Advisory Board

Eckehart Behncke joined Daimler-Benz AG in 1963 as an assistant to the sales management. In 1979 he became the sales manager for passenger cars in Germany and in 1984 he was the first representative for Daimler-Benz in Japan. His research of the Japanese market led to the foundation of the Mercedes-Benz Japan Co. Ltd. Furthermore, he represented the company as chairman of the "European Business Community" for commercial vehicles and as vice chairman for Aeronautics and Space. In 1992 he returned to Germany and joined the executive board of Daimler-Benz AG for Eastern Germany, where he was responsible for installing a sales organization. 1998 he became adviser to the president and was promoted to director of the company. Mr. Behncke was appointed honorary consul of Slovenia for the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony in 2000. In this capacity he initiated a program for bilateral visits of trade delegations. His further honorary posts are: adviser to the Honorary Consul Union of Germany, vice president of the German-Japanese Association, and member of the German-Japanese Standing Committee on Industry and Trade. Since 2005, Mr. Behncke has been a senior advisor to Daimler AG. In this role he is responsible for close contact with all international ambassadors, the protocol of the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Office of Foreign Affairs, and the administration of Brandenburg. He is also in charge of negotiations and transactions of international state affairs at the embassies.

Prof. Dr. Bernd J. Hoefer is Chairman & CEO of A9C Capital W.L.L. - Business Consultants & Technology Advisors, an Private Equity/Venture Capital company focused on technology investments based in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He is based in the Kingdom of Bahrain since 2006 and was engaged in many top projects and business ventures in Bahrain and GCC. Dr. Hoefer`s experience in global finance and technology spans nearly three decades with key roles in accounting (Certified Public Accountant/WP/StB), business consultancy and financial advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and duties as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Innovation Officer with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) where he also served as a vice chairman of the executive board. From the privatization of Lufthansa German Airlines and various major airports, to aerospace research in materials, propulsion and navigation in association with NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Hoefer`s contribution to and involvement with high-tech developments and innovations is substantial. Additionally he has served on the boards and committees of various technology leaders and business organizations including the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) Geneva, Centre for Science and Research Management (Speyer), T-Systems Solutions for Research (Oberpfaffenhofen), Application Centre for Satellite Navigation (Oberpfaffenhofen), Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Cologne) and the Commerzbank (Dusseldorf) just to name a few of them. Schooled at leading universities in Austria and Germany with a PhD from the University of Cologne, Dr. Hoefer`s academic credentials include teaching tenures at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne (RFH) and its counterpart in Bonn-Rhein-Sieg.

Hans-Dieter is currently Vice President for Europe at Zetex Semiconductor plc, a London Stock exchange listed company, specializing in discrete and analogue semiconductors. Prior to that, in an 18-month period, he turned around the business of mikron AG, a semiconductor supplier based in the Munich area, and sold this company to Zetex. Hans-Dieter holds an MSEE in Telecommunications and has more than 25 years of experience in international high tech businesses, mainly in semiconductors and in EDA - Electronic design automation. He has a very successful track record of starting businesses from scratch as well as turning around established businesses to put them back on the growth path. He has accomplished this with companies like Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Viewlogic, Inc. and venture-capital based startup companies.

Professor Dr. med. Horst Spielmann is retired head of Dept. Scientific Services and of ZEBET (National German Centre for the Documentation and Evaluation of Alternatives to Testing in Animals) at the BfR (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) Professor for Regulatory Toxicology at the Freie Universität Berlin and advisor to the President of the BfR. Since 1988 he acted as chairperson and/or member of management teams of national and international validation studies that were funded by the German Minister for Research BMBF, by the European Commission (DG Environment), by ECVAM (European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods at the JRC in Ispra/Italy) and by COLIPA (the European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association). The successful validation studies resulted in the acceptance of the first in vitro toxicity tests for regulatory purposes at the international level (EU, OECD, Japan, USA), e.g. in vitro alternatives to the Draize eye test, in vitro phototoxicity tests, in vitro corrosivity tests, of in vitro embryotoxicity tests using embryonic stem cell lines and of an ECVAM skin irritation validation study using human skin models. Horst was also co-chair of the 4th, 5th and 6th "World Congresses on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Scineces", which were held in New Orleans (2002), Berlin (2005) and Tokyo (2007). Dr. Spielmann received various avards: 2007 Honorary member of the Japanese Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (JSAAE) 2007 Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT, Johns Hopkins University, USA) Recognition Award 2007 2005: "Dermopharmazie Innovation Prize 2005" for introducing human skin models into regulatory safety testing 2004: President of ESTIV - European Society for in vitro Toxicology 2001: ETS Award 2001 of the European Teratology Society (ETS) for the "Fundamental contribution to the development and validation of non-animal test in general and developmental toxicology" 2000: Award of the Doerenkamp-Zbinden-Foundation for "Realistic Animal Protection in Biomedical Research" (Chur, CH) for the year 2000 1998: Prize of the Naef Foundation for Alternatives to Animal Testing (Geneva, CH), for successful development and validation of the 3T3 NRU PT in vitro phototoxicity test 1997: Russell & Burch Award of the Humane Society of the USA (HSUS) for a substantial contribution to reduce, refine and replace testing in animals 1997: FISEA Prize, the European Association Against Testing in Animals (Luxembourg), for developing the embryonic stem cell test (EST), an in vitro embryotoxicity test using two permanent mouse cell lines 1997: Bronze Medal of the Charles University Medical School in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, for the contribution to establish education in physiology without experimental animals 1994: Medal of the Japanese AZABU University Veterinary School in Shagamihara (Tokyo), Japan