From Discovery to Delivery – Meet our Senior Team

Sebastian Kreiter, M.D., is heading preclinical R&D work at BioNTech since the company’s foundation. He acts as Senior Vice President Immunotherapy & Preclinical Research. His team is responsible for the discovery and preclinical development of RNA-based therapeutic platforms, such as vaccines, antibodies and cytokines. His early efforts were devoted on preclinical development of in-vitro transcribed mRNA cancer vaccination, which is currently under clinical testing. He took part in the pioneering development of personalized cancer vaccinations. Jointly with Ugur Sahin, Sebastian and his team worked out the preclinical scientific and technical proof of concept for BioNTech’s mRNA-based mutanome vaccine.

Besides his work within R&D, Sebastian has been designated by the Board, together with Felicitas Müller, to drive BioNTech’s “Culture Campus”, a project that fosters the company’s unique corporate culture in times of rapid evolution. The “Culture Campus” was created to bring together employees from a wide range of disciplines to work together to develop the culture based on the founding team’s vision.

Further to his role, Sebastian serves as board member for the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (“CIMT”) and is also active at the TRON research institute. He has co-authored more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals including Nature and Science. Sebastian graduated in medicine from Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz and is a board-certified internist.

Andreas Kuhn, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President RNA Biochemistry & Manufacturing. He joined BioNTech shortly after its founding in 2008. Andreas has worked with RNA for almost thirty years. This started with his diploma and PhD theses on the structure and function of small non-coding RNAs using biochemical and molecular biology methods. In his post-doctoral work, Andreas studied RNA-protein interactions in the spliceosome in yeast and later worked on small molecules to affect pre-mRNA splicing. His work on mRNA-based immunotherapies began in 2007 in the academic group of Ugur Sahin at the University Clinic Mainz. In his role at BioNTech, the main focus is expanding proprietary technologies to increase the efficacy of mRNA-based therapies and to develop and optimize GMP-compatible manufacturing processes and analytical methods for RNA. The RNA platform established by Andreas and his team allowed to start the clinical development of BioNTech’s mRNA-based therapeutics and was seminal for the development of the mRNA-based Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. He has co-authored numerous publications and patents ranging from basic research on RNA to its application as a therapeutic agent and vaccine.

Sean Marett was BioNTech’s Chief Business and Commercial Officer until he retired End of June 2024. He is continuing as specialist advisor to the company.

Sean joined BioNTech as a member of the Management Board in 2012. He has played a crucial role in the company’s growth and global expansion, overseeing two key areas: business development and product commercialization. He has been honored with a number of awards and recognitions, including the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George awarded by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of the United Kingdom at the time.

Prior to joining BioNTech, he worked in global strategic and regional marketing and sales roles at GlaxoSmithKline in the United States and Pfizer in Europe, before taking business development executive roles at Evotec and Lorantis. He has successfully executed complex licensing transactions with large pharmaceutical companies, negotiated M&A transactions and raised finance from investors. Sean built and ran a contract clinical manufacturing organization with operations across Europe and the United States for over half a decade for the contract manufacturer NextPharma. He has been Chairman of PHMR Ltd, a company specializing in market access and pharmaceutical reimbursement, since 2017. He previously held non-executive directorship of KWS BioTest Ltd (successfully sold to Charles River) from 2011 until 2018 and was a member of the investment committee of Mann BioInvest Ltd, a fund dedicated to biotechnology and pharmaceutical company investments from 2013 until 2016. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Kings College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School. 

Christian Miculka, Ph.D., serves as Senior Vice President Portfolio Execution at BioNTech SE. Having joined the company in 2020, he oversees a team of program managers which connect functions and people across the company into program teams for effective and efficient cross-functional work in our R&D programs. Christian and his team, among other things, helped build efficient interaction and collaboration with the partners involved in “Project Lightspeed,” ensuring a rapid flow of information and program execution.

Christian has 25 years of experience in the life science industry. He joined BioNTech from Sanofi, where he headed the Program Office and the Office of the President Global R&D in Paris following commercial strategy roles. Prior to that, he held R&D leadership roles at Merial in Atlanta, and Intervet/Schering-Plough in Germany.

