Ilka Wicke

Dr. Ilka Wicke has spent more than two decades at Boehringer Ingelheim, moving from the research bench through corporate development into venture investing and, most recently, sustainability leadership. She holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she investigated retroviral gene-therapy approaches in oncology.

She joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 1996 as head of an interdisciplinary research laboratory focused on new drug-discovery approaches. She then spent more than 13 years in the company's Corporate Licensing Division (roughly 1998–2010), where she was responsible for evaluating, negotiating, and managing global licensing transactions, collaborations, and partnering deals.

From 2010 onward, Wicke helped build and served as Investment Manager and Director at the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), the company's strategic corporate venture arm established in 2010 with a €350M mandate. In that role she evaluated and led investments into early-stage biotech companies and took active board seats. Her work earned her recognition as one of Global Corporate Venturing's "Rising Stars" in 2018.

More recently, Wicke has become Global Head of Sustainability Social at Boehringer Ingelheim, leading the company's social-engagement pillar under its sustainability strategy — including the "Making More Health" initiative and the Boehringer Ingelheim Social Engagement Fund, which she launched in 2021 to back and scale social startups (including ventures in Africa). The overarching commitment is to improve the lives of 50 million people in vulnerable communities by 2030.

• Invests as a strategic corporate VC, not a personal angel — BIVF takes minority stakes but requires a voting board seat to actively support portfolio companies.
• Backs first-in-class, disease-modifying science: pre-clinical assets and platforms in oncology, regenerative medicine, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, and digital health.
• Focuses on seed and Series A company formation, often co-leading rounds and staying involved from an early stage through follow-on financings.
• Brings scientific and dealmaking depth — a chemistry PhD plus 13+ years of licensing/partnering experience — so diligence is science-led and partnership-oriented.
• Newer focus via the Social Engagement Fund (2021): scaling social/health startups serving underserved communities, blending financial and non-financial support.