the retention of ER proteins (1994). She then joined the
laboratory of Dr. Graham Warren at Cancer Research UK (formerly, the
ICRF) in London to study membrane disassembly of the Golgi apparatus
during cell division. She followed-up this work as a senior
postdoctoral scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Marino Zerial at the
EMBL in Heidelberg, where she examined the role of small Rab GTPases in
endosome maintenance from 1997 to 2000. During this period, Dr.
Sönnichsen was also closely following the pioneering work being
conducted at EMBL at the time by Drs. Echeverri, Gönczy and Hyman
as an RNAi screening pilot in C. elegans. Her first undertaking
after joining Cenix in 2000 as its first senior scientist, was to
direct the completion of that screening project over the entire C.
elegans genome (Sönnichsen et
al.,
2005, Nature
434: 462; see also Press
Release). She has since taken on increasing
levels of responsibility within Cenix, culminating in her current dual
position as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Discovery Programs.
 Michael Kring (Chief
Financial Officer): Michael Kring joined Cenix in October 2007 as CFO.
He is the founder of High Tech Services, a hands-on service company for the
implementation, structuring and professionalizing of the finance department in
young companies. Prior to High Tech Services he held various CFO positions in
several biotech companies and gained broad experience for more than three years
as an investment manager with BioM AG, Munich, a seed-investor in the Life
Science industry. He co-founded the Life Science team of HypoVereinsbank in
2000. Michael holds a degree in business administration of the Universities of
Regensburg, Germany, and Grenoble, France. After finishing his apprenticeship in
a Germany-based bank he gained broad experience in corporate banking in London
and Paris.
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