Gunnar has extensive commercial experience with pharmaceutical companies as well as Contract Research Organisations (CROs). He held various positions at Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Astellas before joining Serentis, a biotech in Cambridge UK, as Commercial Director.

In 2009 Gunnar joined Avantium as CEO of Avantium Pharma their troubled pharmaceutical CRO business specialising in solid state research. He executed a management buyout of Avantium Pharma and as CEO implemented a turnaround plan taking the new company Crystallics from a loss making business to a successful global service provider for the pharmaceutical industry and five years later sold the business to Ardena (www.ardena.com).

He received a MBA from Warwick Business School and an undergraduate Economics degree from the University of Reading.