Board of Directors
Ajit Shetty
Chairman, Independent Director
Ajit Shetty has a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a MBA from Carnegie-Mellon University (USA).
He started his career in 1976 at Janssen Pharmaceutica (Belgium) in the business development area. He was instrumental in developing Janssen into a worldwide multinational within Johnson & Johnson, the largest healthcare company in the world. He served as President of Janssen USA from 1986 to 1990. After various roles in general management, he became Chairman of Janssen Belgium in 1998 until 2012. He also served in the Global Operating Committee of Johnson & Johnson.
He is Chairman of the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) and is a member of the Board of Directors of various pharmaceutical companies in Belgium, USA and China. He is also a Trustee of Carnegie-Mellon University (USA).
In 2004 he was elected “Manager of the Year” in Flanders.
Patricia van Dijck
Independent Director
Patricia van Dijck has a degree in medicine and a specialization in clinical biology and pharmaceutical medicine from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).
She began her career in the pharmaceutical industry in 1996 as an International Medical Advisor at UCB. In 1998, she became Medical Director at Lundbeck, before being appointed to the position of Managing Director in 2007. In 2011, Ms. van Dijck joined Novartis Belux as Head of Market Access & Public Affairs, before joining the mother company in Basel in 2014, in order to assume the position of Head Patient Access Excellence. Three years later, she became Project Lead of an IMI project of European private-public partnership in hemato-oncology, in Milan. Since 2018, she has worked for GSK Belux as a Market Access & Public Affairs Director.
Throughout her career in the pharmaceutical industry, Patricia van Dijck has developed a solid experience in the different life cycle areas of a drug.
Erik Van Den Eynden
Independent Director
Erik Van Den Eynden has more than 30 years’ experience in banking. After joining ING (formerly BBL) in 1990, he held various commercial and management positions throughout the bank, including director of a branch district, CEO of ING Insurance Belgium, Luxembourg & Variable Annuities Europe, head of MidCorporates and Institutionals at ING in Belgium and most recently CEO of ING in Belgium from 2017 to 2020.
He holds a degree in economics from the University of Antwerp
Liesbeth Weynants
Independent Director
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An Cloet
Independent Director
François Fornieri
Non-Executive Director
Mr Fornieri has over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience with a strong focus on women’s health.He obtained a degree in Chemistry and is the founder and CEO of the Company.
François previously worked for Bayer-Schering and was also a co-founder of Uteron Pharma, which was sold to Watson/Actavis (NYSE: ACT) early 2013.
François has been elected the French speaking “2011 Manager of the year” by the Belgian business magazine Trends/Tendances.
Valérie Gordenne
Non-Executive Director
Gaëtan Servais
Non-Executive Director
Mr Servais holds a Master Degree in Economics at the University of Liège.
He started his career as Research Assistant at the University of Liège.
In 1995, Gaëtan joined the Federal Planning Bureau as Expert and later the Economic and Social Council of the Walloon Region. Since 2001, he was chief of staff for several ministers of the Walloon Government.
Since 2007 he has been CEO of Meusinvest, a financial company that has structured its activity in different subsidiaries to better respond to business financing needs of small and medium enterprises (SME) located in the province of Liège.
Amel Tounsi
Non-Executive Director
Jean-Michel Foidart
Executive Director
Prof Jean-Michel Foidart co-founded Mithra Pharmaceuticals SA and Uteron Pharma SA.
Through his membership of international research centers, his academic and industry career, he has extensive knowledge of reproductive medicine.
He trained in Gynecology at the University of Liège where he also obtained a PhD in cell biology and biochemistry. He was the former head of the Gynecology and Obstetrics department at the University of Liège, the general secretary of the European Society of Gynaecology (ESG) and member of multiple editorial boards of international peer-reviewed journals.
Prof Foidart was awarded the Bologne-Lemaire Prize from Institut Destrée (Walloon of the year) in 2011.