Holger Weis, Chair
Mr. Weis has served as a member of our board since December 2020. Mr. Weis serves as the principal of Weis Advisors, Inc., a company that provides consulting services to life science companies, since founding the company in April 2018. He has also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Director of PhenoTarget Biosciences, Inc., a biotech start-up company from April 2020 to March 2021. Prior to that, he served in a number of roles at DemeRx, Inc., a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing nonaddictive treatments for drug addiction, including serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer from December 2011 to July 2017, and also as President from September 2014 to July 2017, and as a Consultant from July 2017 to April 2018.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Weis served as the Chief Financial Officer of EnSA Holdings, LLC, a company that focuses on environmentally sustainable agriculture techniques and technologies for the production of rice, from August 2010 to November 2011. From 2006 to 2010, he served as the Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of NovaVision, Inc., a therapeutic and diagnostic vision restoration company. Prior to that, he served as the Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer of GMP Companies, Inc., a company that develops and commercializes pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic technologies, from 2000 to 2005.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Weis served as a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services company, from 1986 to 2000. Mr. Weis has co-authored a number of scientific papers and presentations and is an inventor on a number of patents and patent applications.
Mr. Weis received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Georgia and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Jaime Vieser
Jaime Vieser has over 30 years of investment management and banking experience, which includes his involvement in numerous successful corporate restructurings and providing both start-up capital and guidance for emerging technology and biotech companies.
Since 2017, Mr. Vieser has been the manager of a private investment firm, Brushwood LLC. Mr. Vieser has over three decades of experience investing across various asset classes and served for nearly a decade as Managing Partner and co-principal of Castle Hill Asset Management LLC (“Castle Hill”), a multi-billion dollar asset manager and hedge fund.
Mr. Vieser has a deep understanding of Ziopharm’s assets, governance, and financials as he is a sizable and long-term shareholder of the Company. Prior to founding Castle Hill, for 10 years Mr. Vieser was responsible for the High Yield Sales and Trading Group in London at Deutsche Bank AG, a multinational investment bank and financial services company.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Vieser worked as a banker in the Leveraged Finance division of Bankers Trust Company, a bank holding company that was acquired by Deutsche Bank AG in 1999.
Mr. Vieser holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.
Robert Postma
For over two decades, Mr. Postma has served as the principal of WaterMill Asset Management, an asset management firm which he founded that actively trades in municipal bonds and equities. Mr. Postma has valuable relationships with prospective financial partners and brings a strong ownership perspective to Alaunos’ boardroom, as WaterMill is one of the largest, long-term shareholders of the Company.
In addition, Mr. Postma brings over four decades of experience investing across the equity and fixed income markets and frequently analyzes, invests in and engages with healthcare and biotechnology companies.
Mr. Postma holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business and Economics from Lafayette College.