Meet our Foundation Board

It achieves its purpose in particular by:

• Taking measures and promoting institutions to improve patient care (support and after-care)
• Recruiting and supporting informed volunteers who are willing to donate bone marrow or blood stem cells for the purpose of transplantation
• Developing and maintaining systems to simplify and accelerate the search for donors with the purpose of finding matching donors for bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantations
• Financially supporting scientific research in the field of bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation with non-related donors, with test methods of histocompatibility, for stem cell expansion and gene therapy
• Taking measures and promoting institutions for vocational training in the area of bone marrow or stem cell transplantation, in particular, medical specialists, clinical staff, search coordinators, the staff of donor centers and registries, scientists, geneticists, medical ethicists, and laboratory staff
• Promoting the cooperation of all institutions active in the area of the Foundation’s purpose
• Publicly working to achieve the purpose of the Foundation.
  

Foundation Board Members

Katharina Harf, Chairwoman of the DKMS Foundation Board

For Katharina Harf, DKMS and the fight against blood cancer have been her life’s passion since the age of 14. After losing her mother to leukaemia, Katharina put her focus into education, ultimately moving to the United States and graduating from Harvard cum laude. With her degree in hand, Katharina returned to DKMS, the company her father founded in the wake of her mother’s death, with a desire to expand the reach and impact of their life-saving work.

After helping her father found the first international branch of DKMS in New York City, Katharina took on a number of positions to help get the fledgling office on its feet. From managing the organizations PR and Marketing departments to acting as CEO, Katharina’s passion for the well-being of patients and their families and her dedication to increasing awareness around the cause helped DKMS quickly grow, with over one million registered donors in the US. Katharina is the Chairwoman of the Foundation Board of DKMS, acting as the public face of the organization. In addition to the current scope of her global duties, Katharina is also, overseeing operations and strategy for the country’s offices.

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, Chairman of the DKMS Medical Council and Vice Chairman of the DKMS Foundation Board

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, is a leading oncologist with extensive experience in both laboratory and clinical research, specializing in strategies to improve allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). He is the Head of the Hematologic Malignancies department at the world-renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer

Prof. Thomas Klingebiel, Vice Chairman of the DKMS Medical Council and Senior Advisor Access to Transplantation

Thomas Klingebiel, MD, was Director of the Clinic for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the Frankfurt University Hospital of the Goethe University from 2000-2021. The Clinic for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine also includes the focus areas of pediatric oncology, hematology and hemostaseology and the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Center Frankfurt; it is considered one of the best in Germany. Since July 1, 2021, he has been managing director of the Frankfurt-based association Hilfe für krebskranke Kinder Frankfurt e.V. (Help for Children with Cancer Frankfurt).

Alejandro Santo Domingo

Alejandro Santo Domingo is the Managing Director of Quadrant Capital Advisors Inc. in New York. He is also a member of the Board of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Chairman of Bavaria S.A., member of the Board of Backus & Johnston SAA in Peru, Director of Caracol Televisión and Fundación Mario Santo Domingo.

Prof. Dieter Hoelzer

Prof. Dieter Hoelzer was the Director of the Department of Haematology/Oncology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases at the Frankfurt University Hospital for more than 20 years. He has extensive clinical experience with inpatient and outpatient treatment of all haematological/oncological and internal diseases. Prof. Hoelzer is one of the most renowned haematologists and specialists in the field of acute lymphatic leukaemia. He was also awarded with the DKMS Mechtild Harf Science Award in 2017.

Patrice de Talhouët

Patrice de Talhouët is the Head of Western Europe at JAB Consumer Fund and former Executive VP/CFO at Coty, a leading global cosmetics company. He was Corporate Finance Officer Americas and a CFO of Mars, Inc. and served as Dean of Mars University for Finance.

Laurence David Atlas

Laurence David Atlas is a senior executive and attorney. He is the Special Counsel at the Office of the General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, an independent United States government agency regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable.

Sebastian Lombardo

Sebastian Lombardo is the Chairman and CEO of Valtech, a leading business and digital transformation agency. With a strong background in technology and finance, Sebastian has been working in the IT/Digital sector for the past 20 years.

Anna-Lena Kamenetzky-Wetzel

Anna-Lena Kamenetzky-Wetzel is a former Partner and Head of Business Development at JAB Holding in Washington, DC as well as former Co-Head of JAB Consumer Partners. Consequently, she founded and runs K4 Family Investments, an investment company focused on backing growth companies in consumer goods and services. She serves on the Boards of Kitu Life, Inc (owner of the brand Super Coffee), Fuzzy and Project Pollo.