Christian holds a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the Technical University Vienna, and executive education certificates from London Business School, Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, INSEAD, and Harvard Business School.

Felicitas Müller, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President Individualized mRNA Cancer Vaccines and joined BioNTech in 2012. She has held a number of scientific and leadership roles within the company since joining Ugur Sahin’s team more than 10 years ago. Initially, Felicitas’ focus was on the development of BioNTech’s lead product candidate for individual cancer treatments, based on the company’s mRNA technology platform. Currently, she is leading the development of BioNTech’s individualized vaccines against cancer to ensure the continued successful translation from the preclinical stage into clinical testing. Together with her cross-functional team, Felicitas is responsible for advancing mRNA-based drug product candidates and eventually introducing them on the market to make them accessible to patients in need. Besides her projects within the oncology area, Felicitas has been designated by the Board, together with Sebastian Kreiter, to drive BioNTech’s “Culture Campus”, a project that fosters the company’s unique corporate culture in times of rapid evolution. The “Culture Campus” was created to bring together employees from a wide range of disciplines to work together to develop the culture based on the founding team’s vision.

Rainer Müller, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President Global Technical Development at BioNTech, a position he has held since May 2024. Together with his team, he is providing BioNTech’s Technical & Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (“CMC”) Development strategy across its portfolio.

Rainer joined BioNTech in May 2022 as Vice President Operations Projects, where he led key initiatives to optimize operations and development processes. He was later promoted to Vice President Global Technical Development & Operations Projects, further expanding his responsibilities to support BioNTech’s internationalization. Prior to joining BioNTech, Rainer spent 17 years at Roche, where he held roles of increasing responsibility within Technical Operations and Development. Most recently, he served as their Global Technical Development Head for Individualized and Cell Therapies.

Rainer started his career in the biopharmaceutical industry in 1998 at Medigene AG after completing his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Max-Planck Society and the University of Tübingen, Germany. 

Fatma Ocak is General Manager, U.S. Oncology at BioNTech, a position she assumed in February 2024. In her role, she is responsible for the further development of the organization in the U.S. and preparing the company for commercial readiness and first product launches in oncology in the region.

With over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, Fatma has a proven track record of commercializing innovative therapies and leading cross-functional teams. Before joining BioNTech, Fatma held several leadership positions at Novartis. As U.S. Head of CAR-T, she was responsible for the strategic and operational management of the U.S. CAR-T platform, overseeing the launch of next-generation CAR-T therapies. Prior to this, she served as Global Disease Lead for the Breast and Women’s Cancer Franchise, where she led global teams to deliver commercial strategies and product launches successfully. Fatma’s career at Novartis also included roles such as Franchise Head for Cardio Metabolic & Respiratory and Executive Director, Marketing & Sales for the Neuroscience Franchise in Türkiye. In these positions, she demonstrated her expertise in marketing, sales, and market expansion.

Fatma holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and International Relations from Boğaziçi University, Türkiye.

Frank van den Ouweland, M.D., Ph.D., joined BioNTech in 2022 as a Senior Vice President for Medical Safety and Pharmacovigilance (MSPv). MSPv is responsible for optimizing patient safety by monitoring and analyzing potential safety signals. Furthermore, MSPv supports the clinical development process by leading the structured benefit-risk process and assures compliance with the applicable regulations concerning the reporting of adverse events.

Frank held various senior positions in the pharmaceutical industry: He started his career in pharmaceutical medicine as Director Clinical Development at Procter & Gamble in the UK, and later worked for Johnson & Johnson in various positions in clinical development, benefit risk management and safety alliance management in the U.S., Switzerland, and the UK. Frank also served as President of the Swiss Association of Pharmaceutical Professionals. Frank is specialist in Internal Medicine, holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology at Radboud University in Nijmegen and worked as a senior research fellow at the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Rotterdam University.

