Chairman of the Board

Raj Parekh, PhD
Dr. Parekh is a General Partner at Advent Venture Partners.
He co-founded Oxford GlycoSciences (OGS) in 1988 and was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and was instrumental in the flotation of the company in 1998 and its merger with Celltech.

Executive Directors

Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos
Mr. Van de Stolpe founded Galapagos in 1999 while he was Managing Director Genomics at Introgene (now Crucell). Prior to joining Introgene in 1998, he was Managing Director of Molecular Probes Europe. He established this European headquarters after joining Molecular Probes in the US. Previously, he worked for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency in California, where he was responsible for recruiting biotech and medical device companies to locate in the Netherlands. Mr. Van de Stolpe started his career as Manager Business Development at MOGEN in Leiden. He received a MSc degree from the Agricultural University in Wageningen.

Non-Executive Directors

Ferdinand Verdonck - Director of Corporations
Mr. Verdonck is currently on the board of several companies. His professional experience is based on his work, mainly in financial services. Most recently as the managing director of Almanij and earlier with Lazard Frères and also in manufacturing (Bekaert NV). His responsibilities entailed board participation in publicly traded and privately-held companies in many countries. He holds a law degree from the KU Leuven and degrees in economics from KU Leuven and the University of Chicago.

Harrold van Barlingen, PhD - Managing Director Thuja Capital
Dr. Van Barlingen is the Managing Director and Fonder of Thuja Capital. Prior to founding Thuja Capital, he headed the life science effort of AlpInvest Partners. Previously, he was at the Boston Consulting Group, where he worked as a consultant in management and strategy. Prior to BCG, Van Barlingen headed the Benelux office of the Lewin Group (a Quintiles subsidiary); an international firm specialized in the field of health economy. He holds a MSc in Medical Biology and a PhD in the area of cardiovascular diseases, both from the University of Utrecht.

Rudi Pauwels, PhD
Dr. Pauwels is currently a guest researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. In addition to being a co-founder of Galapagos and Chairman until 2002, Dr. Pauwels was also co-founder of Tibotec (now a J&J company), a leading player in the field of anti-HIV drug development, and CEO and CSO at Tibotec until 2002. Dr. Pauwels also co-founded Virco, a company involved in molecular diagnostic tools for HIV resistance testing, and acted as Chairman until 2001. Dr. Pauwels holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Leuven and has received several awards for his scientific work and his achievements as a biotech entrepreneur.

William Garth Rapeport, MD – CEO, RespiVert Ltd
Dr. William Garth Rapeport is CEO of RespiVert Ltd and Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the National Heart & Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College School of Medicine in London. Dr. Rapeport graduated in medicine and subsequently undertook postgraduate training and research at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford respectively. In 1988 he joined Pfizer Central Research in Sandwich, UK, where he was involved in the early discovery and development of a wide range of new compounds. Dr. Rapeport moved to GlaxoWellcome in 1996 as Worldwide Director of Clinical Pharmacology. Following the GlaxoSmithKline merger, Dr. Rapeport was appointed Senior Vice President for the Centre of Excellence in Respiratory and Inflammatory Diseases. During this time approximately 25 candidate molecules were selected for development and several of these have entered mid and late-phase clinical development. In November 2006, Dr. Rapeport co-founded RespiVert Ltd with Professor Peter Barnes from the NHLI, Imperial College. RespiVert is based in London, and is a small molecule drug discovery company focused on the identification of new treatments for lung delivery in severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis.

Werner Cautreels, PhD - CEO, Solvay Pharmaceuticals
Werner Cautreels is Global CEO of Solvay Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. He joined Solvay Pharmaceuticals in 1998 as Global Head of Research and Development and was appointed CEO in January 2005. Prior to joining Solvay he was employed by Sanofi, Sterling Winthrop and Nycomed-Amersham in a variety of R&D management positions in Europe and in the United States. Dr. Cautreels holds a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.