Our team

Kalle Manninen (M.Sc)

Kalle Manninen, Technical Scientist, holds an M.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of Helsinki with a major in Biopharmacy. During his studies he was chosen to the researcher line in the Faculty of Pharmacy, so he has worked as a Research Assistant in several research projects, where most of his professional time was used on utilizing Surface plasmon resonance and Raman spectroscopy in characterization of extracellular vesicles and polymer brushes.

Philip Stanecki (M.Sc)

Philip Stanecki, Accounting Manager, holds an M.Sc in Economics and Business Administration (International Business) from Copenhagen Business School. Before joining the Valo Therapeutics team as an Accounting Manager, he worked as an accountant at a licensed accounting office, as well as an auditor at a Big 4 firm in Helsinki. He has been working with listed and large non-listed audit clients over the past few years from a broad range of industries.

Sandeep Kumar (PhD)

Sandeep Kumar, Research Scientist II, holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry and his academic
research work was focused on drug discovery. He authored several research articles,
reviews and book chapters in peer reviewed journals. After graduation in 2019, he served as
an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in veterinary research institute in India. In 2020, he
joined as a Research Scientist in Clinical Science department of Targovax, a clinical stage
immuno-oncology company. He was responsible for planning and execution of preclinical

Suvi Karumo (M.Sc)

Suvi Karumo, Laboratory Scientist, holds an M.Sc in Pharmacy from the University of Helsinki with a major in Biopharmacy. Before joining Valo Therapeutics as a Laboratory Scientist in Antigen Business Unit, she has worked as a Research Assistant and Project Researcher in Drug Delivery Group of the University of Helsinki.

Joseph Ndika (PhD)

Joseph Ndika, Senior Scientist, Antigen Analytics holds a PhD in Clinical Chemistry from Vrije University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr Ndika has over 14 years of experience using proteomics (mass spectrometry) and transcriptomics (next generation sequencing, microarrays) profiling of clinical samples to; study perturbation of biological pathways in rare genetic disorders, unravel allergic disease mechanisms and identify diagnostic biomarkers of adverse environmental exposures.

Hemanshu Shah (PhD)

Hemanshu Shah, Chief Business Officer, is an executive with more than 30 years’ experience, in both large pharmaceutical companies (Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Astellas) and emerging biotechnology companies (GPC Biotech, Innate Pharma and Transgene). He is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of Modra Pharmaceuticals B.V.

Otto Kari (PhD)

Otto Kari, VP & Head of Antigen Business Unit, holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has over 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, with advanced qualifications in R&D and technology management. During his Ph.D. and post-doctoral studies, he developed and set up novel and innovative methods and infrastructure for the study of biocorona formation on nanotechnological drug delivery systems and viruses.

Paul G Higham

Paul G Higham, Chief Executive Officer, is a seasoned healthcare industry expert with extensive leadership experience in both large pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has over 15 years C-Suite Biotech company experience. During the last 10 years he has been CEO of two immuno-oncology development-stage companies. In more detail:

Hanne Cojoc (M.Sc. Tech)

Hanne Cojoc, QA Manager/Technical Scientist, holds an M.Sc. (Tech) in Bioengineering from Tampere University, Finland. She has gained broad QA experience ranging from pharmaceutical development to healthcare technology. Hanne has also extensive experience in bio-technical laboratory work in both the clinical and pre-clinical settings.