About us

Damian Marron is a non-executive director, corporate advisor and life science executive with a successful track record of value creation through public and venture capital financing, portfolio planning, M&A and licensing agreements as well as R&D collaborations. He has extensive experience both as an Executive and an independent director and in advisory roles, and has specialized notably in immuno-oncology, cell therapy and orphan diseases.

Mr Marron is currently Chair of the Board of Circio ASA, a Norwegian, listed, pre-clinical company and of Imophoron Ltd and of Indegra Therapeutics Ltd, private early-stage UK companies. He is also Independent Director at Cantargia, a Swedish, listed, clinical stage oncology company and Resolys Bio Inc., a private, pre-clinical stage U.S. company and Head of Biopharma with Treehill Partners, a boutique healthcare advisory firm.

Mr. Marron holds an honours degree in pharmacology from the University of Liverpool.

Dr. Spencer has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Nicox on February 27, 2024 and joined the Board on April 8, 2024. Gavin Spencer was most recently Executive Vice-President, Chief Business Officer & Head of Corporate Development at Nicox. He has spent more than 25 years in the life sciences industry and combines strong business acumen with a solid scientific background and broad strategic, financial, corporate development, commercial and operational management experience in biotechs and large pharma. During his time with Nicox, since 2005, Gavin Spencer has had a key role in building and managing Nicox’s partnerships, including closing agreements with Pfizer, Bausch + Lomb, VISUfarma and Ocumension Therapeutics. He has been involved in equity raising and investor relations at Nicox for many years and has led the Company’s recent financing activities. He has previously worked at Novartis Consumer Health and Boots Healthcare International and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Aberdeen.

Marc became an entrepreneur in the life sciences after a career as an organization and strategy consultant. He created BioProtein Technologies in 1998, a biotech dedicated to the production of recopmbinant proteins. This company contributes to the marketing of a Factor VII called SevenFact, which helps fight hemophilia.

He then joined Cellectis, which he helped enter the Paris stock exchange in early 2007 as Financial Director. He raised €120 million in total for Cellectis from 2006 to 2013 and at the same time created and managed Cellectis bioresearch, a subsidiary for the development and marketing of tools for researchers.

From 2013 to 2015, he directed Cytoo in Grenoble, which he reoriented towards human muscle. This company is now a recognized player in the sector having recently received approval from the FDA. Marc is now a major shareholder of Cytoo.

At the end of 2014, he created a UCITS within Financière Arbevel then an FPCI in 2018 for aournd €40 million.

After 9 years of experience as a professional investor, Marc resumed his consulting activities and created Neurodyx in January 2024 to promote the work of academic researchers in neuroinflammation.

Marc graduated from HEC.

Christine Placet joined the board of Nicox on September 3^rd, 2024, with a distinguished career in the biotech industry. She started as an auditor at Ernst & Young and then built-up extensive experience of financial leadership in small- and medium- sized companies. In 2004, she joined the biotech company Trophos as Chief Financial Officer, later becoming Chief Executive Officer. Under her leadership, Trophos was acquired by Roche for €470 million in 2015. She then became CEO of Horama (now Coave Therapeutics) in 2016, successfully leading funding rounds and advancing a key product into development. In 2021, she transitioned into consulting and joined Theranexus as CFO in April 2024. She is a graduate of Kedge Business School.

Sonia Benhamida is a Director at BlackRock (formerly Kreos), focusing on venture and growth lending in healthcare and life sciences.

She has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including business development roles at Ipsen, successively head of oncology then early stage BD. Prior to joining BlackRock, Sonia was Head of Healthcare CEMEA at DNB. She has a background in investment banking (Rothschild & Cie) and academia (CentraleSupelec). Sonia is an “HEC Grande Ecole” graduate. She also holds a Master’s degree in genetics from AgroParisTech and a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from Paris University.

Robert D. Fechtner, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. A New Jersey native, Dr. Fechtner received his B.S. and MD at University of Michigan. He completed research fellowships in glaucoma at Tufts New England Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, an ophthalmology residency at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and a glaucoma fellowship at University of California, San Diego supported by the National Institutes of Health. He was Professor and Director of the Glaucoma Division at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School before he relocated to Syracuse in 2016.

Dr. Fechtner is an active glaucoma clinician, surgeon and educator with a particular interest in glaucoma pharmacology and diagnostic technologies. He is the associate editor of the Textbook of Ocular Pharmacology and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and monographs.

Dr. Fechtner served as the Execuitive Vice President of the World Glaucoma Association from 2012 to 2017. He is an active member of numerous professional organizations including the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons.

Dr. Sanjay G. Asrani is Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., and Director of the Duke Eye Center of Cary and the Duke Glaucoma OCT Reading Center. Dr. Asrani is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Career Development Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Helen Keller Scientist Award from the American Glaucoma Society, the Senior Achievement and the Secretariat Awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Asrani has over 90 peer reviewed publications and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Glaucoma, Advances in Therapy, and Ophthalmology and Therapeutics. He has developed a new glaucoma implant and a new software for OCT for glaucoma diagnosis.

Dr. Budenz, MD, is the Kittner Family Distinguished Professor and Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology, UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, North Carolina, U.S. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania, received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with concentrations in Epidemiology and International Health. He completed an ophthalmology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, Scheie Eye Institute and a Heed Foundation Fellowship in glaucoma at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine. He returned to Scheie to serve as fifth year Chief Resident and was on the glaucoma faculty for a while before returning to Bascom Palmer where he was on the glaucoma faculty for 17 years before moving to UNC to become Chair. He has received the Golden Apple award for teaching from the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pennsylvania, the Best Course Award from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, and Humanitarian Awards from the American Glaucoma Society (AGS) and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) for his work in Ghana, West Africa. He gave the AGS Clinician Scientist lecture in March 2018, is involved in advocacy on the state and national level and serves as Councilor to the AAO from the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO), and is on the Board of Trustees of AUPO. He has authored 230 peer-reviewed articles, numerous book chapters, and a single-authored textbook entitled Atlas of Visual Fields. His areas of research include clinical trials in glaucoma, imaging in glaucoma, and glaucoma epidemiology.

Dr. Walters, MD, is a leader in developing new advancements in ophthalmic pharmaceuticals and technology. He has served as principal investigator for over 330 FDA-approved research clinical trials and has authored and published research articles in every major ophthalmic journal, where he also performs peer-review for publications. Dr. Walters has been a featured and keynote speaker to ophthalmologists across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and South America, and was a 2016 recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Lifetime Achievement Award, which symbolizes his commitment to advancing the ophthalmological profession and positively impacting patients’ eye health. Dr. Walters has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for innovations in ophthalmology, and has been selected by Premier Ophthalmic Surgeon publication as a leading innovator in the field of cataract and intraocular lens implant surgery. At the 2016 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Annual Meeting, his paper on Bimatoprost Sustained-release Implants was awarded “The Best Paper of Session”. Dr. Walters is the president of Texan Eye P.A. and Medical Director of Eye LASIK Austin, Advanced Ophthalmic P.A., Keystone Clinical Research and is a fellow of the American Board of Ophthalmology, American Academy of Ophthalmology and member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, among others.