In late 2007, Phytoceuticals was founded in Zurich, Switzerland. Bridgeworks acted as lead investor alongside several co-investors. Phytoceuticals successfully closed a third financing round in April 2010.
Board of Directors
Beat Bühlmann, Chairman – Beat Buehlmann has more than 15 years of Private Equity experience. From 1991 to 1994 he worked at Swiss Bank Cooperation, Zurich. In 1997, Beat received a PhD (Dr. oec. publ.) from the University of Zurich, where he has also served at the Swiss Banking Institute from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2000 he was Partner at SMS Securities AG, Zurich. He was Founder and Partner at Tendo Corporate Finance AG, Zurich, for which company he served from 2001 to 2004. From 2004 to 2010 Beat was Head of Private Equity at Horizon21. In this role he was responsible for a USD 6 billion portfolio of Private Equity funds.
Martin Meili, Director - Martin is Medical Doctor and graduated at the University of Zurich. In 1989, he opened his own practice in Zurich, where he since works as a general practitioner with special interest in psychosomatic medicine. Together with his brothers Marcel Meili and Daniel Meili he is partner of Datuma AG, a family office committed to incubate promising ideas by offering financial, strategic, organizational, and legal support. Datuma is the major shareholder of Bridgeworks.
Team
Eduardo Theiler, CEO -Eduardo holds a Master in Business Administration and Finance of the University of Zurich. After two years of experience in Investment Banking he co-founded go4equity, a pan-European platform for private equity transactions. In 2004, he founded Bridgeworks, an investment firm which incubates companies that devise bold and effective solutions to fundamental challenges of the future. Parallel to his entrepreneurial activity, Eduardo was trained as alternative practitioner of Traditional Medicine during four years.
Rolf Senn, COO - Rolf graduated from the University of Zurich with a Master in Business Administration and Corporate Finance. He joined Bridgeworks in 2006 after being involved in the restructuring of mechanical engineering companies. Within Bridgeworks, Rolf was in charge of finances. In 2007 Rolf joined Phytoceuticals where he became product development coordinator for 1 PRIMARY WOUND DRESSING®.
Esther Hunziker, Product Specialist, Sales - Esther holds a degree as registered nurse DN 2 HF. Further she pursued a specialization in wound management and holds a diploma as expert caretaker from the Swiss Association for Wound Care (SAfW).
Esther has been working in different hospitals and is a widely experienced wound counselor. Her interest in developing new products, the future of wound management and wound care have led her to her current job with Phytoceuticals.
Alina Frei, Office Manager - Alina holds a Master in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. After working for two years as junior management consultant and two years leading a start-up tourism company, she relocated to Zurich, Switzerland, where she worked in the Communications department of an international automotive concern for 10 years. Alina’s main responsibilities were in events and meetings organisation involving employees, external suppliers, media, budget control, intranet publishing.
Advisory Board
Severin Läuchli - Severin is staff dermatologist at the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, where he is responsible for dermatologic surgery and wound healing. He is co-chair of the wound care center of the University Hospital in Zurich. Severin is the current president of the Swiss Association for Woundcare (SAfW) and a council member of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA).
Robert Strohal – Robert heads the Department of Dermatology and Venerology at the Federal University Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Austria. He is a board member of the Austrian Society of Dermatology and Venerology, delegate of the Austrian Chamber of Physicians at the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) in Brussels, board member of the European Association of Wound Healing (EWMA), past-president (current vice-president) of the Austrian Wound Association (AWA) and past-chairman of the Austrian Society of Dermatology task force “Biologics in Dermatology”.
Thomas Hunziker - Thomas is senior dermatologist at the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland. One of his main fields of research is tissue engineering for the treatment of skin defects. He initiated and scientifically supervised the development, clinical testing and market introduction of two tissue-engineering products, EpiDex and Allox. He is co-founder and past president of the Swiss Association for Wound Care.
Fiorella Carnevali, Advisor - Fiorella is a Doctor in veterinary medicine and PhD in domestic animal reproduction. Since 1990 she is a researcher at the biotechnology department of the ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment), Italy. Her main interest changed from reproduction technologies on domestic animals to utilisation of natural substances for control of exuberant reproduction (sinantropic animals like pigeons, mice etc) and for ecto-parasite and vector control. During the study on ecto-parasite control she has developed, as co-inventor with Andrew van der Esch, a wound healing remedy that led to the development of 1 PRIMARY WOUND DRESSING®.
Andrew van der Esch - Andrew is a research biologist at the biotechnology department of the ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment), Italy. His main interest has always been in cellular biology (animal first (immunology 1980 - 1984) and plant afterwards (1985 - now) ranging from immunology, alternative biomass production to the actual main occupation i.e. production of natural substances of industrial interest from plant systems, mainly from the Neem tree (Azadirachta indica A. Juss). Since 2001 he collaborates actively with the veterinary research group (Dr. Fiorella Carnevali) of the department and together they have developed different useful applications like means for ecto-parasite, vector-control and a wound-healing remedy that led to the development of 1 PRIMARY WOUND DRESSING®.
Rainer Görne - Rainer is a office-based physician. His spezialisation comprises clinical pharmacology, general pharmacology, toxicology and diabetology. One of his main fields of activites is the scientific support for the development and authorisation of new herbal and synthetic drugs and medicinal products. He is member of the Kooperation Phytopharmaka (Bonn), a private company under civic law (GbR) with scientific tasks, and member of the regional Ethics Committee in Rhineland-Palatinate (Mainz).
