Cellectis announces appointment of Pierre Schwich as Group CFO

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Pierre Schwich (Photo: Business Wire)

Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS), the global genome engineering specialist, has announced its appointment of Pierre Schwich as Group Chief Financial Officer. A graduate of the Ecole des Mines de Paris, Pierre Schwich first joined Cellectis in 2011. He will now become a member of the Group’s executive committee.

Pierre Schwich succeeds Marc Le Bozec, who has been the Group’s CFO since 2006. Marc Le Bozec is leaving Cellectis to focus on a new business venture.

Over his 35-year career, Pierre Schwich has held positions ranging from that of industrial operations manager (Corning, Danone, Hewlett-Packard) to that of investment director (3i, Siparex, Next Venture), eventually specializing in the administrative and financial management of listed or privately held companies (Genesys Conferencing, Global Design Technologies in Los Angeles, California).

Pierre Schwich is also known for his expertise in financial strategy, especially as it pertains to businesses that are experiencing major growth, be it internal or external. His in-depth knowledge of international groups has helped some become global industry players.

As Deputy CFO of Genesys Conferencing, Pierre Schwich was responsible for overseeing the company’s IPO on the Paris stock exchange (Nouveau Marché) in 1998 and on Nasdaq in 2001, as well as related fundraising efforts, for a total of €145 million. During the six years he spent as CFO at Genesys, Pierre Schwich pioneered the restructuring of the company’s bank financing while also overseeing more than ten acquisitions.

Over the second half of the last decade, as CFO of Global Design Technologies, a Los Angeles-based world leader in hydraulic fittings for the aerospace industry, Pierre Schwich was responsible for carrying out the integration of several companies, overseeing the sale of the group, and arranging more than €200 million in staple financing.

André Choulika, Chairman and CEO of Cellectis, offered a heartfelt tribute to Marc Le Bozec’s service over the past six years: "Under Marc Le Bozec’s dynamic leadership, our Group has succeeded in mobilizing the financial resources it needs in order to develop. After masterfully conducting Cellectis’ IPO in 2007, Marc Le Bozec oversaw successful capital increases in 2009 and 2011. This second increase involved the Company’s first contributions of capital from two new benchmark investors, one of which was the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI), for a total of €50 million, at the same time as we acquired Cellartis, a leader in Europe’s stem cell industry. Due to his extensive experience and two years spent as Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the Cellectis Group Pierre Schwich has the full confidence of the Executive Committee to bring the Company to a new dimension for the profit of our shareholders.”

About Cellectis

Founded in France in 1999, the Cellectis Group is based on highly specific DNA engineering technologies. Its application sectors are human health, agriculture and bio-energies. Co-created by André Choulika, its Chief Executive Officer, Cellectis is today one of the world leading companies in the field of génome engineering. The Group has a workforce of 230 employees working on 5 sites worldwide: Paris & Evry in France, Gothenburg in Sweden, St Paul (Minnesota) & Cambridge (Massachusetts) in the United States. Cellectis achieved revenues of €16M in 2011 and has since its inception has signed more than 80 industrial agreements with pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and biotechnology companies. Since 2007, Cellectis has been listed on NYSE-Euronext Alternext market (code: ALCLS) in Paris.

For more information, visit our website: http://www.cellectis.com

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe, for shares in Cellectis in any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Company’s objectives based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company’s management only and involve risk and uncertainties that could cause the Company to fail to achieve the objectives expressed by the forward-looking statements above.

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