Mr. von Rickenbach is the Managing Director of stet vision LLC. He serves as Chairman of the Board at ZAGENO Inc. and also as a Director on the Board of Aileron Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALRN). He is also an advisor and observer to other Boards. He is a Senior Advisor at General Atlantic global growth equity and a Director of its portfolio company Javara, Inc. Previously, Mr. von Rickenbach was co-Founder & CEO of Helio Vision, Inc., an ophthalmic biopharma company. Helio Vision was merged into Aldeyra Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ALDX) in early 2019. Mr. von Rickenbach was co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of PAREXEL International Corporation. He took PAREXEL from its pioneering beginnings as one of the first clinical research organizations (CROs) in the early 1980s to one of the top global biopharmaceutical services firms. He led PAREXEL through its IPO, multiple private and public offerings, and over 40 mergers and acquisitions. During his 36 years at the helm of the Company, PAREXEL evolved to provide a comprehensive range of drug development services, including globally integrated clinical development, regulatory affairs consulting, commercialization services and clinical trials information technologies. In a $5 billion “going private” transaction in 2017, PAREXEL was acquired by Private Equity, and transacted again for $8.5 billion in 2021 to a new set of PE owners.
Foreseeing the globalization of clinical research, Mr. von Rickenbach worked to expand PAREXEL’s global footprint to 86 locations in 51 countries. This extensive geographical presence and the Company’s 20,000 employees allow PAREXEL to conduct clinical trials across every continent and in more than 100 countries.
Through PAREXEL, Mr. von Rickenbach made several innovative contributions to the advancement of the biopharmaceutical services industry. He conceived of a streamlined, multi-disciplinary, systems-oriented approach to outsourced clinical development bringing efficiencies, speed, scalability and standardization to the process. As part of the industry’s first S-1 filing to the SEC, he was among the first to define the CRO industry in formal terms. As the industry adopted information technology, Mr. von Rickenbach instituted a leading advanced technology offering. Today, the former PAREXEL Informatics operates as Calyx Clinical Trial Solutions, Inc. and is a front runner in providing eClinical Solutions to the global biopharma industry.
Mr. von Rickenbach was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) and served as its Chairman. He was named Executive of the Year in North America in the 2010 International Business Awards, which celebrate managerial excellence worldwide. Mr. von Rickenbach won the Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1997 and has also served as a judge of the program. In 2013, Mr. von Rickenbach was honored by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) with the Henri Termeer Innovative Leadership Award. In 2014, he was named Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences. In 2018, he received the Scrip Informa Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Mr. von Rickenbach is a noted contributor to the New England business community, where PAREXEL’s global headquarters is based near Boston. He serves on the Board of Trustees of McLean Hospital, the Health Policy and Management Executive Council of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and on the Board of Directors of the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI). Mr. von Rickenbach has lectured at the Harvard Business School, the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University.
Mr. von Rickenbach’s extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical services industry places him at the forefront of drug development and management. After beginning his career with Schering-Plough, he held positions with ENSECO (formerly ERCO). Mr. von Rickenbach holds a B.A. in Business Economics from Lucerne University in Switzerland, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.