Sebastian Giwa, PhD, MBA — Co-Founder & Chairman

Dr. Giwa is a serial biotech founder and CEO on a mission to improve human health. After working as an investment professional at Bain, Goldman Sachs and Bridgewater, Dr. Giwa shifted careers to pursue his passion in human health. He founded and was the original CEO of both the Organ Preservation Alliance (OPA, a 501c3 federal non-profit) and VC-backed stem cell company Ossium Health, working towards transplant tolerance and blood cancer cures.

In addition to his role as Co-Founder and Chairman of Elevian, Dr. Giwa leads the public benefit corporation Sylvatica Biotech as its CEO and CTO. In collaboration with leading U.S. academic institutions, Sylvatica is developing cryopreservation technology for transplant of organs and other biological systems.  He serves on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Transplantation's Organ Preservation and Procurement branch (CoP).

Dr. Giwa was invited to the US by Nobel Laurate Al Roth to be a visiting PhD student at Harvard, where he also earned an MBA and was recognized as a Baker Scholar. He has spoken widely on regenerative medicine, including on Capitol Hill and twice at the White House. Dr. Giwa has published in leading journals with top scientists and physicians (e.g. www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3889.pdf) and his work has been featured in Scientific American, The Economist, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), WIRED and Forbes.