Damien Keogh, PhD

Director, Chief Executive Officer

As the CEO, Director, and Founding Member of BluMaiden Biosciences, Damien Keogh, Ph.D., leads a platform company that leverages artificial intelligence to identify biomarkers and small molecule therapeutics from the human microbiome. Dr. Keogh has been serving as Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors Member since August 2020. Prior to co-founding the Company, he was actively engaged in the Biotechnology sector with roles in venture capital as Entrepreneur-in-residence, spin-out and venture created biotechnology companies. He has also earned alumni status at Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLABS. Dr. Keogh continues to support and engage with both start-up companies and entrepreneurs in their strategic positioning and development.

During his academic career Dr. Keogh worked closely with Pharma leaders, clinician scientists, and academic research scientists to develop new methods and insights to metabolite biology, (poly)microbial-host interactions, and microbial biofilm dynamics.  His early research work was sponsored by the Pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibbs Ltd. with the aim of developing molecular tools to enhance drug purification with novel glycoselective bioaffinity tools. Dr. Keogh has many years of experience working with multidisciplinary scientific teams to develop insights and applications with state-of-the-art technologies.

Michael Tillmann

Chairman

Mr. Tillmann is a seasoned CEO, board member and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Mr. Tillmann has a stellar 30-year track-record in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Having served Roche Diagnostics as its Asia Pacific and North America CEO with a seat in the Roche Global Executive Board, Mr. Tillmann has been running his own bio-tech incubator Amatar Group since 2010. In this role, he also founded Vela Diagnostics Ltd, which was acquired by the Luye Lifescience Group in 2020. Mr. Tillmann sits in multiple supervisory & advisory boards. Additionally, he supports companies in their strategic positioning and M&A activities, where he advised in his latest project AmpTec GmbH, which was acquired by Merck KGaA, Germany.

Terence A. Kelly, PhD

Director

Dr. Kelly is a scientific leader with both Pharma and Biotech experience and a track record of delivering high quality compounds into advanced clinical studies. He is expert in chemistry, disease biology and the enabling technologies needed for innovative and efficient drug discovery from lead identification through clinical development.

Between 1990 and 2009, Terry served in various scientific and executive positions at Boehringer Ingelheim, where after a successful early career developing LFA-1 antagonists, he led its US-based medicinal chemistry department.  From 2010 – 2016 he was the CEO and CSO of CoMentis, Inc, a venture-backed biotech focusing on treating cognitive disorders.  He is a founder of Kelly Pharma Research Consulting, LLC and has served as a director of Cardax, Inc. since June 2014. Terry is currently the President and CEO of Perception Neuroscience, a clinical stage biotech company developing small molecule therapeutics for mental health disorders.

Terry holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. He completed postdoctoral work in natural products synthesis at Yale University (1988-1990) and holds an MBA from New York University. Dr. Kelly is the co-author of over 25 scientific publications and served on the College of Natural Sciences Advisory Council for the University of Texas.

Kevin Lim

Director

Kevin’s expertise reflects a diverse tapestry of industries, firmly establishing him as a seasoned professional. His educational journey commenced with a BSc in Computer Science and Management from the esteemed University of Liverpool, igniting his career in Ecommerce consulting and IT solutions development.

A trailblazing entrepreneur, Kevin not only co-founded but also spearheaded thriving
ventures encompassing advertising, web solutions, agriculture, and property development.
Notably, he masterminded successful exits from the advertising and web solutions arena.

From 2015 onwards, Kevin embraced a more proactive stance, channeling his resources into
start-ups, with a pronounced emphasis on medical technology and education. This strategic
move positioned him as a hands-on advisor, nurturing direct engagement with these
enterprises. His impact reverberated, culminating in his directorial role at Perspectum Ltd., a
position impeccably executed from 2020 to 2023. Even today, Kevin’s influential presence
endures as an observer and active participant within the Asia office.

Remi Choong

Director

Remi is Principal of Elev8.vc, Singapore's premier early-stage deep tech VC fund. He founded three companies before kickstarting his venture capital career at a sovereign VC fund. Remi is one the most experienced deep-tech investors in the region having closed deals across technology verticals including quantum computing, space-tech, biotech, and new materials. 

Robert Meyer

Director

Robert is the founder and Managing Partner of Angsana Investments Pte Ltd, a private venture firm that is focussed on direct investments in early-stage opportunities. Prior to launching Angsana, Robert co-founded SGX-listed Halcyon Agri Corporation Limited and served as its CEO from January 2013 to June 2020.

Michael Gorriz

Board Advisor

With over 30 years of experience in the IT industry, Mr. Gorriz is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of Mercedes-Benz Automobile Finance Co., Ltd. in China, Non-Executive Director of mox Bank (a virtual bank in Hong Kong), Non-Executive Director of Swiss IT Security AG (an IT security service group based in Switzerland) and Kyberlife (an e-commerce marketplace start-up for life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries headquartered in Singapore). Mr. Gorriz is also currently a Board Advisor to Axis Bank Limited in India and member of the Advisory Board of zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS), a cloud security company headquartered in San Jose, California. He is a Senior Executive Education Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing teaching about Cloud Migration and Adoption and Digital Transformation.

