Board of Directors

Dr. Ferenc Darvas
Founder & Chairman

Dr. Ferenc Darvas is one of the true pioneers in the process intensification involved in modern chemistry. Dr. Darvas conceived the first industrialized solution-phase combinatorial synthesis technology (CMT). This was realized by ComGenex, the first European combinatorial chemistry corporation in 1992. In the mid-90's he focused to high-throughput ADME methodologies in combinatorial design, introduced combinatorial methodologies into chemical genomics, and recently, the use micro- and mesoscale flow reaction technologies for combinatorial synthesis and lead optimization when, as inventor, initiated and co-developed H-Cube®, the first bench top hydrogenator at ThalesNano, Inc.
Dr. Darvas received his first degree in organic chemistry, another in computer science, and his PhD. in the use of artificial intelligence in drug design. Dr. Darvas is co-founder of the International Society for QSAR, the Society for Biomolecular Screening (SBS), the Hungarian Chapter of the American Chemical Society and the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. He was teaching in Budapest, Barcelona, Gainesville (Florida, USA), and is still teaching as guest professor at UMIT in Hall/Innsbruck, Austria.

Dr. László Ürge

Dr. Ürge was appointed as the CEO of ThalesNano in March 2007. From 2001 to 2006 Dr. Ürge was the CEO of ComGenex Inc, an integrated drug discovery service provider. In 2006 he was the Vice President of European Operations for AMRI Hungary. Earlier he held the positions of Head of Pharmaceutical development at Biorex R&D Inc, an innovative biotechnology company. Prior to that he was a research group leader at Neurex Corporation (CA, USA) later acquired by Elan Pharmaceuticals. He did his postdoc at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. He is a Vice President of the Hungarian Association for Innovation and a Member of the Board of the Hungarian Biotechnology Association. Dr. Ürge is author of 55 publications and patents and a holder of two R&D awards.

Gábor Heltovics
CEO

Mr. Heltovics holds Master's degrees in Biology (1995), Chemistry (1995), and Business Administration (MBA - 2003). In 1995 he won an annual postgraduate research scholarship at Oxford University to study Neuropharmacology. He started his career in Procter & Gamble Global R&D in the UK, where he worked on various research and development projects as a Senior Scientist (1996-2001). In 2001, he returned to his native country - Hungary where he has held senior management positions in Coca-Cola and European Clinical Trials Associates. In his most recent role he was the director of business development at SOLVO Biotechnology. He is the author of a number of papers and 21 patents.

Erzsébet Pálné Tari

Erzsébet Pálné Tari was appointed as the Financial Director of ThalesNano in March 2007. She has also been the CEO of ComInnex since February 2006. Prior to this, she was a founder, a Board Member and the Controller for ComGenex between 1994 and 2006. She was  a Founder of ThalesNano in 2002 and established the financial systems of the company. Erzsébet Pálné Tari graduated from the Budapest Business School, College of Finance and Accountancy and she is a Certified Public Accountant.