Jose-Maria Fernandez Joins The Human Vaccines Project Board Of Directors

NEW YORK, May 3, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Human Vaccines Project, a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on decoding the immune system to improve human health, today announced the board appointment of Jose-Maria Fernandez, managing partner at Altamar Credit, Altamar Capital Partners LLC. Fernandez brings extensive experience in economics, finance and capital markets to the post. He formerly served as Director General of the Spanish Treasury.

"Jose-Maria brings deep expertise in financial markets in the US and Europe. Engaging him as part of our team will strengthen our current board as we continue to expand our project and reach," said Wayne C. Koff, president and CEO of the Human Vaccines Project. "Along with his background in business leadership and finance, he brings a strong personal committment to seeing biomedical research expand and improve to advance global public health."

In his role at the alternative investments management firm Altamar, Fernandez is focused on the design, fundraising and management of Altamar's Credit Business and is a member of the Investment Committee of Alta Life Sciences, a life sciences venture fund with a Spanish and European focus launched in 2016. Fernandez has also worked as Managing Director at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, and as a consultant for the World Bank as a securities and debt capital markets expert. Fernandez has also served on the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank and as a Board Member of CESCE (Spain's export credit agency).

Between 2010 and 2013, he worked for Professor Andrew W. Lo at MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering on the biomedical megafund project. He has authored various papers on this field, focusing on the use of securitization techniques to spur investments in early stage drug development for critical diseases. 

Fernandez holds an MBA from MIT Sloan (Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership), a Masters in Finance from the London Business School, a Masters in Portfolio Management degree from I.E.B. and Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Business from CUNEF (Madrid).

"I have a passion for using financial engineering to solve problems and create a better, more sustainable world, and I believe that my goals and dreams align well with the mission of the Human Vaccines Project," said Fernandez. "I am eager to start my work in support of the Human Vaccines Project as the organization advances research in an area that is critical to the future of human health – decoding the human immune system to understand why and how it works to help the body combat diseases."

About the Human Vaccines Project
The Human Vaccines Project is a nonprofit public-private partnership with a mission to decode the human immune system to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major infectious diseases and cancers. The Project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies. Support and funding for the Project includes the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, GSK, MedImmune, Sanofi Pasteur, Crucell/Janssen, Regeneron, Pfizer, Moderna, Boehringer Ingelheim, Aeras, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, J. Craig Venter Institute and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. To learn more, visit www.humanvaccinesproject.org.

For media inquiries, contact Kierstin Coatney at [email protected], (716) 378-1602.

SOURCE Human Vaccines Project