Proteros Leadership Team

Dr. Torsten Neuefeind

CEO

Dr. Torsten founded Proteros based on the belief that structural biology services would become a key market requirement in the future of industrial Drug Discovery.

Torsten set up the company based on a McKinsey & Co awarded business plan and the experience of his PhD thesis in the lab of Nobel prize winner Prof. R. Huber at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich as well as at Bayer AG. He set up the company structure, including high performance teams, a supervisory board and involvement of Prof. Huber as a co-founder and scientific advisor. He continues to manage the financing of the growth of the company in all stages and developed the business in Europe, US and Japan and made Proteros a renowned market leader in its segment, awarded as one of Bavaria’s best innovative growth companies.

Under Torsten’s guidance, the business has grown to serve most of the Top 20 Big Pharma Companies, numerous midsize Pharma and more than 200 Biotech and virtual Biotech companies with a strong presence in the US, including a partnership with a US Venture Capital firm, resulting in a successful exit of a jointly funded company, worth several hundred million ‘Bio-Dollars’. Proteros today is a premier provider of structure accelerated early Drug Discovery services, with a clear focus on scientific excellence and the most challenging drug targets and is a highly regarded brand in the community.

Torsten holds a degree in chemistry and a PhD with summa cum laude from the Technical University Munich including business courses e.g. from INSEAD. He serves on various Boards and is located in Munich.

Joachim Scheuenpflug

Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer

Joachim Scheuenpflug serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Proteros Biostructures, bringing over 25 years of leadership experience in finance and operations across dynamic, fast-scaling industries.

Before joining Proteros, Joachim was CFO and COO of LEONINE Studios, a KKR portfolio company, where for more than five years he successfully supported strong organic and inorganic growth. His earlier leadership roles include senior finance and management positions at ProSiebenSat.1 and UniCredit. At Proteros, Joachim contributes a proven track record in scaling businesses, optimizing resources, and building high-performing finance and operations teams. His expertise in transformative environments strengthens Proteros’ operational foundation, enabling the company to deliver premium drug discovery services and accelerate growth for its global partners.

Prof. Eric P. Pâques

Board Member

Eric P. Pâques is Non-Executive Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Proteros Biostructures GmbH (Munich, Germany) since 2014, chairman of the Board of Directors of Novadip Biosciences (Belgium) and Board member of Epics Therapeutics (Belgium) and of PL Bioscience (Germany) as well as of several academic and charity organizations. He was Independent Director of INC Research Inc., later Syneos Health, (USA), and Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Grünenthal Group (Germany). He served more than 35 years in management positions in the pharmaceutical industry, thereof 20 years as General Manager / CEO of the Grünenthal Group. He is professor at the RWTH-Aachen University (Germany) and holds a Master degree and a PhD in Chemistry (University of Louvain, Belgium).

Dr. Horst Hemmerle

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Horst Hemmerle has over 30 years of leadership in drug discovery, spanning medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and cutting-edge drug discovery technologies. He has guided many drug candidate programs across diverse therapeutic areas.

Before joining Proteros, Horst served as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Kojin Therapeutics, where he advanced novel approaches in the programmed cell death pathway area. His previous roles include Executive Director of Global Discovery Chemistry at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Senior Director of Quantitative Biology and Lead Generation at Eli Lilly, and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Aventis.

As CSO of Proteros, Horst leads the expansion of the company’s drug discovery capabilities, supporting its mission to help partners "reach right faster" through scientific excellence and innovation.

Dr. Tobias Gabriel

Chief Growth Officer

Dr. Tobias Gabriel serves as Chief Growth Officer at Proteros Biostructures, bringing over 25 years of global leadership experience in drug discovery and biochemistry.

Before joining Proteros, he was Vice President and Head of Europe at WuXi AppTec, and previously held senior executive roles at Novartis and Roche across Switzerland, the US, and China. Tobias plays a key role in driving strategic growth initiatives, with a particular focus on AI-enabled lead discovery. His expertise spans drug design, chemistry, ADME, and biochemistry – empowering teams to accelerate discovery pipelines.

Tobias is passionate about fostering innovation and building collaborative environments to unlock the next chapter of success at Proteros.

Lara Kurth

Head of Finance

Lara leads Proteros´ Finance function and is responsible for shaping and overseeing the Financial Strategy, Accounting, Controlling and Tax functions at Proteros. Lara brings a broad range of experience within finance. Before joining Proteros in January 2024, she acted as Vice President at a global Investment Bank, advising mid-sized companies on Mergers & Acquisitions transactions in the Healthcare sector. Prior to that, she was part of KPMG’s M&A advisory team.

Lara holds a Master degree in Accounting and Finance from the University St. Gallen, Switzerland and a B.A. in Business and Economics from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Christine Lorch

Head of HR

Christine joined Proteros with 20 years of experience in the People and Human Resources field. As the Head of HR, Christine's responsibilities include overseeing the execution of Proteros’ people strategy, focusing on talent attraction, employee engagement, and company culture.
Having worked across innovative sectors, covering additive manufacturing and the software industry, she has a proven track record in delivering people-centric strategies and execution that simultaneously support business priorities. She has successfully supported the scale-up and growth of various international businesses, such as at Bosch Software Innovations or EOS GmbH. Christine has a strong track record of working closely with business leaders to scale and evolve organizations, connecting strategy, talent, and results.
Christine graduated with a law degree from the University of Konstanz and holds a CEP from Science Politiques/IEP Lyon.

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