Stepping into the CEO role: why leadership training matters for deep tech founders

Bridgeen Callan did not set out to found a company. She was a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and an active researcher when she co‑invented a modification of photodynamic therapy that her team now markets as Klas‑PDT. As CEO of Klas Therapeutics she leads a four person full time team and manages scientific development, milestone delivery, business development and fundraising. To accelerate the transition from academic principal investigator to CEO she joined the 8th cohort of the European Innovation Council Women Leadership Programme, a targeted initiative combining training, mentoring and coaching for women founders and researchers.

Klas Therapeutics and the promise of Klas‑PDT

Klas Therapeutics is developing a proprietary approach to photodynamic therapy for malignant melanoma. The company claims preclinical results that include a 500 percent reduction in tumour size compared with standard PDT and near total eradication of melanoma cells in laboratory studies. Klas positions the technology as complementary to immunotherapies and as a lower toxicity, lower cost option for a subset of melanoma patients that are currently underserved. Bridgeen describes the opportunity as addressing an unmet need in roughly a quarter of melanoma cases.

From academia to the CEO seat

Callan says the science itself did not change when she moved from the university to the start up. What changed were the expectations and the measures of success. In academia success is measured through publications, grants and collaborations. As CEO she needed to translate scientific achievements into business milestones, an investor narrative and a development plan that supports clinical testing. She applied to the EIC Women Leadership Programme because she wanted to be taken seriously as a CEO and to gain business skills on negotiation, team leadership and fundraising.

What the EIC Women Leadership Programme delivered

The programme mixes cohort training, personal mentoring and business coaching and is run through the EIC Business Acceleration Services. Participants work on tailored training modules and receive feedback from peers and experienced practitioners. Bridgeen emphasises two practical outcomes. First, her confidence in networking and pitching increased after sessions on presence and posture. Second, a module on leading high performance teams changed how she gives feedback and sets expectations, which she says improved staff morale and productivity.

Beyond training, Bridgeen values the cohort as a sounding board. The cross disciplinary group of women founders and leaders provided unbiased feedback on operational problems and strategy. She credits the mentoring and coaching components with helping her prepare a stronger application for the EIC Accelerator after a previous unsuccessful try.

What this means for funding and clinical translation

Callan identifies fundraising as Klas Therapeutics' biggest current challenge. She says the WLP helped her prepare to reapply to the EIC Accelerator, a high value, competitive grant and equity instrument. That is a familiar path for many deep tech founders who rely on staged public funding to reach clinical proof of concept before attracting larger private investment. Even with positive early data, the step from preclinical results to human trials is resource intensive and uncertain. Investors and regulators will expect robust safety data, reproducible efficacy in relevant models and a clear plan for manufacturing, dosing and clinical endpoints.

The EIC ecosystem can help, but it is only part of the solution. The EIC Business Acceleration Services provide coaching, procurement matchmaking and investor readiness programmes. These services expand networks and visibility but do not replace the capital and clinical infrastructure required to run trials and obtain approvals.

Programmatic details and wider EIC context

The EIC Women Leadership Programme was piloted in 2021 and by 2025 had run nine cohorts with more than 300 female researchers and entrepreneurs participating. The initiative is explicitly intended to reduce barriers for women in deep tech and to raise the visibility of female role models in research to business translation. The EIC also runs complementary actions such as Women TechEU and the European Prize for Women Innovators. In 2024 the EIC reported that 30 percent of Accelerator supported companies were women led for that year and that a substantial but smaller share of projects across Pathfinder and Transition were coordinated by women.

A measured endorsement and remaining caveats

Bridgeen recommends the programme without reservation for women innovators who want peer feedback, improved leadership skills and stronger investor readiness. She praises the implementing partners Anna and Vilyana for their support. That endorsement is consistent with many participants who report tangible leadership gains. At the same time readers should be cautious about early stage efficacy claims. The Klas‑PDT preclinical results are promising but require clinical validation. Fundraising, regulatory strategy and manufacturing scale up are the hard, expensive steps ahead. Leadership training can reduce execution risk but not eliminate scientific and commercial uncertainty.

For women founders navigating that pathway the EIC Women Leadership Programme is one of several targeted interventions in the European innovation ecosystem that aim to level the playing field. Combining technical validation with strengthened leadership, investor readiness and network access increases the probability that a therapy moves from the lab into patients. It does not guarantee success.

Contact and further information

The EIC Women Leadership Programme is managed as part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services. Interested applicants and stakeholders can find calls and FAQs on the EIC Community platform or contact the programme team via the EIC Community contact page by choosing the 'EIC Women Leadership Programme' category.