Leadership Corner
Markus Lusser, President
Markus joined Leica Microsystems on July 1st 2015 as President. Markus comes from Sciex where he served as the Vice President of Global Sales and Customer Support since 2011.
Prior to joining Danaher, Markus was responsible for global sales and service at Carestream leading a global team of over 2000 associates. Prior to that, Markus spent 21 years with Siemens Healthcare with half his tenure based in the United States and the other half based in Germany. While at Siemens, he held a variety of both technical and commercial roles with increasing responsibility.
Markus holds a degree in Engineering in Electronics from HTBLA in Innsbruck, Austria.
Melanie Hammerschmidt-Broman, Chief Financial Officer
Melanie Hammerschmidt-Broman joined Leica Microsystems in April 2008 as Manager Consolidation & Controlling Leica Microsystems & Leica Biosystems, before she was promoted to Director Financial Planning and Analysis Leica Microsystems in April 2012. During the past 3 years Melanie was instrumental in setting up the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) team and taking Finance Business Partnering to the next level.
Before joining Leica, Melanie was Head of Finance at a coating materials manufacturer, and prior to that she gained broad finance experience in banking and semiconductor manufacturing companies in both, Germany and the US.
Melanie holds a Diploma from Academy for Communication and Languages in Stuttgart and a Finance degree from the University of Central Florida, Orlando.
Fedja Bobanovic, Senior Vice President Global Commercial Operations
As of January 2016 Fedja joined Leica Microsystems as Vice President Life Sciences. Fedja joins Leica from Cambridge Epigenetix LTD where he held the position of the CEO for the past 2 years. Prior to that Fedja worked for over 2 years for the Danaher company Sciex where he successfully developed the Sales and Customer Service teams within EMEA and India. Prior to Danaher, Fedja worked in various General Manager, BU and Sales positions at PerkinElmer, located in Italy, India, US and UK.
He started his career as Research Scientist in Cambridge at the Institute of Animal Physiology where he gained a deep understanding of the advanced microscopy space as he purchased and used 5 Confocal Microscopes. Fedja holds a Degree in Engineering, and a PhD in Cellular Physiology.
Beate Berns, Vice President Global Human Resources
Beate Berns joined Leica as Vice President Global Human Resources in March 2017. She brings significant expertise across the full spectrum of HR, change management and HR consulting from working in leading global IT/professional services companies for over 20 years.
Beate joins us from Avanade, where she has performed a variety of HR leadership roles, most recently as Vice President, Human Resources Europe, during the past 4 years. Beate started her career with Accenture, where she was responsible for all people-related aspects of outsourcing, shared services and M&A engagements.
Beate holds a degree in Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz as well as additional professional qualifications in leadership coaching, training and languages.
Gerald Nitsch, Vice President Applied Microscopy
Gerald Nitsch joined Leica beginning of 2018 as Vice President Applied Microscopy. Gerald adds more than 25 years of experience in optical precision instruments and technologies to Leica.
In his most recent assignment, Gerald served as CEO of Sensofar, a global leader in the 3D surface metrology and automated inspection space. Gerald holds a Master degree in mechanical engineering.
Andreas Hecker, Vice President Global Research & Development
Andreas Hecker joined Leica Microsystems in March 2004 as an Optic Design Engineer. He worked as a Senior Project Manager for the sites Wetzlar and Mannheim before he became Head of Software Development for the Life Science Division in 2009.
Between 2011–2013, he has also served as R&D Director Digital Pathology at Leica Biosystems and as Global Director Software Development for Leica Microsystems. In August 2014 he took over the position as Vice President Global Research & Development.
Andreas has completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Bochum in Germany. After having earned his doctorate in the field of Laser Physics and Spectroscopy, he was heading a small team for Laser Scanning Microscopy for IR at the university.
Maxim Mamin, Vice President Medical Division
Maxim Mamin joined Leica in October 2016 as Vice President Medical Division.
Maxim comes from Siemens Healthcare where he worked in a number of leadership positions and countries for the last 18 years including Russia, Germany, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia. Most recently, Maxim served as Managing Director for the commercial organization of Siemens Healthcare in Malaysia with full P&L responsibility for the entire portfolio spanning from Imaging to Lab Diagnostics.
Maxim's background is in Medicine and he holds two Medical Degrees from Ludwig-Maximilians University and Moscow Medical Academy. Additionally, he has two MBA degrees from the University of California in Los Angeles and Singapore University.
Marc Orellou, Vice President Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance (RA/QA)
Marc Orellou joined Leica Microsystems in December 2015 as Vice President Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance (RA/QA).
