Empower your career - a female perspective This session is powered by TOPX Netwo

23 November 2023 - Ghent ICC

Meet our female professionals! During this panel session, each accomplished Life Science professional will briefly introduce themselves and explain how they ended up in their current role. After the introductions, the session will zoom in on the different career paths: the speakers will talk about the main lessons learned in their professional life and give advice for women aspiring similar paths.

Read their short bio's below.

Speakers

Caroline Meers | Project Manager Early Development | Agomab Therapeutics

Caroline is a Master in Veterinary Medicine and she obtained a PhD in biomedical sciences at the KU Leuven in the laboratory for Experimental Thoracic Surgery, whereafter she started her professional career at Medanex Clinic as a veterinary clinician in preclinical in-vivo research. She was involved in research projects focusing on innovative therapies and devices for several disciplines like regenerative medicine, cardiac surgery and immunology. She gained experience in both operational and project management and became PMP certified after joining CMAST, a life sciences consultancy company specialized in project management. As R&D business unit leader she managed a group of professionals active in all kinds of R&D projects. In 2021 she decided to switch to biotech industry, and today she acts as early development project manager at Agomab, a biotech company focused on the translation of profound expertise in growth factor biology to pioneer and develop novel treatments that aim to resolve fibrosis, repair tissue structure, and restore organ function.

Christel Menet, PhD | CSO | Confo Therapeutics

Christel Menet (ir.Ph.D.) joined Confo Therapeutics in May 2016 from Galapagos NV where she was Director of Medicinal Chemistry. After a PhD in organic chemistry at University of Manchester in Professor Clayden’s lab, she started her professional career as a medicinal chemist at Evotec in 2002. She then joined Faust Pharmaceuticals in 2004, today called Domain therapeutics, a biotech company specialized in GPCR drug discovery. Christel was one of the first chemists at Galapagos NV in 2005, where, under her leadership, filgotinib was discovered and moved forward to pre-clinical development (today in Phase 3 in rheumatoid arthritis). She also played a key role in a number of projects and advanced several compounds into preclinical phase. She is inventor on more than 20 patent applications and brings over 14 years of research and development experience in drug discovery to Confo Therapeutics.​

Kim Heylen, PhD | Managing Director | Labo Nuytinck

Kim Heylen obtained a PhD and did a post-doc at UGent. She was promotor of 6 PhD students, and author of >50 A1 peer reviewed papers, as well as advocated for science communication and post-doc career development during her academic career. In 2016 she (finally) switched to Industry and joined Biocartis as biobank manager. After 2 years Kim joined Eurofins Food, Feed and Water as business unit manager, where she re-organized the lab operations. Next, Kim took up a global Innovations Director role at INVE, leading teams in Belgium, Italy and Thailand. She again re-organized the department and implemented a formalized innovation pipeline. Early 2022 Kim joined the family-owned Labo Nuytinck, part of Anacura. Energized by the value driven, long-term approach of the company, she agreed to take up the role of Managing Director from June 1st 2023 onwards.

Laetitia Szaller | General Counsel | Strategic Advisor | Life Science Expert

Laetitia has over 20 years’ experience in multiple sectors, including 15 in the pharmaceuticals and medical device industry, leading and managing complex multi-jurisdiction operations including global multi-million M&A deals, licensing and collaboration partnerships. At AM-Pharma, she was responsible for both the Legal operations and the Corporate Development of the company. Prior to joining AM-Pharma in April 2020 as General Counsel, VP Corporate Development and Corporate Secretary, she was at UCB as global Associate General Counsel BD, M&A and Antitrust. Prior to UCB, Laetitia was Legal Director, Emerging Markets EMEA, Central European Region and Benelux at Zoetis (Pfizer former animal health division), and has also led the EMEA legal department for the Abbott Vascular division at Abbott. She also held global positions at the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and at the automotive division (Wabco) at American Standard. Laetitia is a qualified lawyer in both the UK and Belgium, with extensive international experience, regularly speaking at various legal conferences.

Moderator

Marieke Louwers | Director Strategic Alliances | argenx

Marieke Louwers (1980) is Director Strategic Alliances at argenx. She has a degree in chemistry and biotechnology and a PhD in molecular biology. After working in Agricultural Biotech for 10 years, she made the switch to human Drug Development. Always wanting to broaden her leadership skills and insights, she followed programmes in Management and then Corporate Finance at the Vlerick Business school. She strives to lead by example and loves inspiring and energizing people and teams by building relationships and respecting others.

Marieke is trained as a chemist and biotechnologist in Ghent, before starting her PhD at the University of Amsterdam. She is specialized in epigenetics in maize. After 4.5 years she moved back to Belgium and started working in industry, as she wanted to apply her skills towards society. She worked at CropDesign (BASF Plant Sciences) for almost 10 years, improving yield in various crops. In the end, as Research manager she led the entire Discovery platform, collaborated with large companies such as Monsanto (now Bayer) and Bayer, and worked often at BASF corporate level on innovation. She switched to the VIB Plant Science group with the aim to develop and join a newly spun-out start-up. She worked alongside the Scientific Director of the center and set up and implemented the academic collaboration with the North-Carolina State University. Next, she made a 180° switch from plant biotech to drug development (now 3,5 years ago). She became a program and alliance leader at argenx, working on the cusatuzumab program in co-development with Janssen. When that collaboration ended, She worked with Business Development group/team to repartner the program including pitching to potential partners, term sheet negotiation and contracting. Since beginning of 2021, she took up the role of building out alliance capabilities at argenx.

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