The team

A team consisting of Jérôme Majoie (Chairman and Managing Director), Frédéric Galland (Finance and Administration), Mathilde Jooris (Philanthropy), Coralie Lion (communication) and Serge Schmitz (Fundraising Strategy and Communication) runs the Foundation’s day-to-day operations and draws upon the support of two experts and a Scientific and Investment Advisory Board.

Jérôme Majoie can also count on the expertise of Ana Maricevic for competition analysis and Dr. Peter de Waele for scientific aspects and intellectual property protection.

Ana Maricevic
 

  • Executive Advisor to Life Science Companies and Investors.
  • 25 years of experience in business consulting (among others with McKinsey & Co) and as an entrepreneur.
  • An academic background in Immunology and special interest in Oncology.
  • Functional focus on business strategy development, assessment of investments and commercial excellence both within large corporations and smaller innovative ventures – across Pharma, Biotech and MedTech.
  • Certified in Board Director Effectiveness by Guberna and INSEAD IN-Board Academy. Member of Women on Board.
  • Supporting the Foundation in assessment of potential investments, due diligence and coaching of founder management teams.

Dr. Peter De Waele
 

  • Consultant in immunotherapy and cell therapy and intellectual property (patents) with focus on innate and adaptive immunity.
  • Previous CSO, Vice-President Research & Development and Intellectual Property of Celyad,
  • Chief Operating Officer and founder of XCELLentis
  • Chief Therapeutics Officer of Innogenetics.
  • Master of science in physiology and biochemistry, PhD in molecular biology, both from the University of Ghent, Belgium (Molecular Biology Department headed by Prof. Dr. Ir. Walter Fiers, Belgian biotech pioneer).

The Scientific and Investment Advisory Board

The members of the Scientific and Investment Advisory Board are Prof. Ferdinand Lejeune, Prof. Marc Buyse, Doctor Vincent G. Brichard, Mr. Jan Pensaert, Doctor Jerome Windsor, Doctor Rudy Dekeyser, Mr. Jacques Mallet, Mr. Paul Van Dun, Mr. Jean-Pierre Armand and Prof. Bart Neyns.

They all contribute to assessing and monitoring projects on a pro bono basis.

The Advisory Board consists of expert oncologists and biostatisticians, industry experts in clinical development and investment fund managers. It makes sure that the selected projects fulfil the scientific criteria and can address unmet medical needs.

Professor Ferdinand Lejeune (1939)
 

  • Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne
  • Head of the Centre Pluridisciplinaire d’Oncologie (CePO) at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), affiliated with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (1991–2004)
  • Founder of the Jules Bordet Institute’s Experimental Oncology and Surgery Laboratory
  • Fellow of the Institute of Cancer Research, London

Professor Marc Buyse (1952)
 

  • Founder and Chairman of the International Drug Development Institute (IDDI, Belgium and USA)
  • Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the Center for Statistics @ Hasselt University (UHasselt)
  • Former Assistant Director at the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)
  • Former President of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics

Doctor Vincent Brichard (1965)
 

  • Immuno-oncology and vaccine consultant
  • Venture partner at LSP
  • Former Senior Vice-President, Executive Committee Member and Director of several immunotherapy Business Units at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK)
  • Member of Scientific Advisory Boards and Supervisory Boards of several European life sciences companies active in the fields of immuno-oncology, vaccines and diagnostics
  • Author of more than 100 scientific articles in leading international journals
  • MD in oncology at the Catholic University of Louvain (ULC Brussels) and the Institut Curie (Paris)
  • PhD in Tumour Immunology (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Brussels)
  • Professor of Oncology at the Catholic University of Louvain (ULC Brussels)
  • Executive MBA (Harvard Business School)

Jan Pensaert (1971)
 

  • Founder and Managing Partner of Valiance, an investment company specialising in life sciences. Director of several Valiance organisations and funds
  • Director of MDxHealth, 4Tech and MyCartis
  • CEO of La Fayette Investment Management, a leading investment fund
  • Formerly responsible for the European-based investment management and research activities of the Permal Group
  • Former Adviser on Transactions at Lazard in Corporate Finance M&A
  • BA in Business Economics (University of Ghent, Belgium)
  • Master’s Degree in Banking and Finance (University of Aix-Marseille, France)

