Senior Management
Our senior management team acts as our executive management. Of these people, only our CEO, Mr. Tim Van Hauwermeiren, is part of our Board of Directors as executive director. Our senior management team comprised of the following persons in 2023 and on the date of this Annual Report (appointment/retirement dates noted as relevant).
Tim Van Hauwermeiren
Tim Van Hauwermeiren co-founded our Company in 2008 and has served as our CEO since July 2008. He has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2014.
Mr. Van Hauwermeiren has more than 20 years of general management and business development experience across the life sciences and consumer goods sectors. He also serves on the boards of directors of iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. and RayzeBio, Inc.
Mr. Van Hauwermeiren holds a Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science in bioengineering from Ghent University and an executive MBA from the Vlerick School of Management.
Keith Woods
Keith Woods served as our chief operating officer from April 2018 to March 2023, at which time he was succeeded by Karen Massey.
Mr. Woods transitioned to serve as an advisor to our Board of Directors. He has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Woods most recently served as senior vice president of North American operations for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Alexion). Within Alexion, he previously served as vice president and managing director of Alexion UK, overseeing all aspects of Alexion’s UK business, and as vice president of U.S. operations and executive director of sales. Prior to joining Alexion, Mr. Woods held various positions of increasing responsibility within Roche, Amgen, and Eisai Co., Ltd. over a span of 20 years. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in marketing from Florida State University.
Karen Massey (effective March 13, 2023)
Karen Massey has served as our chief operating officer since March 2023.
Ms. Massey has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, including in commercial, product development, corporate strategy, and innovation roles. Prior to joining argenx, Ms. Massey was with Genentech (Roche Group) for over nine years, where she most recently served as senior vice president of product development and global clinical operations and previously held various commercial leadership roles across marketing and business operations, including as the vice president of the multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica business. Ms. Massey started her biopharmaceutical career in marketing at Pfizer Inc., and returned there, after two years as a management consultant at Bain & Company, to take on leadership positions in corporate strategy and sales and as a commercial lead in Latin America.
Ms. Massey holds a Bachelor’s of Economics from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Karl Gubitz
Karl Gubitz has served as our chief financial officer since June 2021.
Mr. Gubitz previously worked at Pfizer Inc. for nearly 20 years, most recently as vice president of finance within the global oncology business. Within Pfizer Inc., Mr. Gubitz held country, regional, and global positions, and consistently delivered top-line growth. He managed teams of over 250 colleagues in financial leadership roles within the global internal medicine and global innovative products businesses. Prior to joining Pfizer Inc. in 2003, Mr. Gubitz held various management roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Mr. Gubitz holds an MBA from Henley Management College, a Bachelor’s degree in computing from the University of South Africa, and Bachelor’s of Commerce from the University of Pretoria.
Dr. Peter Ulrichts
Peter Ulrichts has served as our chief scientific officer since January 2023. In this role, he oversees the development of all clinical and pre-clinical compounds within our pipeline.
Dr. Ulrichts previously served in various roles at the Company since he joined us in 2010, including, most recently, as our head of clinical science. As a research scientist, Dr. Ulrichts was involved in the development of various therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. In 2013, he headed the development of our FcRn antagonist efgartigimod until the first-in-human clinical trial. He subsequently transitioned to become the lead scientist of our efgartigimod program.
Dr. Ulrichts holds a Bachelor’s of Science in chemistry from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, as well as a Master’s degree in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, both from Ghent University.
Malini Moorthy
Malini Moorthy has served as our general counsel since February 2022.
She has over 25 years of extensive global legal and compliance experience in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. She was most recently senior vice president and chief deputy general counsel of legal, compliance, and government affairs at Medtronic plc, where she played a pivotal role in shaping and driving enterprise and functional strategies. Before joining Medtronic plc, Ms. Moorthy spent four years at Bayer Corporation as the head of global litigation and investigations and 10 years at Pfizer Inc. , where she progressed to lead civil litigation globally. Ms. Moorthy began her career as a law firm associate, first with McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Genest Murray Desbrisay Lamek LLP in Toronto, Canada and then Salans LLP (now Dentons US LLP) in New York City.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Laws from the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University in Canada.
Luc Truyen
Luc Truyen has served as our chief medical officer since April 2022 and previously served as our head of research and development operations management from September 2021 to April 2022.
