Leadership Team

Gilles became CEO of Actylis in July 2019 and brings more than 30 years of global industry leadership experience in life sciences, fine chemicals, and research chemicals to his new role at Actylis. Most recently, he served as Head of Bioscience at Lonza. Previously, he had held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at Sigma Aldrich during his nearly 30 years there, including his role as Executive Vice President and President of the Sigma Aldrich Fine Chemicals Commercial Unit. Gilles earned a master’s degree in organic chemistry from the Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon and the advanced management program from the Harvard Business School in Boston.

Tim joined Actylis in June 2021. In Tim’s role, he leads Actylis’ merger and acquisition efforts, including integration. He also partners with various business units across the company to develop new opportunities, with a focus on business and geographic expansion. Tim has 15 years of M&A experience, having spent almost 10 years at Morgan Stanley in its Investment Banking Division, before moving into corporate M&A, where he was most recently part of the corporate development team at Eastman Chemical. Tim’s M&A experience is global, including 7 years when he was based in Hong Kong and Singapore. Tim earned his MBA in Finance and Strategy from the University of Iowa and holds a BA from Cornell College.

Ian joined Actylis in May 2023. Actylis' business unit teams in Germany, France and Netherlands report directly to Ian who also coordinates support functions ( HR, Finance, Logistics, Regulatory and IT ) in Europe. Ian has held various leadership roles in Sales and Marketing for Merck and previously Sigma-Aldrich, starting his career in Sigma-Aldrich in sales in 1996 - 2000 and then again in 2004. He has progressed into sales management and leadership as VP Sales North America and his most recent posting of Senior VP and Head of BioMonitoring Franchise within Merck Life Sciences. Ian has had a number of international postings taking him from his native UK to Munich Germany, St Gallen Switzerland, Boston MA USA and Strasbourg France. He is now based in Basel Switzerland. Ian has a bachelor's degree in Applied Biochemistry from Liverpool John Moores University and an Executive MBA from HSG University St Gallen, Switzerland.

Damien joined Actylis in April 2021 as part of the acquisition of A&C, a global GMP manufacturer of excipients, buffers, and process solutions. He was appointed President in January 2022, having held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at A&C over the last 11 years, most recently as VP & COO where he was responsible for the global operations of the company including the successful execution of investment and change programs. Prior to joining A&C, he spent over a decade in the Merchant Navy and Oil & Gas sector and served as Chief Engineer with OOCL. Damien graduated from CIT (MTU) in Marine & Plant Engineering. He earned his Chief Engineer license at the National Maritime College of Ireland and completed the Executive Development Course at McGill Executive Institute in Montreal.

Sunil Punjabi is Actylis’ President of Asia Pacific. He joined the company in February 2022 and is based in Bangalore, India. Sunil is responsible for expanding Actylis’ sales presence in the Asia Pacific region. He has previously worked for Merck KGaA in India, where he was most recently the Managing Director of Merck Life Sciences and Merck Country Speaker. Sunil brings over 30 years of experience in the Life Science industry predominantly with Merck KGaA and Sigma Aldrich where he held a number of positions of increasing responsibilities in Asia in the sales, marketing and operations departments, including 2 years as Managing Director of Sigma Aldrich South East Asia based in Singapore .

Varun joined Actylis in November 2020 and oversees Actylis procurement organization including sourcing offices in India and China. He comes to Aceto with a varied background including Engineering, Marketing, Strategy, Procurement, Sales, and General business management for firms such as Cummins, ArvinMeritor and Actuant in both the US and India. Varun co-founded and directed Radeo Engineered Components immediately prior to joining Aceto. Varun holds a BS in Mathematics & Physics from Elon University and a master’s in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.

Ed became SVP of Marketing & Operations at Actylis in April 2020, and has oversight for operations, supply chain, Quality, IT, and marketing. He comes to Actylis with over 25 years in the life sciences and fine chemicals industries, 20 of those with Sigma-Aldrich / Merck KGaA. Ed has held senior roles in marketing, sales, supply chain management, operations, process improvement, distributor management, and strategy in both Europe and the US. In his last position at Sigma-Aldrich/Merck KGaA, he was SVP of eBusiness, overseeing the $2B web channel. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Cornell University and an MBA from Washington University’s Olin School of Business.

John joined Actylis in August, 2019 with more than 25 years of executive HR experience, primarily in global manufacturing companies. John has led global HR functions, including talent acquisition and development, employee relations, compensation, benefits and shared services. John previously served as Chief Human Resources Officer at EMD Performance Materials and MilliporeSigma. He began his career at E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Inc. as an engineer and held various roles in engineering and HR. John holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University.

James joined Actylis in January 2020. He brings more than 30 years of strategic financial execution and global finance experience. Most recently, James was Director of Corporate/International Finance at World Wide Technology (WWT). WWT is a $11B private, global technology service provider based in Missouri. Prior to joining WWT, James spent over 10 years at Sigma Aldrich/Merck KGaA in key executive financial roles of increasing responsibility. In his last position at Sigma-Aldrich/Merck KGaA James was Vice President, Integration Planning Office Lead. In this position he played a key role on several M&A opportunities including the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA. James holds a BSBA in Accounting from the University of Missouri-St Louis and is a CPA.

Keith joined Actylis in 1990. He holds dual roles as President, North America and SVP of Specialty Chemicals business globally. Keith’s initial role at Actylis was product manager and he then served in multiple roles of increasing responsibility over the years. Since 2010, Keith has been involved in Actylis' strategic push in the specialty chemical arena in Europe. Keith graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Delaware.