Investment Team

Patrick Krol, Portfolio Manager

Patrick has been an investor in public biotech companies for over 30 years. He started at Aescap as a General Partner in 2005, at the time it was still a venture capital fund, to become its managing partner in 2009. When in 2013 research across biotech investment fund globally showed that investing in listed biotech companies generates better returns than investing in private companies, he decided the next Aescap fund would invest in listed companies. After a two-year run-in period (2014-2015), during which he achieved a 130% return, he launched the Aescap Life Sciences fund in 2016. Followed in 2022 by a second biotech fund, Aescap Genetics.

Patrick has acted as a board director of 10 biotech and medical diagnostics companies and today is on the board of onology cpompany Sairopa B.V. From 1995 to 2004 Patrick was the co-founder and managing director of Firm United Healthcare B.V., a consultancy company that provided consultancy services to the biotech / life sciences industry. During the 9 years Patrick led the company, it became a market leader on the European continent advising over 35 public pharma and biotech companies on how to successfully market products and grow sales. He currently applies this expertise to successfully select and guide Aescap’s investments.

Patrick studied physiotherapy, followed by business administration. Later in his career he completed an executive MBA from LMS.

Michaël Mellink, Board Advisor

Michaël worked in senior commercial and management positions at big pharma Eli Lilly before he became the General Manager for the Benelux operations at Cephalon, a U.S. biopharmaceutical company. In this position he also had responsibilities in the European business development team.

He then became a Senior Partner of the global life sciences practice at one of the global leading executive search firms in the biotech sector, Odgers Berndtson. He advised clients on board- and senior-level appointments for pharma, biotech, medtech and service companies and worked across international markets and a broad range of companies in the industry. Michaël holds a Bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy and has studied orthopaedic medicine.

At Aescap Michael is a sparing partner in the assessment of a management team of a company, building on his experience in the industry and in executive search in particular.

Paolo del Bufalo, Investment Manager

Paolo joined Aescap as an Analyst in 2018 to become an investment manager in 2023. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at La Sapienza University of Rome after which he completed two Master tracks at Leiden University, one in Chemical Biology Research and one in Science Based Business. Throughout his academic research career he focused on medicinal chemistry. During his business studies, he learned to combine his scientific background with business aspects, such as finance, with a focus on valuation and investing.

Pien Kiliaan, Analyst

Pien studied College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University. During her studies, she performed academic research on allergies and followed a minor in entrepreneurship. Following her bachelor, she completed a master in business and research at Leiden University. As part of the research program she conducted research at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, where she focused on aging and atherosclerosis. Additionally, she investigated a medicine candidate for in Alzheimer’s disease at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Alba Montoro, Analyst

Alba received a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. As part of the program, she analysed the link between the development of Alzheimer’ disease and type II diabetes mellitus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alba joined the Biogen Center to assist in the implementation of a molecular diagnostic protocol for the disease. Afterwards, Alba got het master’s degree in Science and Business Management from Utrecht University. She completed a research internship at the UMCU exploring the development of a Car-NK cell therapy for children with brain tumors and conducted research for her thesis on price and reimbursement of medicines in Europe.

Lincoln Lukose, AI & data science specialist

Lincoln holds a Master’s in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the University of Manchester and a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering. His academic work was complemented by specialized training in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare at MIT. He has since developed AI-powered solutions in ESG reporting, financial trading, and digital pathology, and is a specialist in automating workflows in the investment sector. Lincoln blends deep technical expertise with a passion for practical innovation, leading AI integration projects that significantly improve efficiency and accuracy.

Undisclosed, AI Engineer

Given the hunt for AI specialists we do not disclose the name of this person. Having a background in applied mathematics, data science and the banking sector he is constantly improving our AI Agents to speed up and improve internal processes and investment decisions. By the way, he is a fanatic tennis player.

Undisclosed, AI-Finance Specialist

Given the hunt for AI specialists we do not disclose the name of this person. Having studied economics, finance and data science / AI, he has all the skills to develop and maintain our AI tools to take better investment decisions faster. By the way, he is a 5 times hackathon winner. 

Undisclosed, Data Scientist

Given the hunt for AI specialists we do not disclose the name of this person. Having studied computer science, applied statistics and data science he has all the skills to develop software to enhance the investment team’s public equity trading capabilities. He has done so before for the Bank of New York Mellon. 

Bo Jesper Hansen, Portfolio Advisor

Bo Jesper, M.D., Ph.D. was the Executive Chairman of the Board of SOBI AB (Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB) until 2016 and was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Board in 2022. SOBI is a biotech company listed on the Swedish stock exchange and had a market capitalization of around € 6 billion as the end of 2022. He is Chairman of Karolinska Development AB and also Chairman of the biotech company Orphazyme ApS. Bo Jesper served as CEO and President to the Board of Swedish Orphan International (1998-2010) until the merger with Biovitrum, forming Swedish Orphan Biovitrum. He then became the company’s executive chairman. He also was non-executive Director of Gambro until its acquisition by Baxter, as well as of Zymenex, until its acquisition by Chiesi. Bo Jesper was the Executive Chairman of Ablynx until its acquisition by Sanofi, as well as of Topotarget and in this role led the merger with BioAlliance forming OnXeo. He founded Scandinavian Medical Research during which he served as Medical Advisor for the multinationals Synthélabo, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical. He has also been a board member with the companies TopoTarget A/S, CMC AB, MipSalus Aps, Kontrast AB, Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc. Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A, Novagali Pharma S.A. and Vivolution A/S.

Bo Jesper has an extensive knowledge within clinical study design, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, and business development. He has an M.D. in Urology and a PhD from the University of Copenhagen. Patrick and Bo Jesper first met in 2012 as members of the supervisory board of biotech company Orphazyme S.p.A.

Gert Hoogland, Portfolio Advisor

Gert, M.D., MBA (INSEAD) is a pharmaceutical executive with deep operational experience. He began his career in 1982 as Medical Advisor to Organon NV in Oss, The Netherlands, followed by CEO positions for Schering AG in New Zealand and South Africa. He then founded Pharmaplan Pty Ltd in Johannesburg, which became the leading specialty pharma distributor in Africa representing biotech companies like Biogen, Bracco, Recordati, Ipsen, Genzyme and Shire. After the sale of this company to the Canadian Specialty Pharma company Paladin Inc. Gert relocated to Zurich to start HealthCrest AG, a healthcare investment and consulting company. He has initiated investments in many private and public healthcare companies, geographically encompassing Europe, India, China, the US and Africa and is Board Member of many of these portfolio companies. Patrick and Gert first met in 2013 as investors in i-Optics BV.