Dr Mario Polywka

Dr Mario Polywka is Chief Operating Officer of Evotec. In 1991, he was a founding chemist of Oxford Asymmetry International plc (OAI), became Director of Chemistry in 1993 and a Board Director in 1996. In 1999, Dr Polywka was appointed Chief Operating Officer and in 2001 Chief Executive Officer of OAI. Following the merger of EVOTEC BioSystems AG with OAI in 2000 he was Chief Operating Officer until 2002. Between 2002 and 2004 Dr Polywka ran a number of spin-out companies in the Oxford area, and still serves as Chairman on the boards of Pharminox and Glycoform.

Dr Polywka received a doctorate from the University of Oxford in mechanistic organometallic chemistry and continued at Oxford with post-doctoral studies on the biosynthesis of Penicillins. He held a number of college lectureships at Oxford University between 1988 and 1994. Dr Polywka is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has a number of publications and patents mainly in the field of asymmetric synthesis.