Alexander Olek

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Olek (born August 10, 1969 in Bonn ) is a German biochemist and entrepreneur.

Life

Alexander Olek was born as the son of the human geneticist Klaus Olek. After graduating from high school, he studied mathematics in Buenos Aires from 1989 to 1992 . In 1992 he studied chemistry in Bonn and obtained a Bachelor with Honors in Biochemistry from Imperial College in London in 1995 .

From 1996 he completed his doctoral thesis at the Berlin Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in the department of the then Vice-President Thomas Trautner ; his doctorate was awarded to him in 1999 by the University of London. During his doctorate he wrote several patents, which he licensed from the Max Planck Society as the basis for the foundation of the company Epigenomics AG (ECX).

Epigenomics AG was a pioneer in the field of DNA methylation and used this biological phenomenon to develop a blood test for the early detection of colon cancer. As chairman of the board, Olek managed the company for eight years. In 2004 he brought the company to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange before devoting himself to new tasks. He was a co-founder of the Onmeda GmbH health portal. Another foundation from this time is the pharmaceutical management consultancy Catenion GmbH in Berlin.

At the end of the 1990s, Olek was also involved in founding the biotech companies Genom Analytic GmbH in Bremen (dissolved August 10, 2012) and Biopsytec GmbH in Berlin (now part of the French company Allflex). After selling the company Biopsytec, Olek co-founded Certagen GmbH in Bonn, a company for genetic tests and genetic passports for farm animals. In 2005 Olek was the founder of Phorms Management AG , a German operator of bilingual, state-approved all-day schools, as well as a number of other companies belonging to the Phorms network. Olek acted as managing director until 2010. He gave up this post at the beginning of 2010 and parted with his shares in order to join the international school body, Nobel Education Network Ltd in London, which operates exclusively abroad (with schools in Vienna, Istanbul, Muscat, Ho Chi Minh City, among others , Qatar and Faro), where he held the position of CEO from 2010 to 2015.

Olek founded Ark-Biodiversity GmbH in 2018, based in Berlin and laboratories in Bonn. This company is based on a novel concept that makes it possible to create genetic fingerprints for all higher living beings with a single test. The parentage - and thus the question of whether it is wild or breeding animals - should be analyzed with this method. The company's long-term goal is to equip every CITES-protected animal and every living being traded under the Nagoya Protocol with its own genetic passport - a vision that would be suitable for preventing the illegal trade in animals and plants, or trade in illegal animals and plants To prevent plant products.

Alexander Olek is married and has four children.

Awards

Publications

  • Stephan Beck, Alexander Olek (Eds.): The Epigenome: Molecular Hide and Seek . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2006, ISBN 3-527-60597-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jochim Stoltenberg: An all-rounder as a bearer of hope . In: Berliner Morgenpost . June 10, 2008 ( morgenpost.de ).
  2. ↑ Alexander Olek is CEO of Epigenomics AG: Schlitzohr in a researcher smock . In: Handelsblatt . April 30, 2003 ( handelsblatt.com ).
  3. ↑ Alex Olek leaves. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 18, 2006 ( faz.net ( memento of March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).
  4. ↑ http://www.management.phorms.de/fileadmin/Phorms Files / pdf / The heads behind PHORMS.pdf (link not available)
  5. ↑ Kristina Behrend: Germany: "We misjudged ourselves". In: Focus Online . March 16, 2010, accessed May 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Open Corporate . Chrinon Ltd. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  7. ^ Ernst & Young website: Die Sieger, accessed on August 16, 2010. ( Memento from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Technology Review: 2002 Winners. ( Memento of September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
  9. ↑ Land of ideas: 100 heads of tomorrow. ( Memento of July 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 751 kB), accessed on August 16, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Olek, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn