Jörn Aldag is a serial biotech CEO and board leader with a distinguished track record of value creation in the global life sciences sector. Over the course of his career, he has led three public listings - two on NASDAQ and one on the Deutsche Börse - successfully executed multiple private financings, and orchestrated two major cross-border M&A transactions. He played a pivotal role in achieving the first-ever gene therapy approval in Europe for Glybera, a landmark milestone in biotech history.
Jörn currently serves as Chair of the Board at Genespire (Milan), Captain T Cell (Berlin), and HHC Medical (Copenhagen), and sits on the board of the DRFZ – Deutsches Rheuma Forschungszentrum, part of the Leibniz Association. From 2016 to 2024, he was CEO and a Board Director at HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. (New York), where he led the company through its growth into a clinical-stage immunotherapy player. Previously, he was CEO of uniQure (Amsterdam), where he oversaw the approval of Glybera, and CEO and CFO of Evotec AG (Hamburg), helping establish it as a leading European biotech company, co-founded G7 Therapeutics and acted as Chairman of Molecular Partners for nearly 11 years.
Jörn’s earlier roles also span strategic, financial, and leadership positions in industry such as MAN Group, Daimler-Benz, and Treuhandanstalt, the German reunification agency, where he held an active management role during a transformative moment in German history.
Beyond his executive career, Jörn has contributed to broader societal and innovation agendas. He is a co-founder and supervisory board member of the DESERTEC Foundation, a long-term initiative promoting clean energy solutions for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. He also served on the German Monopoly Commission, advising on competition policy.
Jörn holds a Masters Degree from the European Business School and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is fluent in German, English, and French, and is based in Hamburg, Germany.
In a Harvard Business Review article titled “Start-Ups That Last”, Ranjay Gulati and Alicia DeSantola write: “Scaling is not just about growing bigger; it’s about becoming fundamentally different.” For CEOs leading science-driven ventures, this shift often emerges just as the external stakes intensify. Technical milestones are hit, capital inflows grow, and optionality widens—yet internally, your organization may still be optimized for experimentation, not scale. If you're considering the public markets—or already navigating the complexities of late-stage private growth—this transition tests not just your business model, but your operating model.