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Advisory Council

The GABC Advisory Council is created to provide the GABC Board of Directors and the Executive Director with objective opinions, suggestions and inspiration about the organization, its activities and development. Members of the Advisory Council are selected and appointed by the GABC Board of Directors and constitute a cross-section of accomplished and successful business leaders and entrepreneurs with deep ties to the German-American business community. The Advisory Council helps to further GABC’s mission of promoting business and trade between Germany and the U.S. and strengthen the impact and relevance of this network.


Christa Bleyleben

Managing Partner, MassGlobal Partners

Christa Bleyleben, since 2009 Managing Partner of MassGlobal Partners, and partnering with the Cambridge Innovation Center, is supporting US market access and expansion, training and mentoring of innovative international companies. Her special focus is on value proposition, pitch practice, financing & finding needed resources as well as facilitating partnering at senior levels. Previously Christa was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment, President of the Massachusetts International Trade Council and a Managing Director in Bank of America’s global investment group. Christa is an active angel investor and serves on several advisory boards. She holds an MBA from the Vienna University of Business.


Marc Filerman

CEO, German Accelerator Life Sciences

Marc Filerman is CEO of the German Accelerator Life Sciences Program, and an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute where he provides fundraising, commercialization, and strategic advice to early-stage ventures. Prior to this, he co-founded and launched an NIH-funded home care tech startup, and was an Accelerator Executive at the CIMIT Healthcare Accelerator at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2012, he co-founded a molecular imaging startup, and before that, he managed development, launch, and growth of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy’s Digital Operating Room business. Mr. Filerman holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.


John Hallinan

Chief Development Officer, Danforth Advisors

John Hallinan joined Danforth Advisors as Chief Development Officer in 2020. Previously, he served as the Chief Business Officer for MassBio for eight years where he oversaw the MassBio Innovation Services programs. John’s fiscal experience in the life sciences and software industries reflect positions of increasing responsibility across a broad range of strategic and operational disciplines. His background encompasses venture financings, corporate development, technology licensing, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to MassBio, John was the Chief Financial Officer at Cytel, a leader in the design and implementation of adaptive clinical trials, and he had been active with MassBio—serving on the Economic Development Advisory Group and as co-chair of the Finance Committee & Entrepreneur’s University. Before joining Cytel, John served as CFO at Signet Laboratories, a leading supplier of diagnostic assays to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. John currently sits on the Advisory Board of MTTC (the MA Technology Transfer Center), Charité BIH Entrepreneurship Summit, and New Frontier Bio. John holds a BBA from St. Bonaventure University and is a certified public accountant.


 Anula Jayasuriya

Founder & Managing Director, EXXclaim Capital; Co-founder EILSF, Los Altos Hills, California, USA

Anula Jayasuriya is a successful private equity executive and venture capitalist whose background combines deep business, scientific and medical knowledge with broad clinical, industry, entrepreneurial, and investment experience. In 2013, Anula founded EXXclaim Capital, an early stage venture fund focused on catalyzing innovation, entrepreneurship and investment in Women’s Health.  In 2006 Anula co-founded the “Evolvence India Life Science Fund”, the very first fund in India to focus exclusively on health care and invest in Indian pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and contract services companies. Anula was previously a partner with Skyline Ventures in Palo Alto, and prior to that with the German/US venture capital firm TVM, in San Francisco. Anula serves on the boards of several biotechnology companies and non-profit boards. Anula received a BA from Harvard summa cum laude, and an MD and PhD (in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) from Harvard Medical School. She interned in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and received an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Anula also holds a M. Phil. in pharmacology from the University of Cambridge, in England.


Martin D. Madaus

Operating Executive, The Carlyle Group

Dr. Martin D. Madaus is a serial global healthcare CEO, board member, investor and strategy consultant with 30 years of experience in Diagnostics and Life Science. He currently works for The Carlyle Group as an Operating Executive and serves on public and private boards. He was Chairman and CEO at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. (OCD) from 2015 to 2019 leading the carve-out from JNJ and the business turnaround. Previously, Martin served as Executive Chairman of Quanterix Corporation, and as Senior Healthcare Advisor to the Carlyle Group. He was Chairman, President and CEO of Millipore Corporation (NYSE: MIL) from 2005 to 2010; President and CEO of Roche Diagnostics Corporation North America from 2000 to 2004; and President of Roche Diagnostics Canada. Martin received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Munich and a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the Veterinary School of Hanover in Germany.


Christian Magel

Founder, Venture Lane & Serial Entrepreneur

Christian Magel is the Founder of Venture Lane Boston, a curated startup hub for early-stage tech companies, which he founded in 2018 in Boston. As a Co-founder of amaysim Australia, he was CMO and Executive Director and helped grow the company to and beyond IPO, resulting into Australia’s largest mobile virtual network operator. Previously, Christian was Co-founder and CMO of simyo, a customer-centric challenger brand in the European mobile provider space. In Europe, Christian was European Marketing Director at Letsbuyit.com and has held senior marketing positions at ProSieben Digital Media, Entertainment Media Verlag and Club RTL. Christian is an active international Business Angel , a member of Launchpad Venture Group and mentor at Founder’s Institute and MassChallenge. Christian earned his degree “Betriebswirt” from European Business School, Oestrich Winkel, Germany and has also studied at Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität (Munich, Germany), at Sup-de-Co La Rochelle (La Rochelle, France) and at Thunderbird – American Graduate School of International Management (Glendale, AZ, USA).

 


Chandra Ramanathan

Global Head Innovation Hubs, Danaher Corporation

Chandra Ramanathan is the Global Head Innovation Hubs for Danaher Corporation. Previoulsy, he led Bayer’s Open Innovation Centers (OICs) around the world where he focused on early access to breakthrough technologies, management of strategic alliances, public private partnerships, and engagement with local ecosystems.  Prior to that he served as Vice President and Head of the East Coast Innovation Center in Cambridge, MA, building an innovative product portfolio with key academic partners, driving external scientific leadership and engaging with members of the local innovation ecosystem.  His previous roles at Bayer include the global lead for External Innovation – Life Sciences, Global Launch Team leader of Copanlisib and Head of Pipeline Marketing. Before joining Bayer, Chandra worked at Wyeth (Pfizer) and Bristol-Myers Squibb in various roles including Global Brand Team Leader, Licensing/Business Development, Neuroscience Strategy, Drug discovery and Applied Genomics. He is a member of the Board of Directors of MassBio. He holds an M.B.A from the Columbia Business School, Ph.D. in Genomics/Bioinformatics, M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry and B.S. in Pharmacy.