Mikael Ørum

Chair

Mikael Ørum brings 40 years of executive and strategic leadership experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and finance sectors, including 25 years as CEO of therapeutic and diagnostic companies developing and commercializing products across multiple disease areas and global markets. His career has focused on building and scaling companies that translate scientific innovation into commercial-stage therapeutic and diagnostic products. He currently serves as Chair of Cenexum Technologies, Orbit Genomics, and Qmed Consulting; as Board Member of Ixaltis; and as a Member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Cube Labs. His broader board portfolio includes early-stage R&D organizations in therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices, as well as European venture capital, contract research, and biobanking companies. As Chair, he has led several privately held life science companies through public listings on European stock exchanges, overseen strategic and operational turnarounds, and guided revenue-generating organizations through structured growth phases. He has directed M&A negotiations and transactions—including reverse takeovers—for both public and private companies and has served as an international expert for the Boston Consulting Group. Mikael has built a strong track record in equity and private risk-capital fundraising, raising more than USD 300 million in private equity and non-dilutive funding for life science companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has negotiated multiple therapeutic and diagnostic licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies worldwide, many of which supported the commercialization and global market access of diagnostic products and life science platforms. At Orbit Genomics, he collaborates closely with founder Harold “Skip” Garner and CEO Dede on strategy and fundraising, Earlier in his career, Mikael held leadership roles as CEO, Chair, or Board Member at companies including Amunix, APIM Therapeutics, Avexxin/Coegin Pharma, Casigen, Exiqon, Idogen, Lifandis, Neuroscience Technologies, Regenesance, RhoVac, and Santaris Pharma. In academia and industry-cluster development, he has served on advisory boards at the Virginia Tech Bioinformatics Institute, the Technical University of Denmark, and the Institute of Nanotechnology, and for more than a decade he was Vice Chairman of the Danish-Swedish cluster organization Medicon Valley Alliance. Mikael holds academic credentials in banking, finance, and law from Copenhagen Business School, the Danish Bankers Academy, Copenhagen Business College, and the University of Copenhagen. He has also completed military training and obtained an officer’s commission through the Royal Danish Guard/Danish Home Guard, and served for an extended period as a staff officer in a Danish Military Command.

Mikael Ørum brings 40 years of executive and strategic leadership experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and finance sectors, including 25 years as CEO of therapeutic and diagnostic companies developing and commercializing products across multiple disease areas and global markets. His career has focused on building and scaling companies that translate scientific innovation into commercial-stage therapeutic and diagnostic products.

He currently serves as Chair of Cenexum Technologies, Orbit Genomics, and Qmed Consulting; as Board Member of Ixaltis; and as a Member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Cube Labs. His broader board portfolio includes early-stage R&D organizations in therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices, as well as European venture capital, contract research, and biobanking companies. As Chair, he has led several privately held life science companies through public listings on European stock exchanges, overseen strategic and operational turnarounds, and guided revenue-generating organizations through structured growth phases. He has directed M&A negotiations and transactions—including reverse takeovers—for both public and private companies and has served as an international expert for the Boston Consulting Group.

Mikael has built a strong track record in equity and private risk-capital fundraising, raising more than USD 300 million in private equity and non-dilutive funding for life science companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has negotiated multiple therapeutic and diagnostic licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies worldwide, many of which supported the commercialization and global market access of diagnostic products and life science platforms. At Orbit Genomics, he collaborates closely with founder Harold “Skip” Garner and CEO Dede on strategy and fundraising,

Earlier in his career, Mikael held leadership roles as CEO, Chair, or Board Member at companies including Amunix, APIM Therapeutics, Avexxin/Coegin Pharma, Casigen, Exiqon, Idogen, Lifandis, Neuroscience Technologies, Regenesance, RhoVac, and Santaris Pharma. In academia and industry-cluster development, he has served on advisory boards at the Virginia Tech Bioinformatics Institute, the Technical University of Denmark, and the Institute of Nanotechnology, and for more than a decade he was Vice Chairman of the Danish-Swedish cluster organization Medicon Valley Alliance.

Mikael holds academic credentials in banking, finance, and law from Copenhagen Business School, the Danish Bankers Academy, Copenhagen Business College, and the University of Copenhagen. He has also completed military training and obtained an officer’s commission through the Royal Danish Guard/Danish Home Guard, and served for an extended period as a staff officer in a Danish Military Command.