Dr Jurgen Michaelis

Jurgen founded Terra Rossa Capital and lead the formation of the SALSA fund in late 2006 and he is currently the Chair of the Terra Rossa Capital Investment Committee.  Jurgen also serves as the CEO of Bio Innovation SA, Australia’s leading biotechnology industry development company, supported by the South Australian government.  Prior to Bio Innovation SA, Jurgen held various other senior management positions, including VP Business Development with Bavarian Nordic, CEO of Vaccine Solutions and Senior Scientist with Peptech Ltd. 
 
Jurgen holds a PhD in Biochemistry (University of Bielefeld) and Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management (Macquarie University) and sits on a large number of private and public sector boards and advisory committees.

Dr Thomas Frischmuth

Thomas is a highly experienced life science fund manager and CEO in a number of early stage and high growth businesses in Europe.  During his investment management career, spanning more than ten years, he has managed venture funds with more than Euro 80 million in committed capital.

Thomas holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Hamburg and he has taught extensively at universities in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. He is presently based in Berlin, Germany and represents TRC in Europe.

Nigel Hall

Nigel serves on Terra Rossa Capital’s Investment Committee and manages the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast ’s Business Incubator in Queensland, attracting and developing growth oriented start-up companies. After commencing his career at Ernst & Young, Nigel has spent more than fifteen years working with start-ups and investors in executive and advisory roles. After initially joining Biosym Technologies Inc (molecular modelling), which was purchased by Corning, he focussed on the telecoms sector – co-founding Xpedite Systems Germany and selling it to Premiere Technologies Inc, then founding HighwayOne AG,  which was sold to Telefonica SA. Nigel has worked closely with institutional investors and investment banks and was Managing Director of Equator Investments (an advisory firm and seed capital provider based in Cape Town, South Africa), prior to moving to Australia. 

Nigel holds a BA(Hons) Finance & Accountancy, Diplom Betriebswirt [Business Economics] (Fachhochschule Bremen) and an MBA in International Business (Clemson University).

Jim Kalokerinos

Jim has over thirty years’ experience in business development and sales and marketing, for scientific distribution, in-vitro diagnostics and medical devices companies. He has held both domestic and international board and senior management positions and has extensive experience in growing companies from a zero market presence in Australia and Internationally.

He co-founded three companies – Techlab Enterprises, Pacific Diagnostics (sold to Baxter International, a Fortune 500 company), and Panbio Ltd (ASX: PBO, sold to NASDAQ listed Inverness Medical Innovations). Jim has been involved in company merger and acquisitions and various capital raisings including an IPO with Panbio.

He presently serves on five company boards involved in medical devices, in-vitro diagnostics, retail, manufacturing and horticulture. He has also been an active angel investor for more than ten years having directly invested in various technology companies.

Jim holds a BSc (USQ) and BEcon (University of Queensland) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.