Elixion’s founding team brings together unmatched scientific, business, and regulatory expertise.
Our CEO´s global business background and track record of building and growing life sciences ventures, ensure strategic focus. He is joined by scientific leadership at the top of their fields in systems biology, AI-enabled drug discovery, and translational research. And a senior co-founder with deep expertise in complex transactions, IP, and cross-border compliance.
This balance ensures strong execution, breakthrough discovery, and sound governance.
Team principle: A business-led biotech with science at the core.
Marco Piccinini
EMBA, EMMAS, LLM
Marco is a biotech entrepreneur with more than 20 years of leadership experience across life sciences, investment banking, and asset management. As Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Elixion, he directs the company’s strategy, capital formation, and overall business execution. Working closely with the scientific team, he ensures cross-functional alignment and advances Elixion’s pipeline towards critical clinical milestones.
Before founding Elixion, Marco founded and led a regenerative medicine company, guiding it from inception through international expansion across Europe and Latin America, and ultimately overseeing its successful exit through a private sale. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, and Fidelity Investments, specialising in structuring complex financial products for institutional investors and shaping the strategic positioning of business units across EMEA, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Marco holds an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford, an Executive Master in Management of Healthcare Companies (EMMAS) from SDA Bocconi, and an LLM in European Law from the University of Bristol. He has also completed executive programmes in artificial intelligence, valuation, and innovation at Oxford Saïd Business School, Yale School of Management, and UBC Sauder School of Business.
Alongside his executive career, Marco has mentored emerging biotech founders through innovation programmes at the University of Oxford and PoliHub (Politecnico di Milano), supporting next-generation translational science ventures. Trilingual in English, Italian, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective and multidisciplinary expertise to building high-growth, investor-aligned companies at the intersection of science, technology, and patient need.
In his free time, Marco enjoys tennis, philosophy, travel, and spending time with his family.
Katerina Vourvouhaki
PhD, MSc, MA
Katerina is a molecular geneticist with over two decades of experience across the research, academia, pharmaceutical industry and clinical research sectors. As Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Elixion, she leads the operational strategy, clinical and regulatory coordination, investor relations, and corporate development. She works closely with both the scientific and executive teams to ensure operational excellence and regulatory alignment across the company’s programmes and partnerships.
She has held regional and global Medical Affairs roles within nephrology, cardiology, and oncology at Amgen and CSL Vifor. Katerina holds a PhD in Molecular Oncology from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Human Molecular Genetics from Imperial College London, and a BSc in Genetics from Queen Mary University of London.
She was awarded the prestigious Isaac Newton Prize from the University of Cambridge for her groundbreaking research on angiogenesis and cancer progression, supported by the Onassis Foundation and the University of Cambridge.
Alongside her professional roles, she has pursued advanced financial education. She holds a Master’s in International Finance at the Rome Business School, with coursework in capital markets, investment vehicles, and growth strategy. She also holds finance-related certifications from institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Business School, and the London School of Economics.
She has participated in various international medical conferences and has published articles in scholarly journals.
In her free time, she loves to windsurf.
Carla Sofia Carvalho
PhD, Eng
Carla is a data scientist working at the intersection of theoretical insight and real-world application. As Chief Data Officer and Co-Founder at Elixion, she oversees data science strategy and scientific integration across the company’s pipeline and discovery platform. She leads the translation of complex scientific outputs into actionable development insights and contributes to cross-sector collaborations and strategic growth initiatives.
Drawing on her deep academic background and years of industry experience, she contributes to projects across multiple sectors, bringing analytical precision and strategic perspective to the team. She also plays an active role in coaching and mentoring, helping bridge the gap between research and applied data science.
Before Elixion, Carla spent twelve years as a postdoctoral researcher and eight years applying data science to industry. Her scientific work spanned theoretical and statistical cosmology, focusing on the cosmic microwave background radiation and the large-scale structure of the Universe. She participated in major international collaborations such as the Euclid Consortium and supported new mission proposals like the Cosmic Origins Explorer. Motivated by a strong sense of societal contribution, she also pursued interdisciplinary work in bioinformatics, leveraging her expertise across scientific domains.
Throughout her career, she has maintained a pro bono academic collaboration with the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon.
Carla holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge. She carried out postdoctoral research across Europe and Africa, driven by a desire to uncover the unknowns of our Universe and apply rigorous statistical methods to complex data. Her work sought to connect fundamental physics with cosmological observables and challenge standard paradigms in the field.
Carla is originally from Portugal and maintains a deep curiosity about the patterns that connect natural phenomena across scales. In her free time, she enjoys engaging in intellectual exploration beyond physics, reflecting her interdisciplinary mindset. Whether mentoring, collaborating, or simply learning something new, Carla brings a sense of purpose and curiosity to everything she does.
Laurent Deckers
LLM, LLM
Laurent is a highly experienced and commercially astute legal professional with over 25 years of expertise spanning private practice, in-house roles, and independent consultancy. As General Counsel and Co-Founder at Elixion, he oversees all legal, regulatory, and compliance matters for the company. He plays a key role in strategic risk management, intellectual property structuring, and ensuring cross-border regulatory alignment for investor and partner engagement.
With a rich background in financial services, he has cultivated extensive knowledge of regulatory, compliance, and legal matters across multiple jurisdictions, particularly in investment banking, asset management, and alternative asset classes. He has specialised in handling complex legal, regulatory, and compliance challenges, with a deep focus on investment funds, derivatives, regulatory changes and AML/CFT frameworks within the EU and UK. His previous roles at J.P. Morgan and Lehman Brothers, where he managed structured products and regulatory matters, further underscore his expertise and leadership in the field.
Laurent is a strategic thinker and a self-starting professional with a demonstrated ability to take initiative, drive change, and manage senior-level relationships. With more than 15 years in leadership positions, he has served as a trusted advisor to senior management and has led cross-functional teams in high-stakes regulatory environments, dealing directly with authorities such as the CSSF, AFM, AMF and FCA.
His career highlights include his recent role as Managing Director and Compliance Conducting Officer at Pemberton Asset Management, where he led compliance and governance functions for the EU and spearheaded Brexit planning and ESG strategy implementation.
Notable for thinking outside the box, Laurent consistently delivers tailored solutions to meet the evolving demands of the financial services industry. Laurent holds LLM degrees from the University of Leiden and the University of Nottingham, and qualified as a civil law attorney in the Netherlands in 2000 with Baker & McKenzie.