Triana Leadership Team

Jabril Bensedrine, PhD
Founder and Managing Director

Jabril initiates and coordinates the design of our projects and new ventures. His expertise focuses on the assessment of strategic options, market intelligence, feasibility studies, strategic planning, and project development. Before founding Triana, Jabril took part to the design or funding of projects totaling several hundred million dollars as an expert for financial consulting firm Kenneth J. Dalto & Associates. He also held training and management positions at higher education institutions and took part to the development of a new high-tech business incubator in the Paris region. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Paris-Dauphine, a PhD in Business Administration from the ESSEC Graduate School of Business, and was a post-doctoral scholar from 1998 to 2002 at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.

Michel Berty, PhD
Former Founder, Chairman and CEO of Capgemini USA
Senior Advisor

Michel is the former Founder, Chairman and CEO of Capgemini USA. He contributed to making Capgemini one of the largest IT consulting and services firms in the world with 50,000 consultants and annual revenues in the range of $8 billion. Michel served as one of Capgemini's principal executives for more than 25 years both in France and the USA. He continues to be active with many IT groups around the world. Michel holds a PhD in Physics from Universite d'Orsay in Paris and a Master of Management from IAE. Michel is also Advisor For French Foreign Trade (Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur pour la France).

Geert Cauwenbergh, PhD
Founder and CEO of Phases123; Former Founder, Chairman and CEO of Barrier Therapeutics
President-elect of Bio New Jersey
Senior Advisor

Geert is the founder and President of Phase123, LLC, a company focused on identifying and developing high potential health care technology platforms and emerging health care companies. Before founding Phase123, Geert was the founder and CEO of Barrier Therapeutics, a biotechnology company listed on the Nasdaq. Prior to these positions Geert was Vice President of R&D and global Vice President of Technology for J&J. He sits on many Boards, including as Vice Chairman of Bio New Jersey, and was inducted into the New Jersey High Tech Hall of Fame. Geert holds a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Leuven's Faculty of Medicine.

Bill Fontana
Former Division Head at CitiGroup; Incubator Manager of SCI2
Senior Advisor

Bill has more than 20 years of financial services experience in both the US and internationally. He spent ten years as a troubleshooter and business development specialist for CitiGroup. He has been Division Head of Citibank Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and most recently Southeast Asia. He is now a business angel and manages SCI2, a start-up accelerator based in NYC designed to provide early-stage companies with funding and commercialization expertise.

Ari Ginsberg, PhD
Professor at New York University Stern School of Business; Former Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern
Senior Advisor

Ari is a Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at New York University Stern School of Business, where he has held the Chairman position of management and organizations department, and Director position of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Ari serves on the advisory boards of several startups, and is President of the business services company BRL Associates, which works on strategic planning and corporate innovation initiatives. Ari is the recipient of multiple academic honors for his work on entrepreneurial strategies and the management of innovation. Ari holds a Master’s Degree in Human Learning and Cognition from Columbia University, and an MBA and Ph.D. in Strategic Planning and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh.

Erik Grimmelmann, PhD
SVP, Technology and Service Operations, SWN Communications, Inc.; Former SVP Technology Infrastructure at Dun&Bradstreet; Held senior positions at AT&T
Board Member of New York Software Industry Association
Senior Advisor

Erik has over twenty years experience in developing, delivering, and operating information technology. He was the Vice President, Architecture and Lead Architect at Cometa Network, Inc., a provider of nationwide, enterprise-grade WiFi, formed by IBM, AT&T, Intel and two venture firms, Apax and 3i. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President of Technology Infrastructure at Dun & Bradstreet where he was responsible for modernizing and globalizing D&B’s worldwide infrastructure. Erik held also a variety of senior positions at AT&T including Vice President of Network and Access and Vice President of Service Integration and Realization. Erik sits on the Board of the New York Software Industry Association.

Tamar Howson, MBA
Member of JSB-Partners; Former SVP Corporate and Business Development at Bristol Myers Squibb; Former SVP and Director of Worldwide Business and Corporate Development at SmithKline Beecham
Advisory Board Member of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey
Senior Advisor

Tamar has held senior executive positions ranging from Director to Executive Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee for worldwide corporate and business development, at companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb, SmithKline Beecham, Squibb Corporation, and Lexicon. In the venture field, Tamar has been a special limited partner at Care Capital, a vice president for venture investments at Johnson Associates, and was the manager of SmithKline Beecham's $100 million venture capital fund, SR One. Her current and past Board of Directors memberships include Ariad Pharmaceuticals, NPS Pharmaceuticals, SkyePharma Plc., Targacept, and Bioline Rx. Tamar holds a B.S. and an M.S. in chemistry from Technion and the City College of New York, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She is a member of the advisory board of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey, and the Healthcare Business Women Association elected her Woman of the Year.

Jerry Sanders
Founder and Managing Director of San Francisco Science
Senior Advisor

Jerry is a nationally recognized entrepreneur and the founder and managing director of San Francisco Science, an investment group with special expertise in technology. Jerry has raised millions of dollars for his companies, reached several landmark exits, and by-and-by bucked the establishment way of starting and running companies. Jerry also teaches at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He is the subject of an Harvard Business School case study on entrepreneurs entitled “Jerry Sanders” : “He had sold his medical device company for more than $33 million […] less than 10 months […] with just a concept and initial investments of $180,000.”

Thierry Teil, MD, MBA
Global Head of Medical Affairs of UCB Pharmaceutical
Senior Advisor

Currently Global Head of Medical Affairs at UCB, a $3 billion pharmaceutical company, Thierry brings to TRIANA 20 years of medical, pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience. Prior to joining UCB, Dr. Teil held senior positions at Roussel Uclaf, now known as Sanofi-Aventis, including responsibility for profit centers overseas, global marketing and medical affairs for new products and major brands, and strategic projects in Global Commercial Operations. Thierry was also COO and cofounder of IRM and Executive Director at The Medicines Company, a $242 million biotech firm. He holds a medical degree and an MBA, respectively from the University of Lyon and from IMIS.

Jacques-Olivier d'Halluin
CFO & Head of Operations

Prior to Triana, Jacques-Olivier was Director of Finance at American Express, where he oversaw and prioritized the $500m strategic investment portfolio of the merchant-services business, and tackled the technical complexities involved with interacting with partner technology and distribution companies. Earlier in his career Jacques-Olivier was Manager at Arthur Andersen France, in charge of performing financial due diligence for numerous international acquisitions totaling several hundred million dollars. He studied at UCLA and is a graduate of the Institute of Higher Economical and Commercial studies, Paris.

Andrea Lewis
Executive Search and Team Development

Andrea ensures that human capital assets can be rapidly mobilized for our ventures. She brings ten years of experience as an Executive Headhunter, an experience she acquired as a Project Lead and a Senior Director at organizations including MTV Networks-Viacom. She has supported the executive team development of numerous technology companies I.T. and biomedical industries. Andrea holds an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University, and worked on organizational behavior projects at the Harvard Business School.

For confidential consideration please contact Andrea Lewis via e-mail at employment@trianagroup.com

David-Alexandre Baranes
Founding Member and Project Manager

Before joining TRIANA, David-Alexandre served as a financial engineering consultant with the international bank Société Générale. He brings to TRIANA experience in initiating, financing and leading projects in corporate, non-profit, and military environments. David-Alexandre received his engineering degree from the Ecole Polytechnique in France and a Masters in Finance from Columbia University.