OpGen Appoints Albert Weber as Chief Financial Officer
November 04 2021 - 6:30AM
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN, “OpGen” or the “Company”), a precision
medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and
bioinformatics to help combat infectious disease, today announced
the appointment of Albert Weber as OpGen’s new Chief Financial
Officer and Managing Director of OpGen’s subsidiary Curetis GmbH
effective January 1, 2022.
Mr. Weber is a corporate finance executive who
brings more than 30 years of professional experience in accounting,
controlling and corporate finance roles. During the last 21 years,
he served in several roles for Epigenomics AG, a molecular
diagnostics company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, with
operations in the United States and Germany. Since 2018, Mr. Weber
served as Executive Officer and Executive Board member (Vorstand)
and EVP Finance. Prior to that, he held roles of increasing
responsibilities including VP and SVP of Finance, Accounting, and
Controlling. Prior
to joining Epigenomics in 2000, Mr. Weber served as the Corporate
Controller at Pironet AG, an IT company that he helped take public
in the 2000. Following Epigenomics’ initial public offering in 2004
on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ECX), Mr. Weber was instrumental
in numerous equity and debt financing transactions for the company,
including the listing of American depositary receipts in the United
States. While at Epigenomics, he oversaw the operational and
financial aspects of the commercial launches of molecular
diagnostics products via direct sales teams in the U.S. and Europe
as well as via partners in China and was instrumental in several
strategic corporate transactions, including a public tender offer
by Chinese investors for all of Epigenomics in 2017, valued at
roughly $186 million at the time and the proposed transaction was
fully supported by the company’s board.
Asked for his reasons for joining OpGen, Mr.
Weber commented, “This is a really exciting time in the corporate
development and evolution of OpGen. With the recent FDA clearance
for the unique Acuitas AMR Gene Panel, already FDA-cleared Unyvero
products, and further products in the pipeline that are expected to
get approvals in the U.S. as well as China and other parts of the
world, this a perfect time for me to bring my experience to the
team. I am excited to work with the OpGen board and executive
leadership in shaping the next phase of our growth story.”
Bill Rhodes, OpGen’s chairman, said, “We warmly
welcome Albert to the executive team at OpGen and believe that he
brings a unique blend of Trans-Atlantic CFO experience and
expertise from the U.S. markets as well as Germany to OpGen. While
we have our headquarters here in Maryland, two thirds of our global
operations are in Germany and Austria. The ability to work across
OpGen’s international operating businesses and platforms, and
experience in working with a CEO based in the U.S. was a key factor
in our decision to bring Albert to OpGen as our next CFO.”
Oliver Schacht, OpGen’s CEO added, “The entire
OpGen leadership team is excited to have Albert join our team as
there are few people in the molecular diagnostics industry that
bring such a unique mix of corporate finance and hands-on
operations experience in both the U.S. and in Europe. I know he
will strengthen our team with complementary skills and unique deal
making and execution expertise. Especially his deep experience in
making strategic deals in China and leading those to fruition and
potential strategic M&A opportunities in the last few years
could turn into a great asset to OpGen moving forward.”
Mr. Weber will initially be based in Germany and
work primarily out of the Company’s Curetis GmbH office in
Holzgerlingen near Stuttgart, but expects to spend a significant
amount of time at the U.S. headquarters in 2022 and beyond as he
will oversee and manage the global finance teams in their entirety.
Mr. Weber has a Masters in Business Administration (Diplom
Kaufmann) from the University of Cologne.
Inducement Grant under NASDAQ Listing
Rule 5635(c)(4)
In connection with the appointment of Mr. Weber,
OpGen granted Mr. Weber an inducement grant of stock options to
purchase an aggregate of 210,00 shares of OpGen’s common stock with
a grant date of January 3, 2022. The equity award was granted
pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4) inducement grant
exception as a component of Mr. Weber’s employment compensation and
was granted as an inducement material to his acceptance of
employment with OpGen. The options will have an exercise price
equal to the closing price of OpGen’s common stock as reported on
Nasdaq on January 3, 2022, the first trading day after Mr. Weber’s
start date. The option award will vest over a four-year period with
25% vesting on the first anniversary of the date of grant and in
equal quarterly installments on each quarterly anniversary
thereafter. The award is subject to Mr. Weber’s continued service
with OpGen through the applicable vesting dates.
About OpGen, Inc.
OpGen, Inc. (Rockville, MD, USA) is a precision
medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and
bioinformatics to help combat infectious disease. Along with our
subsidiaries, Curetis GmbH and Ares Genetics GmbH, we are
developing and commercializing molecular microbiology solutions
helping to guide clinicians with more rapid and actionable
information about life threatening infections to improve patient
outcomes, and decrease the spread of infections caused by
multidrug-resistant microorganisms, or MDROs. OpGen’s product
portfolio includes Unyvero, Acuitas AMR Gene Panel and Acuitas®
Lighthouse, and the ARES Technology Platform including ARESdb,
using NGS technology and AI-powered bioinformatics solutions for
antibiotic response prediction.
For more information, please visit
www.opgen.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements regarding
the appointment of the Company’s CFO. These statements and other
statements regarding OpGen’s future plans and goals constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of
the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to qualify for the safe
harbor from liability established by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict, are beyond
our control, and which may cause results to differ materially from
expectations. Factors that could cause our results to differ
materially from those described include, but are not limited to,
our ability to successfully, timely and cost-effectively develop,
seek and obtain regulatory clearance for and commercialize our
product and services offerings, the rate of adoption of our
products and services by hospitals and other healthcare providers,
the fact that we may not effectively use proceeds from our
financings, the realization of expected benefits of our business
combination transaction with Curetis GmbH, the success of our
commercialization efforts, the impact of COVID-19 on the Company’s
operations, financial results, and commercialization efforts as
well as on capital markets and general economic conditions, the
effect on our business of existing and new regulatory requirements,
and other economic and competitive factors. For a discussion of the
most significant risks and uncertainties associated with OpGen's
business, please review our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements, which are based on our
expectations as of the date of this press release and speak only as
of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
required by laws.
Contact:
OpGen:Oliver SchachtPresident and
CEOInvestorRelations@opgen.com
OpGen Press Contact:Matthew
Bretzius FischTank Marketing and PR
matt@fischtankpr.com
OpGen Investor Contact:Maxwell
ColbertEdison Groupmcolbert@edisongroup.com
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