Dr. Marc Struhalla
CEO and Founder
Marc is co-founder, shareholder and managing director of c-LEcta. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Hamburg following an undergraduate study in biochemistry at the University of Leipzig. On completion of his Ph.D., he returned to the University of Leipzig before founding c-LEcta. Marc has more than 15 years of experience in product development and commercialization in the industrial biotech field and managed the closure of numerous strategic alliances with industry partners.
Carsten Fietz
Senior Vice President Finance & Administration
Carsten Fietz joined c-LEcta in 2004. He studied business administration at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and has experience as a consultant in the life sciences industry as well as in the founding of biotechnology companies. Carsten is responsible for the areas of finance and administration and supports the development and implementation of product marketing strategies.
Dr. Mathias Bell, MBA
Vice President Legal, IP, Licensing
Mathias holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry (Charité, Berlin & Justus Liebig University, Giessen) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA; ESCP Europe). He has spent more than 15 years in the biotech industry and in the area of intellectual property asset management and licensing for a variety of companies. As head of legal affairs and IP, Mathias lends his professional experience to c-LEcta over the entire spectrum of in- and out-licensing of technologies, structuring and negotiating business terms and contractual terms for licensing and cooperation agreements, and dealing with intellectual property issues.
Dr. Andreas Buthe
Vice President Business Development
Andreas is head of Business Development at c-LEcta and obtained his academic education at the University of Heidelberg and the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. He graduated in 2006 with a PhD degree in biotechnology and biochemical engineering. In 2006 he joined the Group Research of Ciba Inc. in Basel Switzerland followed by an appointment with the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research was dedicated to the implementation of immobilized enzymes to large-scale processes and the development of biofunctional materials. Driven by the dynamic prospects of industrial biotechnology he joined c-LEcta in 2010.
Dr. Raphael Gübeli
Vice President Marketing & Sales
Raphael joined c-LEcta in 2022 and heads Marketing & Sales. He leads Marketing, Product Management and Sales functions for our food and pharma enzymes. Previously, he gained 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, from R&D at AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK to Marketing and Product Management of biopharma raw materials at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and a Bachelor/Master degree in Biotechnology from ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Dr. Arnd Knoll
Vice President Production
Arnd joined the company in 2012 as head of Production. He is responsible for c-LEcta’s internal production facility as well as the manufacturing of c-LEcta’s products at external sites of contract manufacturing organizations. After graduating in process engineering majoring in biochemical engineering at the University of Technology Dresden, he obtained his PhD in biochemical engineering at the Chair of Biochemical Engineering of the University of Aachen (RWTH). Before joining c-LEcta Arnd worked as Process Engineer in the Department of Biotechnology Plants of Linde Engineering.
Dr. Ramona Schmiedel
Vice President QSHE & Compliance
Ramona is Vice President QSHE & Compliance at c-LEcta. She has a broad range of knowledge and experience gained over 15 years in various functions at c-LEcta in the areas of Product Development, Product Safety & Compliance and Quality Operations. She has also worked in the Supplier & Audit Management in the Biopharma Industry and at the Employer Liability Insurance Association for Raw Materials and the Chemical Industry.
Ramona's areas of expertise include the various quality management systems and cross-functional risk management for biotechnological products manufactured for applications in the food and the pharmaceutical industries, as well as occupational health and safety. Ramona holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leipzig, Germany.
Dr. Andreas Vogel
Vice President R&D Enzyme Development
Andreas has more than 15 years of experience in the field of biocatalysis and enzyme engineering. He is head of R&D Enzyme Development at c-LEcta. He originally trained in chemistry (University of Münster, Germany). After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of Münster he started postdoctoral work at the EMBL outstation in Hamburg in 2000, where he focused on structure-function relationships of enzymes. In 2003 he started his second postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research with Prof. M. T. Reetz, where he was involved in the development of methods for enzyme optimization (CASTing, B-Fit) and biocatalysis. In 2006 he joined c-LEcta, first as a Scientist and since 2007 as head of Biocatalysis & Enzyme Engineering. Andreas is author of more than 40 scientific publications and patents and co-editor of the book “Industrial Enzyme Applications” which was published by Wiley-VCH.