Draft:Josef H. von Rickenbach

Josef H. von Rickenbach (born November 10, 1954) is a Swiss-American businessman. He is the Managing Director of Stet vision LLC. He is a Senior Advisor at General Atlantic global growth equity and a director of its portfolio company Javara, Inc. He serves as Chairman of the Board at ZAGENO Inc. Previously, Mr. von Rickenbach was co-Founder & CEO of Helio Vision, Inc., an ophthalmic biopharma company.

Early life and education
Born in Switzerland, Mr. von Rickenbach holds a B.A. in Business Economics from Lucerne University in Switzerland, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Parexel
Mr. von Rickenbach was co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of PAREXEL International Corporation. He took PAREXEL from its pioneering beginnings as one of the first clinical research organizations (CROs) in the early 1980s to one of the top global biopharmaceutical services firms. He led PAREXEL through its IPO, multiple private and public offerings, and over 40 mergers and acquisitions. During his 36 years at the helm of the Company, PAREXEL evolved to provide a comprehensive range of drug development services, including globally integrated clinical development, regulatory affairs consulting, commercialization services and clinical trials information technologies. In a $5 billion “going private” transaction in 2017, PAREXEL was acquired by Private Equity, and transacted again for $8.5 billion in 2021 to a new set of PE owners.

Foreseeing the globalization of clinical research, Mr. von Rickenbach worked to expand PAREXEL’s global footprint to 86 locations in 51 countries. This extensive geographical presence and the Company’s 20,000 employees allow PAREXEL to conduct clinical trials across every continent and in more than 100 countries.

Through PAREXEL, Mr. von Rickenbach made several innovative contributions to the advancement of the biopharmaceutical services industry. He conceived of a streamlined, multi-disciplinary, systems-oriented approach to outsourced clinical development bringing efficiencies, speed, scalability and standardization to the process. As part of the industry’s first S-1 filing to the SEC, he was among the first to define the CRO industry in formal terms. As the industry adopted information technology, Mr. von Rickenbach instituted a leading advanced technology offering. Today, the former PAREXEL Informatics operates as Calyx Clinical Trial Solutions, Inc. and is a front runner in providing eClinical Solutions to the global biopharma industry.

Current

 * Zageno, Chairman
 * Aileron Therapeutics, Chairman
 * Javara, Inc. Board Member
 * ShapeTX, Board Observer

Past

 * Chairman of the Board, PAREXEL International Corp. Biopharma Services / Clinical Research.
 * Board Member, IRIS S.A., Belgium. Now a division of Canon, Inc. Optical Character Recognition Technology.
 * Board Member, Epidauros Biotechnologie AG, Germany. Now a division of Danaher Corp. Pharmacogenetic and Genotyping Research.
 * Board Member, Tektagen, Inc. Biosafety and Analytical Testing. Now a division of Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.
 * Board Member, Next Generation Acquisition Corp. SPAC. Merged with Xos, Inc.
 * Board Member, Next Generation Acquisition Corp. II. SPAC. Merged with Virgin Orbit.

Philanthropy and community involvement
Mr. von Rickenbach serves as a board trustee at McLean Hospital, a leading institution in behavioral health.

He also serves as a director at the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), a member-based, non-partisan research and policy organization

He previously served as a board Member for the Biomedical Science Careers Program (BSCP), an inner-city Youth Support for the Pursuit of Biomedical Science Careers.

Awards and recognition
He was named Executive of the Year in North America in the 2010 International Business Awards, which celebrate managerial excellence worldwide. Mr. von Rickenbach won the Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1997 and has also served as a judge of the program. In 2013, Mr. von Rickenbach was honored by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) with the Henri Termeer Innovative Leadership Award. In 2014, he was named Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences. In 2018, he received the Scrip Informa Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.