Executive Team

Executive Team

Onno van de Stolpe - Chief Executive Officer
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.

Guillaume Jetten - Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining Galapagos in July 2009, Mr. Jetten was CFO of SDU Holding BV, a privately owned company specialized in publishing and identification documents, where he played a key role in the Company’s transition from a state owned firm since joining in 2007. Previously, he was CFO of Wolters Kluwer Health in Chicago, where he drove initiatives to improve global financial and operating processes and create synergies of scale. He also served as Vice President Group Accounting at Wolters Kluwer NV and held positions with increasing level of responsibilities at Merck, Sharpe & Dohme BV. Mr. Jetten holds a masters degree in economics from the University of Maastricht and is a Certified Registered Accountant.

Piet Wigerinck, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Piet Wigerinck joined Galapagos in April 2008 from Tibotec (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) where he was VP Drug Discovery, Early Development and CM&C, and a member of the Management Board. He started his professional career as a medicinal chemist at Janssen Research Foundation in 1992. He then joined Tibotec in 1998, where, under his leadership, TMC114 (PrezistaTM) was selected and moved forward into clinical trials. Dr. Wigerinck also played a key role in Tibotec’s expansion into novel diseases such as Hepatitis C and advanced several compounds into Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. He brings over 15 years of research and development experience from both big pharma and biotech to Galapagos. Piet Wigerinck holds a PhD from the K.U. Leuven and is inventor on more than 25 patent applications.

Andre Hoekema, PhD - Senior Vice President Corporate Development
Dr. Hoekema joined Galapagos in March 2005 from Invitrogen Corporation, where he was Managing Director of Corporate Development Europe. He brings 20 years of biotech experience from positions at Molecular Probes Europe (Managing Director), Crucell (Director of Business Development), DSM Life Sciences and MOGEN (Research and Project Management) and Genentech, Inc (R&D). Dr. Hoekema has a PhD degree from Leiden University and is the inventor of over 20 series of patent applications, resulting in 15 patents issued in the US.

Chris Newton, PhD - Senior Vice President Galapagos Services
Dr. Newton joined Galapagos in 2005 as SVP BioFocus. Between 2000 and 2005, he was a founding scientist and CSO and Board Director at Argenta Discovery Ltd. From 1979 to 2000, he held a variety of senior managementpositions in both research and development in the Rhone-Poulenc group of companies, working on a variety of projects, some of which reached clinical trials. Dr. Newton holds a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and is Emeleus chemistry prize holder of that university. He earned his PhD at the University of Sheffield in 1979, for which he was awarded the Turner Prize. Dr. Newton has been appointed to visiting academic fellowships and professorships associated with the University of Warwick (1994-1998) and the University of Essex (1995-1999) during his industrial career.

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