Alexander von Gabain to succeed Martin Schuurmans as European Institute of Innovation and Technology Chairman
“The next four years will be decisive for the EIT as we will present and start implementing our first Strategic Innovation Agenda."
BY BIOCAT
During its meeting of 16 February 2011, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Governing Board unanimously elected Alexander von Gabain as its next Chairman. Alexander von Gabain will succeed Martin Schuurmans, first Chairman of the EIT Governing Board, when his term ends on 15 September 2011.
“I am delighted and honoured to have been elected Chairman by my fellow Governing Board members. I am very much looking forward to taking on this challenge with my colleagues at the EIT headquarters and together continue to shape our first three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs)," says Alexander von Gabain. “The next four years will be decisive for the EIT as we will present and start implementing our first Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA). The SIA will outline the EIT’s future priorities and provide the basis for further support from the European Union in order for the EIT to become a significant driver of intelligent and sustainable growth and competitiveness in Europe.”
Alexander von Gabain obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Heidelberg. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was Professor at the University of Umea and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, as well as an advisor to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. From 1992 to 1998, he was Chair of Microbiology of the University of Vienna at the Campus Vienna Biocenter and has helped to build the public private partnership of the Vienna Biocenter/IMP. In 1998, he co-founded Intercell AG and led the company as CEO until it was successfully floated on the Vienna Stock Exchange in 2005. His research interest is in the field of biomedical research and documented by a large number of publications, book chapters and patents. In 2008, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the EIT, where he is involved with the innovative entrepreneurship agenda. His achievements have been acknowledged by prestigious industrial awards, academic prizes, honourable memberships, including the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Science.