People

• Giorgio Fassina PhD, CEO, Chief Scientific Officer & Founder - has a doctoral degree in Bio-organic Chemistry from Padua University. In 1984, he started his scientific career as a Visiting Associate at the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes and Digestive Diseases (NIADDK) and later at the National Cancer Institute (NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) dealing with proteomic approaches to cancer. At the end of 2001, Mr. Fassina founded Xeptagen, where he is currently the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer. He has also been a Member of the Board of several consulting firms in the biotech sector. Since 1995 he is Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Bologna, and International Advisor for United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for technology transfer in the field of Combinatorial Technologies. Recipient of several awards for his scientific accomplishments -including the Federchimica Prize-, Mr. Fassina is author of more than 130 papers in peer reviewed journals and main inventor in more than 25 international patent applications.

• Cino Sitia, Director & Founding Shareholder - graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Genoa in 1957 before attending the University of Colorado in Boulder on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1957-1958. Returning to Italy in 1959, he worked as highway construction engineer with IMPRESIT, SpA. In 1961, he joined the French consulting firm, CEGOS SA, where he specialized in management consulting with large Italian and French companies. From 1966 to 1970, he was CEO of Postal Market (SpA). From 1971, he was the founding partner of the Milan-based management consulting company, MIDA SpA, which specialized in big- and medium-size Italian and European firms engaged in manufacturing, marketing, accounting, finance, and information system. In 1991 he moved into the field of M&A, acting as the executive officer in saving ailing firms from bankruptcy such as the Marzoli Company (textile machinery), OMAP (fuel injection pumps), for which he set up a new plant in Iran, and M & A (CEMP, electric devices). He joined Xeptagen in 2001.