Prior to this, Dr. Truyen was with Johnson & Johnson (and its subsidiary companies) for over 20 years holding various leadership positions, primarily within neuroscience. In his most recent position prior to joining argenx, Dr. Truyen was global head of development and external affairs for neuroscience, managing the strategy and delivery of the early and late portfolio of assets for mood disorders, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disorders. Besides Dr. Truyen’s strong track record in clinical development resulting in several globally innovative drug approvals, his broad-based experience also includes leading global clinical development operations for the whole Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical group as well as serving as the head of research and development and chief medical officer of Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development LLC, an internal spin-out from Johnson & Johnson.
Dr. Truyen holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neurology from the University of Antwerp.
Arjen Lemmen
Arjen Lemmen joined argenx in 2016 and has served as our vice president of corporate development & strategy since 2019. He has successfully executed several transactions including a number of programs within the IIP.
Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Lemmen served as a corporate finance specialist at Kempen & Co NV focusing on mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and strategic advisory transactions in the European life sciences industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science in life science & technology from the University of Groningen and a Master of engineering management from Duke University.
Andria Wilk
Andria Wilk joined argenx as global head of quality in 2020. Ms. Wilk has more than 20 years of experience in quality assurance (QA) within the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Ms. Wilk served as senior director, head of medical, regulatory & clinical QA (MRC QA) at H Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck), where she managed the global MRC QA group based in the EU, US, and Asia. In this role, she was responsible for the global audit programs and QA support for all clinical trial and post-marketing activities and related computerized systems.
Prior to Lundbeck, she held various QA positions of increasing responsibility within AstraZeneca PLC, Takeda Global Research, Development Centre Europe, and Astellas Pharma Inc.
Ms. Wilk holds a joint Bachelor’s of Science in pharmacology and biochemistry, is a member of the Research Quality Association and observing board member of The European Forum for Good Clinical Practices.
The following table sets forth certain information with respect to the members of our senior management, including their ages, as of December 31, 2023:
Name |
|
Age |
|
Postion |
|
Nationality |
|
Date of Initial Appointment |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tim Van Hauwermeiren |
|
51 |
|
CEO and Executive Director |
|
Belgium |
|
July 15, 2008 |
||||
Keith Woods1) |
|
56 |
|
Chief Operating Officer |
|
U.S. |
|
April 5, 2018 |
||||
Karen Massey1) |
|
45 |
|
Chief Operating Officer |
|
Australia |
|
March 13, 2023 |
||||
Karl Gubitz |
|
54 |
|
Chief Financial Officer |
|
South Africa |
|
June 1, 2021 |
||||
Peter Ulrichts |
|
44 |
|
Chief Scientific Officer |
|
Belgium |
|
January 1, 2023 |
||||
Malini Moorthy |
|
54 |
|
General Counsel |
|
Canada |
|
February 14, 2022 |
||||
Arjen Lemmen |
|
39 |
|
Vice-President Corporate Development & Strategy |
|
The Netherlands |
|
May 1, 2016 |
||||
Andria Wilk |
|
51 |
|
Global Head of Quality |
|
UK |
|
January 13, 2020 |
||||
Luc Truyen |
|
59 |
|
Chief Medical Officer |
|
Belgium |
|
April 1, 2022 |
||||
|
||||||||||||
The address for our senior management is Industriepark-Zwijnaarde 7, 9052 Zwijnaarde (Ghent), Belgium.
The following table sets forth the companies and partnerships of which the members of our senior management (or persons who have been members of our senior management in 2023) have been a member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies or partner at any time in the previous five years, indicating whether or not the individual is still a member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies or partner, as of the date of this Annual Report, other than argenx or our subsidiaries:
Name |
|
Current |
|
Past |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tim Van Hauwermeiren |
|
Iteos Therapeutics, Inc. |
|
Aelin Therapeutics NV |
||||
|
|
RayzeBio, Inc |
|
|
||||
Keith Woods1) |
|
X-4 Pharmaceuticals |
|
– |
||||
|
|
Neurogene Inc |
|
|
||||
|
|
T-Scan Therapeutics |
|
|
||||
|
|
Rocket Pharma |
|
|
||||
Karen Massey1) |
|
– |
|
Genentech, Inc. |
||||
Karl Gubitz |
|
– |
|
Pfizer Inc. |
||||
Peter Ulrichts |
|
– |
|
– |
||||
Malini Moorthy |
|
– |
|
Medtronic plc |
||||
Arjen Lemmen |
|
OncoVerity |
|
– |
||||
Andria Wilk |
|
European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP) |
|
H Lundbeck A/S |
||||
Luc Truyen |
|
– |
|
Johnson & Johnson |
||||
|
||||||||