Dr Karsten Henco, 53, is a Member of the Supervisory Board and Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of Evotec OAI. From the Company's inception until 1 July 2001 Dr Henco was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
During this period he was actively involved in the public offering of EVOTEC BioSystems AG and the successful conclusion of the EVOTEC BioSystems AG and Oxford Asymmetry International plc merger to Evotec OAI. Dr Ulrich Aldag, QIAGEN's former Chief Financial Officer, Prof Manfred Eigen, Prof Rudolf Rigler, Prof Freimut Leidenberger and Prof Heinrich Schulte, the Max Planck Society, Dr Henco and other scientists founded EVOTEC BioSystems GmbH in December 1993.
Before joining EVOTEC BioSystems he served as Managing Partner of QIAGEN. Dr Henco co-founded QIAGEN GmbH and its subsidiary, QIAGEN, Inc. (now QIAGEN NV) in 1985. From 1982 until 1985 Dr Henco worked at BASF AG in Ludwigshafen, where he was involved in the establishment of BASF's molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology facilities.
Dr Henco studied biochemistry at the University of Hanover, Hanover Medical School and Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (Germany). After receiving his doctorate in 1979, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof Charles Weissmann, the University of Zurich, where he cloned and characterised interferons and other important lymphokines.
