Team
Founded by experienced builders of biotechnology companies
The founders bring together drug development, science and business development with experience in building, growing and leading international biotechnology companies.
Bo Rode Hansen
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Bo Rode Hansen, PhD, MBA, is Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Koblano. He is a biotech executive and board member with over two decades of leadership experience spanning general management, board governance, R&D leadership, business development, financing, IPO and M&A in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He has served as interim CEO and President of Lift Therapeutics, CEO and President of Scandion Oncology and CEO and Founding President of Genevant Sciences. Before that, he was Global Head of RNA Therapeutics at Roche, General Manager (CEO) of Roche Innovation Center Copenhagen and Vice President of Santaris Pharma. He is a board member of Spirea and Lift Therapeutics and Chairman of Tecregen AG. He holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Copenhagen and an Executive MBA from Henley Business School.
Jesper Lykkesfeldt
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Jesper Lykkesfeldt is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Koblano and is responsible for corporate strategy, business development, legal and operations. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He spent almost nine years at Genmab, where he was Head of Legal and a member of the global leadership team. He played a key role in negotiating some of Genmab’s most important partnerships, including collaborations with Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Seagen (Pfizer), BioNTech and argenx, and the $1.8 billion acquisition of ProfoundBio. He also founded LYKKESFELDT, a law firm that advises international biotech companies on partnering, licensing, fundraising and M&A. Earlier, he spent over ten years in private practice advising global pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including five years at Plesner. Jesper holds a Master of Laws from the University of Copenhagen and is admitted to the Danish bar.
Poul Sorensen
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Poul Sorensen, MD, PhD, is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Koblano. Poul has extensive experience in biotech, including as a co-founder of VAR2 Pharmaceuticals. He has wide-ranging expertise in cancer biology and the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. Poul is a board-certified anatomic pathologist and specialist in the molecular pathology of pediatric cancers. He holds the Johal Endowed Chair in Childhood Cancer Research at the University of British Columbia, where he is Professor of Pathology, and he is a Distinguished Scientist at BC Cancer. His lab has attracted over $150 million in grant funding. Among many honors, he has received the Canadian Cancer Society’s Robert L. Noble Prize in basic biomedical cancer research, the Bloom Burton Prize for Canadian Health Care Innovation and the Chew Wei Memorial Prize for Cancer Research, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.