Board of Directors
Prof. Dr. Ir. Koenraad Debackere, Chairman of the Board
Dr. Koenraad Debackere is Managing Director of K.U.Leuven Research & Development and Chairman of Gemma Frisius-Fonds K.U.Leuven nv, the venture Fund of the University, Chairman of Leuven.Inc (Leuven Innovation Networking Circle) and Director of IWT-Vlaanderen (Institute for the promotion of innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders).
Dr. Debackere is full professor in Technology and Innovation Management at K.U.Leuven.
He holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management. He studied at the University of Gent and MIT (Cambridge, MA). Koenraad Debackere has received several international awards and nominations for his research activities in the area of technology and innovation management, and authored over 70 articles and book chapters in this field.
Dr. Nick McCooke, CEO of Pronota
Dr. Nick McCooke is Chief Executive Officer of Pronota, a biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium. Dr. McCooke held senior management positions in several biotechnology service providers, including CEO of Solexa (NASDAQ: SLXA), president of Rapigene Inc (Seattle, USA) and Innovex (currently Quintiles Inc). He began his biotech career with Celltech where he held a number of commercial management positions. He holds BSc and MSc degrees in engineering and an MBA from the London Business School.
Mr. Renaat Denolf, Investment Manager at Fortis Private Equity
Mr. Renaat Denolf is an investment manager at Fortis Private Equity, the captive venture capital arm of Fortis. Before joining Fortis Private Equity, he was active as consultant serving a variety of sectors for a leading management consulting firm. Afterwards, he became a project manager within the European Commission for the action line 'access to private innovation financing and tools for better knowledge exploitation' and for the 'Tacis nuclear safety program'. He holds a Master's degree in Commercial Engineering with a specialisation in Information Technology (Leuven). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Velleman, EDA, Conticlima and Bexco.
ir. Patrick De Groote, CEO of Koramic Industries
ir. Patrick De Groote is Chief Executive Officer of the Vitalo Group and Koramic Industries. Since 1978, Mr. De Groote held senior management positions in several private and listed companies, including CEO of Zenitel (Euronext) and vice-president at ABB. He began his career in 1971 as technical director in many industrial sectors. He is Independent Director at Campine (Euronext), Chairman of BEMAS (Belgian Maintenance Association), member of the Board of Directors of Agoria Flanders (professional Federation), Director at VKC (Flemisch Pastics Center), Director or Chairman of different Boards of companies belonging to the Koramic Investment Group. Member of working groups around Corporate Governance.
Dr. Lieve Nuytinck, IP Officer Baekeland Fund
Dr. Lieve Nuytinck is IP officer at the Technology Transfer Office at Ghent University. In 1989 she started at the Department of Medical Genetics, University Hospital Gent, were she headed the research laboratory for heritable connective tissue disorders. In 2002 she joined Innogenetics NV (Euronext), initially at the R&D division responsible for development of new genetic tests. In 2004 she moved to the diagnostic program group for genetic diseases, oncology and immunology. She holds a Master in Biology and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from Ghent University.
Philippe Stas, Chief Executive Officer of Algonomics