Anil Özkan is General Manager Türkiye at BioNTech, a position he has held since 2021. In this capacity, he is responsible for building and leading the Turkish team, overseeing marketing and distribution of BioNTech’s products approved in Türkiye, and managing regulatory processes and clinical trial implementations for the company’s product candidates.
With over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, Anil brings extensive experience to BioNTech. He previously served as Country Manager for Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan at Illumina, where he was instrumental in extending the execution of a new business model and establishing Illumina's liaison office in Türkiye. Anil has also held senior leadership positions at MundiPharma and MSD, where he successfully implemented new business strategies, led product launches, and directed marketing and sales operations.
Anil holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Information Technologies from Koç University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University in Türkiye.

Ruben Rizzi, MD, is Senior Vice President Global Regulatory Affairs at BioNTech. He is co-leading the department with Constanze Blume and works on the regulatory strategy for all product candidates of BioNTech’s oncology and infectious disease pipeline, as well as on post-approval activities for approved products, due diligence for licensing-in opportunities, regulatory intelligence, and labeling.

Ruben joined BioNTech in December 2019 to provide regulatory support to its growing oncology pipeline. Starting from 2020, together with Constanze he served as global regulatory lead for BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, defining and executing the global regulatory strategy through all clinical development phases and securing regulatory approvals for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, as well as for subsequent variant-adapted versions. As part of this project team, he contributed to the success of the collaboration with Pfizer, while establishing trust-based relationships with global regulators.

Before joining BioNTech, Ruben has supported the development and approval of hospital anti-infectives and oncology products, as well as companion diagnostics and liquid biopsy technologies at Menarini.

Ruben studied medicine at the University of Genoa and the University of Milano-Bicocca and is a trained physician.

Zach Taylor serves as Senior Vice President Corporate Development and Strategy at BioNTech. With more than 25 years of experience in the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, he is responsible for the development and execution of strategic transactions and supporting the corporate strategy.

Zach joined BioNTech in 2020 and has since been contributing to transforming the company to a fully integrated, global immunotherapy powerhouse. For example, his team played a pivotal role in the acquisition of InstaDeep, helping BioNTech in its aim to become a leader in implementing AI technology for drug discovery, development, and commercialization.

As a founding employee of Neon Therapeutics, Zach helped create the company’s business plan that led to a $55 million Series A funding. He was a key contributor to Neon's IPO at NASDAQ and the eventual sale of the company to BioNTech. Prior to joining Neon, he held various roles in business development, strategy, drug development, and commercial at companies such as Millennium Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Takeda), Philips Research, and Parke-Davis Warner Lambert (acquired by Pfizer).

Zach holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics from Cornell University and earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Lynn Voigt joined BioNTech as Senior Vice President Global Business Planning and Analysis (BPA) in December 2023. In this role, she leads BionTech's global BPA team, which is responsible for shaping and defining the company's direction from a financial management perspective.
Lynn has more than two decades of experience in shaping and optimizing global processes, business services, controlling, and financial functions in the healthcare and life science industry. Prior to joining BioNTech, she built and led a global shared services organization at Merck KGaA that provides global end-to-end finance, human resources, and procurement services. 
Lynn holds a Diploma in Business Administration with a focus on Management and Controlling, International Management and International Economics from the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg

William Warr, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President for Global Health Strategy. In this capacity, he leads the development and implementation of partnerships between BioNTech, governments, health systems, universities, and NGOs across the world. William served for three years as a health adviser in the government of the United Kingdom (UK), including during the global COVID-19 pandemic. He was closely involved in many aspects of the UK's response, such as clinical trials, testing, and the roll-out of vaccines. He also contributed to the design and implementation of the UK Government's broader public health policies.

Prior to this role, he wrote the 2017 UK’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy for the physician Prof. Sir John Bell, with a focus on genomics, artificial intelligence, and early disease detection. This involved designing and creating one of the UK’s largest cohort studies at that time titled "Our Future Health", aiming to recruit 5 million people to improve early detection and prevention of disease. William has a Ph.D. from Oxford University in Public Health and a master’s degree from Cambridge University in Public Policy. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford. In his free time, he enjoys sport, including rowing. He rowed in the Boat Race for both Oxford and Cambridge, winning it with Oxford, and is a GB rowing gold medalist.