Ingvar Helgason

CEO & Co-Founder

Ingvar’s passion for fashion started at the age of 16, when he left school to become a fashion designer. He founded and ran his own high-end fashion brand for 10 years and scaled up to distribution to 23 countries. His love for Fashion and technology led him to start VitroLabs.

As CEO and Founder of VitroLabs, Ingvar’s understanding of fashion, eye for product, and passion for science and technology brings a new perspective into the emerging world of cultured leather.

Alexia Krispin

Chief of Staff

After spending nearly a decade in business strategy and operations, Alexia knows what it takes to grow a company, especially in emerging market categories.

As Chief of Staff at VitroLabs, Alexia helps develop and drive strategy, ensure operations run smoothly across the company, and maintain lock-step communication both internally and externally.

Dr. Craig Halberstadt

Chief Science Officer

With over 25 years of experience, multiple publications, editor of 2 books and more than 10 issued patents, Craig Halberstadt is a pioneer in the Tissue Engineering space.

With previous experience at companies like Advanced Tissue Sciences and Tengion, Dr. Halberstadt has demonstrated his knowledge of process development for moving tissue engineering products from the bench into the clinic. As Chief Scientific Officer, Craig oversees the overall R&D and scale-up strategy for VitroLabs.

François Saïx

Head of Product

Francois Saix has worked in the luxury fashion industry for 15 years, specializing in Leather Sourcing. Previously he spent over 7 years as Product Development and Sourcing Director, for Leather Goods and Materials at Chanel.

Having worked on the “other side” of the table, as a would-be customer of VitroLabs, Francois brings his experience and perspective in leather sourcing, quality, and customer expectations to his role as Head of Product at VitroLabs.

Dr. Dusko Ilic

Co-Founder & Advisor

Dr. Dusko Ilic is a leader in the field of stem cell technology and 3D skin models with over 25 years of experience leading labs, clinics and teams in startups and academia.

Driven by principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement), he takes pride in developing technologies which directly replace or avoid the use of animals in scientific research. As technical co-founder and advisor to VitroLabs, Dusko provides his guidance and expertise around cell biology, matrix biology and tissue engineering.

Shrutika Mehta

Associate Director, Bioprocess Engineering

Shrutika began her career at Athersys, the world’s leading stem cell therapy company, gaining unparalleled experience in large scale cell production systems and bioprocess development.

She is currently Associate Director of Bioprocess Engineering at VitroLabs, where she oversees the company’s cell production scale-up strategy and execution.