Doctor Jerome Windsor
 

  • Biopharma senior leader with broad experience building and growing biopharmaceutical and digital health companies.
  • Executive, consultant and investor specialized in the development and the marketing of disruptive technologies on the edge of digital and biology, supporting small or large organizations on both strategy and execution sides.
  • Previously head of the global commercial activities of Median Technologies.
  • Previously Vice-President at i3 (UnitedHealth Group), consultant at Accenture and PwC and Marketing Product Manager at GSK.
  • Chief Strategy Officer at Celata, (biotech spin-out from the MIT), Board Member of the FrenchTech Boston and mentor at MassBio.
  • PharmD from the University of Normandy and graduation from the ESSEC and the Wharton Business School.

Docteur Rudy Dekeyser (1961)
 

  • Managing partner of the LSP Health Economics Funds (private equity funds)
  • Co-founder and Managing Director of the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB)
  • Member of the Board of Sequana Medical AG (Belgium), Celyad SA (Belgium), Lumeon (UK) and Remynd NV (Belgium)
  • Former member of the Board of Devgen NV, CropDesign NV, Ablynx NV, Actogenix NV, Pronota NV, Flandersbio VZW, Bioincubator Leuven NV, Multiplicom NV and Curetis SA
  • Co-founder of the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), FlandersBio and Oncode (Dutch cancer research institute)
  • Chairman of EMBLEM (exclusive technology transfer partner of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, EMBL)
  • Member of the Advisory Board of several non-profit organisations active in the field of life sciences (Board of the King Baudouin Foundation, De Weijerhorst Foundation, HUB and Fonds Généret)
  • PhD in Molecular Biology (University of Ghent)

Jacques Mallet (1960)
 

  • President and CEO of Gamma-X Corporate Advisory
  • Board member in several life sciences companies
  • Former Senior Vice President Portfolio Analytics/Corporate Strategy at Sanofi
  • Former Life Sciences’ Partner at Auriga Venture Partners
  • Former Strategy consultant at Accenture and Deloitte-Monitor
  • Degrees: MD (Paris V), Business (Chicago), Computer Science (AUP)

Paul Van Dun (1968)
 

  • Managing Director of the KU Leuven Research and Development Department
  • Chairman or Member of the Board of several high-tech companies
  • Chairman of the Investment Board of the Centre of Drug Design and Discovery
  • Chairman of the Board of Gemma Frisius Fonds
  • Member of the Board of Quest for Growth (Euronext Brussels) and RZ Tienen (hospital)
  • Member of the supervisory board of Brightlands Chemelot Campus (NL)
  • Former Advisor at KPMG and a venture capital company
  • Degrees in Law (KU Leuven), Tax Science (FHS Brussels) and Business Administration (KU Leuven)

Jean-Pierre Armand
 

  • Senior consultant at institute GUSTAVE ROUSSY cancer campus in Paris
  • Visiting professor of oncology in the Yunnan university in china
  • Cofounder and ceo of pegascy (cancer IGR biotech)
  • Former General Director of the Institut Claudius Regaud in Toulouse
  • Active member of the Medical Oncology Community
  • Founder Previously Head of Early Clinical New Drugs Programs
  • Medical Director Research and development at the Institut Gustave-Roussy (Villejuif)
  • Involved in Phase I-II and III studies for the treatment of solid tumors and permanent support of cancer biotech in oncology in France and abroad
  • Certified in Medical Oncology (University of Toulouse III and Paris XI)
  • President of « magellan » fond of fonds company 2023

Professor Bart Neyns
 

  • Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel)
  • Clinical professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the VUB
  • Scientific work awarded by the Hilde Bruer Prize in 2013
  • Current Member of the Recognition Committee for Medical Oncology Belgium
  • PhD doctoral degree in Medical Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit