Before joining Earlybird as Venture Advisor, Elena has gained broad experience with multiple product candidates "from the bench to market" in the biotechnology industry.

Most recently, she was Head of Marketing, Nephrology at AMGEN GmbH in Munich and in this function was responsible for building the nephrology organization of the company and it's nephrology franchise. In particular she managed the successful launch of AMGEN's first therapeutic product in the German nephrology market, Aranesp^TM.

Prior to this, she was with Centocor, USA, as Director, Worldwide Marketing, Oncology and New Products, responsible for strategic recommendations for the company's oncology and new product line, including international partner activities. She also served for four years in Centocor's clinical research department and was responsible for planning, developing and supervising clinical project plans, protocols and study summaries of phase 1-4 clinical trials. As Director, Clinical Research, Oncology she was responsible for the clinical development and successful filing of a product license application (PLA) of an innovative cancer drug.

Dr. Holz was a Research Fellow at the University of Munich, Institute for Immunology and also at the Department of Gynecologic Oncology of Harvard Medical School, focusing on research with monoclonal antibodies. She holds an MD and a PhD in Human Medicine from the University of Heidelberg and a BS in Bioengineering from Columbia University, New York.