Subsequently Ilka joined the Corporate Licensing group as head of the business advisory teams for oncology, urology and metabolism where she was responsible for the identification and evaluation of pre-clinical and clinical licensing opportunities as well as structuring and negotiating technology and licensing agreements. She later joined the transaction group of Corporate Licensing where she was responsible for the negotiation and conclusion of a variety of global licensing agreements.

Ilka has a PhD in organic chemistry from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Following her graduation she spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York investigating retroviral gene therapy approaches to stimulate antitumour responses.