From 2015 to 2021, Mr. Gorriz has served as the Chief Information Officer for Standard Chartered Group from 2015 to 2021. During his tenure, he was responsible for the systems development and technology infrastructure which underpin Standard Chartered Group’s client services. He was also responsible for defining and implementing Standard Chartered Bank’s digital and innovation agenda.  Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Mr. Gorriz was Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Daimler AG where he was globally responsible for strategy, planning and development of the Daimler Group’s IT systems, as well as the operation of its technical infrastructure. During his 29 years at Daimler, Mr. Gorriz progressed through specialist research and design roles in aerospace to general management roles.

Mr. Gorriz is an industry acclaimed technology leader and has won numerous awards – including the Global CIO award of the Indian NASSCOM and is one of only three CIOs in Germany nominated to a list of the 40 most important people in IT in the last 40 years.  Mr. Gorriz is a physicist and engineer by background and obtained a PhD in Engineering.

Oleg Moskvin, PhD

Head of Computational Sciences

Oleg Moskvin, PhD is a computational biologist who brings together experiences and mindsets from network-centric *omics data analysis in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems, genome analysis, and classical biochemistry. His academic career involved the discovery of novel functionality in bacterial genomes, and extensive *omics studies related to areas ranging from biofuel research and bacteria-environment interactions to stem cell differentiation, supplemented with the development of related computational approaches. The number of publications that cite Dr. Moskvin’s work exceeds 2,600.

In 2018-2022, in the role of Group Lead of Wilmar Intl R&D, he brought his expertise to setting up, conducting, data analysis and follow-up studies of the gut microbiome part of the dietary intervention clinical trials.  That included function-centric microbiome analysis, development of a cutting-edge custom protocol for long-read metatranscriptomics, as well as whole-genome metabolic modeling of key bacterial species. Dr. Moskvin’s multifaceted vision of the microbiome area aligns well with BluMaiden goals.

Zhao Peng, PhD

Head of Business Development

Dr. Zhao Peng brings extensive experience in cellular biology, biomarker and drug development to BluMaiden Biosciences. He excels at simplifying complex scientific concepts into accessible yet impactful ideas. His tenure as a business development consultant at CANbridge Pharmaceuticals highlights his adeptness in leading drug and technology licensing initiatives. Dr. Zhao has been with the company since incorporation, being its first staff member. Drawing on rich experiences in venture capital and the pharmaceutical sector, Dr. Zhao has supported both scientific and commercialization functions over the years. In his new role as Head of Business Development, he aims to enhance the momentum of the company’s commercialization efforts. 

Dr. Zhao Peng holds a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore, where he discovered a mechanism of cellular polarity establishment at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory.

“I take pride in my contributions to BluMaiden Biosciences’ development and am eager to further support the company’s commercial roadmap. With its best-in-class Pharma Service clinical trial analysis platform, BluMaiden can significantly accelerate the AI-guided drug development process. Our collective vision is to enable our innovative Pharma solutions to deliver life-saving therapeutics to patients worldwide”– Dr. Zhao Peng.

Rohan Williams, PhD

Scientific Co-Founder Computational Biology and Chair of SAB

Rohan Williams is a computational biologist, specialising in bioinformatics and systems biology of microbiomes and microbial ecology. Following undergraduate studies in Physics he obtained a PhD in Medicine at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) in the field of human gastrointestinal physiology, and undertook postdoctoral work in computational genetics and genomics, before obtaining an academic appointment at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra in 2007. He relocated to Singapore in 2011 to commence as a principal investigator of the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), a Research Centre of Excellence co-hosted by the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, where he is the Head of the SCELSE Integrative Analysis Unit. At SCELSE he and his research group develop new methods for analysing the composition and function of microbiomes, with particular focus on the use of long read sequencing technology and multi-omics. Williams holds diverse research perspectives from this experience working in basic, clinical and environmental settings, including collaborations with two multinational companies and government agencies. He has published around 80 research papers, review articles and book chapters. 

Nicholas Talley, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board, Member

Distinguished Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley AC is a Scientific Advisory Board member at BluMaiden Biosciences. Currently he is based at the University of Newcastle, Australia and held former appointments as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at Mayo Clinic and Foundation Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney, Nepean Hospital. 

Professor Talley is considered one of the world’s leading authorities in diseases of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Among other advances, his research has documented genetic determinants of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and the role of the immune system and gut microbiota in functional gastrointestinal disease. At BluMaiden Biosciences, he is guiding the scientific team as they develop pioneering solutions to human microbiome associated diseases. 

Damian O’Connell, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board, Member

Professor Damian O’Connell is Chief Executive Officer the Experimental Drug Development Centre at A*Star – the Agency for Science, Technology and Research based in Singapore. The Experimental Drug Development Centre is a national platform for drug and biomarker discovery as well as early clinical development. 

Most recently Damian was Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery – Global Head of Clinical Sciences, Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin – Germany. Prof O’Connell previously held senior positions within Pfizer Research & Development, Parke Davis, Elan Pharmaceuticals and Neurex. Prof O’Connell has both MD & PhD degrees from the National University of Ireland, has been a Medical Faculty member of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center as well as a member of the Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics Department at the University College Cork, Ireland where he was a Professor of Clinical Research. He started his career in the Industry in 1998. 

Prof O’Connell is an Adjunct Professor at University College Cork, Ireland; Member Expert Advisory Panel, Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium;  Member Advisory Board Investigational Medicine Unit SingHealth, Singapore; Board Member INFANT Research Centre, Cork Ireland; Member Scientific Advisory Board, BluMaiden Biosciences, Singapore; Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland); Member of the British Pharmacological Society; Member of the Drug Safety Executive Council (DSEC); Member American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; Member American College of Clinical Pharmacology.