Evotec SE

Interim CEO (for 2024)

Dr Mario Polywka (born in 1963, British citizen) was appointed Member of the Supervisory Board on 19 June 2019 for a term of five years. His current term will expire at the end of the Annual General Meeting held in the year 2024.

Dr Polywka retired from the Management Board of Evotec AG effective 31 December 2018. Until then, he served as member of the Management Board and Chief Operating Officer of Evotec AG since 28 November 2007.

In 1991, he was a founding chemist of Oxford Asymmetry International plc (OAI), became Director of Chemistry in 1993 and a Board Director in 1996. In 1999, Dr Polywka was appointed Chief Operating Officer and in 2000 Chief Executive Officer of OAI. Following the merger of EVOTEC BioSystems AG with OAI in 2000 he was Chief Operating Officer until 2002. Between 2002 and 2004, Dr Polywka ran a number of spin-out companies from Oxford and Southampton Universities.

Dr Polywka received his Bachelor’s degree from Hertford College, Oxford University and his Doctorate from the University of Oxford in mechanistic organometallic chemistry with Professor Steve Davies and continued at Oxford with post-doctoral studies on the biosynthesis of Penicillin with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin. He held a number of college teaching posts at Oxford University between 1988 and 1994.

Dr Polywka is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has a number of publications and patents mainly in the field of asymmetric synthesis.

In May 2017, Dr Mario Polywka became a member of the Board of Directors of Forge Therapeutics, Inc. and in September 2017, Dr Mario Polywka also joined the Board of Directors of Exscientia Ltd. In September 2019, Dr Polywka was appointed Non-Executive Director at the UK biotech company Orbit Discovery, and has accepted a position as Senior Advisor with MCF Corporate Finance. He has served as Non-Executive Director at UK based company C4X Discovery Holdings PLC since December 2021.

Dr Mario Polywka, who served as COO of Evotec until 31 December 2018 and who was elected to the Supervisory Board on the recommendations of a group of shareholders who together hold more than 25% of the total number of voting rights in the Company, is regarded as not independent.

Chief Financial Officer

Laetitia Rouxel (born in 1973, French citizen) joined Evotec as Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board on 01 April 2023. Rouxel has more than 25 years of finance experience in various sectors such as Life Sciences, Food, Cosmetics and Building industry. A graduate of the French Business school ISG, she started her career with finance and commercial roles in the Pharma industry at Pfizer and J&J. She went on to work for the French multinational food-products corporation Danone, where she covered various leading Finance positions in multiple regions for R&D, Medical and Baby Nutrition based in France and in the Netherlands. She then joined the beauty company Coty in Switzerland, where she became divisional CFO. Before joining Evotec, she was Global CFO of Wavin, a solutions leader for the building and infrastructure industry.

Last updated: April 2023

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Cord Dohrmann (born in 1964, German citizen) joined Evotec as Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Management Board in 2010. Dr Dohrmann has spent over 25 years in biomedical research at leading academic institutions and in the biotech industry. He started his academic career in 1983 studying Biology at Tübingen University in Germany and conducting research as a DAAD scholar at Duke University, Durham, USA. Dr Dohrmann completed his MA thesis at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen and subsequently enrolled at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology in 1996. Dr Dohrmann continued his career as a Shiseido research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston before joining a Max Planck Institute spin-off company, DeveloGen, in 1999. During his ten-year tenure, he served the company in various management positions including CEO, leading DeveloGen from a start-up to an internationally recognised metabolic disease company. Dr Cord Dohrmann is a member of the Supervisory Boards of Eternygen and Breakpoint Therapeutics, a Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Facio Therapies and a Board Observer of Immunitas Inc. He has been advising the European Commission, the Max Planck Institute as well as various venture capital firms. In February 2021, Dr Dohrmann was appointed to the German Council of Science and Humanities.

Chief Business Officer

Matthias (born in 1973, German citizen) was appointed as Chief Business Officer of Evotec on 01 May 2022. Matthias is responsible for business development, digital technology, and strategy across the entire company. Prior to joining Evotec, Matthias accumulated 20 years of experience as Senior Partner with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company where he co-led R&D in Life Sciences globally and served on the Firm’s most senior Knowledge and People Committees, respectively. He also spearheaded venture-type, company building efforts for biotech and health tech companies in Europe. Matthias gained significant exposure to the U.S., China, India, and Europe, where he helped R&D organisations to excel at innovation through large-scale performance transformations, innovation programmes, and novel approaches for maximising value from new assets, capabilities, and technologies. His areas of expertise include convergence of biology and technology, which he published widely around “The Bio Revolution”, as well as creating patient benefits from ecosystem-wide, cross-industry collaboration (e.g., in the context of public-private partnerships or industry fora he helped create like in Medical Affairs or Regulatory Affairs). Further, Matthias has served as advisor and speaker at high-profile science events, including the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and Global Biotech Revolution’s GapSummit for young researchers.

Matthias was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH) and holds a Ph.D. based on his work in molecular biology and bioinformatics from the University of Bochum (Germany) where he also earned his MSc in Biochemistry. He is founding member of the Competence Center Biointelligence e.V. and has led the jury of the Science4Life e.V. startup competition for many years. 

Chief Operating Officer

Dr Craig Johnstone (born in 1970, British citizen) was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Management Board of Evotec on 01 January 2019. Dr Johnstone joined Evotec in May 2012 as SVP Drug Discovery and Innovation Efficiency. From April 2015, Dr Johnstone was Directeur General and Site Head, Evotec (France) SAS, and from January 2017, he was appointed Global Head, Integrated Drug Discovery. Dr Johnstone is a successful drug discovery leader with over 20 years’ experience particularly in the areas of diabetes, inflammation and oncology. Between 1994 and 2012, Dr Johnstone served in a number of project, function, matrix and leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Prosidion and Rapier Research where he led teams and groups, which discovered numerous candidate drugs for clinical development including AZD1656, which reached PhIIb for Type II Diabetes. During this time, Dr Johnstone also developed expertise in LEAN-inspired process excellence in drug discovery and developed a keen interest in the interface between creativity, innovation and process improvement to deliver the highest performance drug discovery, advising teams and implementing multi-site, international change initiatives to drive performance. Dr Johnstone is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Chartered Chemist (FRSC CChem) and holds BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in organic and organometallic synthesis and is an accredited LEAN Sigma Black Belt. He has published more than 70 patents and papers in drug discovery, medicinal and synthetic chemistry, innovation and LEAN methods applied to the inventive processes of drug discovery. Dr Johnstone does not hold any memberships in supervisory bodies.