Executive Committee

Roger M Nitsch serves as CEO & President of Neurimmune, which he founded in 2006 together with Jan Grimm and Christoph Hock. A neuroscientist with a background in medicine, Roger is recognized as an opinion leader in neurodegenerative diseases with over 30 years of experience in Alzheimer’s disease research, and as a pioneer in the development of therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases. A Potamkin Prize winner, Member of the German Academy of Sciences and Professor emeritus at the University of Zurich, Roger served as a founding director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM), University of Zurich.

Jan Grimm is a neuroscientist with 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development in US and European biotech. Jan co-founded Neurimmune in 2006, and served as the company's founding CEO. Before joining Neurimmune he led the Alzheimer’s disease research efforts at Rinat Neuroscience Corp. in San Francisco that was acquired by Pfizer in 2006. He received a PhD degree from Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and Humboldt University Berlin.

Christoph Hock is a board-certified psychiatrist and an internationally recognized expert on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. He co-founded Neurimmune in 2006 and acts as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Previously, Christoph served as Vice-President Medicine and Science on the executive board of the University of Zurich, and as member of the Swiss National Science Foundation's Research Council. He currently holds a part-time professorship on Biological Psychiatry at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM), University of Zurich.

Michael Salzmann joined Neurimmune as COO in 2008. Prior to his appointment at Neurimmune, Michael held several national and international positions as senior executive at ETH, Bruker and Roche. Michael graduated in physics and chemistry, and earned a PhD in biophysics from the ETH Zürich, where he studied with Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biophysics. In 2018, Michael was recognized Corporate Professional of The Year by the Annual EMEA Corporate Development Awards (London, UK).

Dirk Schimkat is an economist with more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance in life sciences, the consumer goods industry, telecommunications and healthcare. Before joining Neurimmune in 2008, he held a senior position at Beiersdorf’s La Prairie Group in Zurich. Dirk earned his graduate degree in economy in 1998 from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Fabian Buller is an experienced biotech executive with 10 years of professional experience in biotech and pharma. Prior to joining Neurimmune in 2018, Fabian served as Director New Ventures at Johnson & Johnson Innovation as well as Director Business Development of Covagen AG. He was instrumental in securing a number of major Biotech-Pharma deals including the sale of Covagen to J&J. Fabian holds a PhD degree from the Institute of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich.

John Dellapa is an executive corporate lawyer with more than 30 years of experience in the life science industry. Before joining Neurimmune in 2019, John was a member at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, an AmLaw 100 law firm widely recognized for its outstanding life sciences practice. Prior to joining Mintz Levin, he served for 9 years as group general counsel at Fisher Scientific International, Inc. John holds a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University and Bachelor’s degree in management from Boston College.