Marc brings broad RA/QA knowledge and experience from the Medical Device industry. He comes from LivaNova where he held a number of global Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance leadership roles with increasing responsibilities over the past 8 years. Marc served most recently as VP Quality Assurance for the Cardiac Rhythm Management business unit (implantable pacemakers and defibrillators) of LivaNova. Prior to this, Marc began his career with GE Healthcare in various Regulatory Affairs, Quality / Six Sigma, and R&D roles in France (X-ray Mammography) and in the US (Computed Tomography and Surgical Navigation).
Marc holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France.
Marcela Kirberger, Chief Counsel
Marcela Kirberger joined Leica Microsystems (LMS) as Chief Counsel in 2017.
Prior to joining LMS, Marcela was at Sandoz International (a Division of Novartis) where she most recently held the position of Global Head of Legal for the Biopharma business unit and was responsible for the unit’s global legal strategy, including sales and marketing, medical affairs, market access, business development, licensing, clinical development programs and legal regulatory affairs. Prior to that role, Marcela was the Global Compliance Officer at Sandoz where, along with her team, she pioneered a broad upgrade to the governance framework as well as many culture and awareness initiatives. Marcela also held several senior legal roles in different Novartis companies while gaining extensive experience in the US, Latin America, Europe and, Asia.
Marcela holds a legal JD from the Catholic University of Argentina and a JD from Rutgers University, School of Law-Newark, with Honors.
Bruno Rossi, Vice President Global Marketing and DBS
Bruno joined Leica Microsystems as the Vice President, Global Marketing and DBS in 2018.
Bruno comes from Merck KGaA, Life Science, where he was most recently Vice President, Global Commercial Head for both the Diagnostic segment and the Tissue Diagnostic portfolio. Bruno brings with him over 20 years of international experience and in-depth knowledge of the academic, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and chemical markets for research, development, quality control, and manufacturing applications covering immunoassays, immunohistochemistry, genomics, flow cytometry, filtration, microbiology, water purification, and service products. Bruno has built his impressive career spanning general management, marketing, sales, service, OEM, product management, and R&D leadership roles within both customer-centric and/or product-centric organizations. He started his career at Millipore, which then became part of Merck KGaA, a few years ago.
Bruno holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.
Markus Limberger, Vice President Global Operations
Markus Limberger joined Leica Microsystems on September 1st 2018 from Leica Camera AG where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the past 7 years.
In his role he was responsible for R&D, Quality Management, Procurement and Customer Service, and he successfully ran global Operations with impressive manufacturing sites in Wetzlar and Portugal. Markus is a very experienced leader in every angle of Optics and Digital Imaging as he built the foundation to his successful career at Rodenstock/ Qioptiq. Markus was heading global Operations focusing on the end-markets Medical Devices, Industrial applications and Semiconductor before he moved to Wetzlar in 2007 where he became managing director of a leading supplier in the optical industry and later joined Leica Camera as their COO.
Markus holds a master degree in business engineering from the University of Karlsruhe.
Mark Wetzel, Vice President Global Service
Mark Wetzel joined Leica in November 2018 as Vice President, Global Service.
In his role, Mark is responsible for our Service go-to-market strategy and offerings, delivery models and resource allocation needs, standardizing and improving our after sales processes globally, and get Service to the next level of excellence and customer experience. Mark is an experienced business leader who joined Leica from SCIEX, which he joined in 2009 and where he held the role of Vice President, Global DBS. He was responsible for the effective deployment of DBS for SCIEX and Phenomenex in all functions and regions and for driving results through continuous improvement across the business. Mark has led the successful transitions of both the Phenomenex and IDBS businesses to Danaher.
Besides his DBS expertise, Mark brings a strong business management, operations and Information Technology background within and prior to his career at Danaher.
Christine Munz, Vice President Life Science
Christine Munz joined Leica Microsystems in January 2019 as Vice President Life Science. Christine joined us from Roche Diagnostics, where she has built her career over the last 18 years.
In her last role as Life Cycle Leader for Glucose Monitoring Systems business Christine was in charge of creating and delivering the global portfolio strategy, as well as managing the entire product development lifecycle from ideation to product development and commercialization. She successfully led international business teams in the US and Germany. Prior to that, Christine held different commercial leadership roles for various geographies, including being the Regional Business Leader Applied Science for Asia Pacific, based out of China.
Christine holds a PhD in Cell and Tumor Biology from the University of Heidelberg (German Cancer Research Center - DKFZ) and a Diploma in Molecular Biology from the University in Freiburg.