Our team
Peter Nicholson, Managing Director, Strategy
Peter in Managing Director of ALTEKA Sarl, a strategic advisory firm focused on
helping companies seeking to leverage their resources to
create opportunities for growth and value scaling growth
companies and large established corporations. For ten year,
he was responsible for the global strategy and business
development functions at Nestle Skin Health, Galderma
(Nestle Skin Health), and before that at Mentor (Johnson &
Johnson) and Inamed (Allergan), where he led the groups
responsible for strategic partnerships, licensing agreements,
acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures and out-licensing.
He spent six years at Amgen working in product development, investor relations and
product licensing roles which include the creation of the company's corporate
venture capital program. He co-founded EasyCare Academy, focused the aged-care
segment, and Blue Heron Biotechnology, focused on the area of genomics. His
early career focused on developing novel approaches for wound healing.
Peter has a Bachelor's degree in biochemistry with an emphasis on immunology
from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master's degree in Business
Administration from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA where he won the
Knapp New Venture competition. He is a mentor and coach for the Cartier Women's
Initiative Awards and a judge for the MassChallenge Switzerland business
accelerator program. Peter is a U.S. citizen and splits his time between California
and Switzerland.
Adrian Pflugshaupt, Executive Advisor, Transactions
After finishing law school at the University of St. Gallen
(Switzerland), Adrian worked in the M&A team of Pestalozzi
Law, one of the top five Swiss law firms in Zurich for corporate
law. He then joined Spirig Pharma Ltd., a medium-sized Swiss
Pharmaceutical company and the leader in dermatology in
Switzerland as Head of the Legal Department and later
became CFO of that company. After some years in a global
consulting firm (Detecon Switzerland, a company of Deutsche
Telekom), he joined Galderma SA, the global leader in
dermatology, in the role of Director of Geographic Expansion. He was then promoted
to become the Global Head of M&A and Business Development of the OTC/Consumer division of Nestle Skin Health, a Nestle company. After several
years at Nestle, Adrian decided to build his own company, MergerMotives GmbH.
Adrian has a degree in Law and Economics (lic.iur. HSG) from the University of St.
Gallen (Switzerland) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the
Graduate School of Business from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).
Valerio Nannini, Executive Advisor, Innovation
Former Senior Vice President and head of Strategies and
Performance at Nestle global headquarters. Valerio is a
leading innovation enabler who offers his expertise to a broad
spectrum of start-ups, agencies and consulting companies as
they expand their businesses and offerings. Valerio has an
exhaustive understanding of disruptive technologies, digital
environments and their commercial applications. A respected
driver of innovation, he has a track record of engaging with
academia, accelerators, VCs and start-ups, as well as with
major strategic partnerships and alliances, to accelerate
growth. His vast network, his drive the maximize corporate efficacy, his passion for
innovation and for nurturing cross-functional corporate culture have allowed Valerio
to deliver a number of business-relevant and innovative concepts, whilst leading
change management.
Valerio's international business expertise extends from across Europe, Asia, Africa,
the US and Latin America. He has an MBA from the University of Wales and is the
recipient of the Certificate of Lifelong Executive Learning from IMD Business School
in Lausanne, Switzerland. Valerio holds British, Swiss and Italian citizenship.
Jon Becker, Executive Advisor, Legal
Jon provides extensive legal support regarding legal risks (commercial and
regulatory) and business needs (strategic and operational)
facing international life science companies. This includes
contracting, compliance, strategic transactions (M&A, JVs, co-
promotion and distribution arrangements), employment,
litigation, general corporate legal advice and management of
in-house counsel and external law firms. His compliance
expertise includes EU competition law, anti-corruption, data
privacy and cybersecurity, interactions with healthcare
organizations and providers as well as import-export
requirements.
From 2012 to 2014, he was responsible for European legal support for InterMune's
European headquarters, based in Basel (which was acquired by Roche). In his
previous position, Jon worked for 15 years as an in-house counsel for Amgen,
located in its international headquarters in Luzern and Zug. Jon also worked for 12
years as an in-house counsel for a global IT services company, Electronic Data Systems Corporation (acquired initially by General Motors and subsequently
acquired by Hewlett Packard). He was based in the Detroit, London, Geneva, Paris
and Rome offices.
Jon is an American qualified lawyer who has practiced law for over 30 years. He is a
member of the Michigan Bar Association as well as the Association of Corporate
Counsel (ACC) and is the former ACC Europe Switzerland country representative for
Ticino. He previously was also a member of the Swiss-American Chamber of
Commerce, Legal Committee, based in Zurich. Jon obtained his J.D. degree from
the George Washington University, National Law Center, in Washington, D.C. as
well as a M.A. degree from The Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. and Bologna, Italy. He received his
B.A. degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Jon is a citizen of
the USA, Italy and Switzerland.
