Gerd Zettlmeissl is holding a doctoral degree in biochemistry of the University of Regensburg and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur Paris in virology (1983 to 1985). Gerd has been working in various R&D and General Management positions in the biopharmaceutical and vaccine industry since 1985. His last positions were Managing Director of Chiron Behring, a leading vaccine manufacturer in Germany, and until May 2011 Chief Executive Officer of Intercell in Austria. During his career he made major contributions to the discovery, development and registration of a number of biologicals and vaccines. In 2010, he was named Vaccine Biotech CEO of the Year at the World Vaccine Congress. He currently serves as non-executive director of Aeras, (USA). Until early 2015 he was chairman of GlycoVaxyn (Switzerland), an innovative vaccine company acquired by GlaxoSmithKline.