Definiens Strengthens Digital Data and Science Strategy by Appointing Mr. Markus Schunk as Chief Operating Officer.

MUNICH, July 26, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Definiens AG, the leader in Tissue Phenomics® is very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Markus Schunk as Chief Operating Officer, a Management Board Role, Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, Effective September 15, 2018.

Mr Schunk has been until recently the CEO and Chairman of the board at Holtzbrinck Digital, where he has been responsible for the Holtzbrinck Group’s digital activities across the world. Mr Schunk joins Definiens with extensive experience in developing very successful digital platform and SaaS businesses including Parship, My Hammer, and Searchmetrics. In the most recent years, his focus has been on digital business in the fields of Science (Altmetric.com), Education (Amboss.com), and Health (Netdoktor.de, Med1.de.).

After receiving his Master Degree in General Management at the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen, Mr. Markus Schunk started his career as a Senior Consultant in Corporate Finance with KPMG. From 2004 until now he has been working for the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group where he gained experience through various positions from Project Manager M&A, to several CFO and Managing Director roles until becoming CEO of Holtzbrinck Digital in 2015.

In Markus Schunk’s words: “I am excited and honored to be joining Definiens and an industry which is undergoing digitally and data-driven change and to work with people from around the world passionate about what they do and to contribute to the growth. I have been impressed by the drive, passion and deep industry knowledge of the colleagues I have already met at Definiens, and I very much look forward to working together with Thomas and the entire team on the future.”

Definiens CEO, Thomas Heydler said, "Attracting a professional of the caliber and experience of Mr Schlunk to the key role of COO, in our view, is testimony to the company commitment to strengthen our operation, and commitment to our digital and data science strategy."

About Definiens

Improving patient lives by unlocking the tissue phenome.

In oncology, therapeutic strategies have shifted from a direct assault on cancer cells to recruiting the immune system for that purpose. Our mission is to accelerate breakthroughs in immuno-oncology by helping pharmaceutical researchers better leverage tissue-based information through Definiens Tissue Phenomics^® - technology. Our expertise accelerates and deepens understanding of disease biology and immune system mechanisms and allows to bring multi-omics data into a cancer-relevant context, which facilitates the translation of new insights into novel therapies and treatment strategies. Our vision is to create unique and actionable patient profiles through harmonized biomarkers for an individualized standard of care, where patients experience fewer side effects and live longer. Definiens’ proven technology has been used in thousands of projects, yielding results that have accelerated drug development and produced over 1000 peer-reviewed publications.

Definiens is a member of the AstraZeneca group providing products and services to companies across the biopharma sector.

Source: Definiens AG