Our team
Board of the Foundation
Friso Smit | Chairman
Friso Smit, PhD, has extensive experience in collaborative innovation in a corporate environment and is currently new business development manager at both Utrecht Science Park foundation and the strategic theme Life Sciences of Utrecht University, in partnership with University Medical Center Utrecht and Princess Máxima Center.
Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse | Secretary
Aukje Mantel, PhD, is professor of Pharmacy and Global Health at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Utrecht University. Her research interests include global health, pharmaceutical policy analysis, drug regulatory science, and variation in medicines use across countries. She published > 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals on these topics. In addition, Aukje acts as Managing Director of the Utrecht Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation.
Adele Everink | Treasurer
Adele Everink, MSc, EFMC, is a senior finance executive with more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She worked in various roles as financial controller, business controller, finance director, manager accounting and project manager, mostly in international settings and areas where finance meets operations and finance meets IT.
John Verhoeven | Member
John Verhoeven, PhD is an entrepreneurial senior executive with comprehensive background in strategic innovation, strategy execution, licensing & business development, portfolio management and strategic partnering.
Dic Geuens | Member
Dic Geuens, LLM, has held several senior legal positions in listed companies, mainly in pharma and biotech. His experience covers all legal aspects associated with the pharmaceutical/ biotech industry.
Arnold Vulto | Member
Arnold G. Vulto PharmD PhD FCP has a longstanding experience in hospital pharmacy, before he retired from clinical services in 2018. In the Rotterdam ErasmusMC he was engaged in clinical trial assessment and management, and he was a qualified person on biological medicines. His current research interests in biosimilars started in 2004. Currently he is holding honorary professorships at the ErasmusMC in Rotterdam and KU Leuven in Belgium. In Leuven he is (co-)leading a team of researchers in the field of biosimilars. He published some 200 peer reviewed articles on a wide range of pharmaceutical and pharmacological topics.
Renato de Leeuw | Member
Renato de Leeuw, PhD, is a senior regulatory executive with over 30 years experience in drug development en registration in senior management positions and as independent consultant for large pharma companies as well as small enterprises and start-ups. He has contributed to the successful registration of a wide range of new products.
Managing Director
Leroy Roscher | Management Assistant
Leroy Roscher, BSc, is a pharmacy student who recently finished his bachelor's program. He is looking forward to starting the master's program in Pharmaceutical Sciences. In his gap year, Leroy works in a hospital pharmacy and a general pharmacy store.
Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Gert Storm (Chair)
Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutics of the Utrecht University. Since 2009 he also has been Honorary Professor in Biomacromolecular Drug Delivery at the University of Copenhagen. His research interests are in the fields of biopharmaceutics and advanced drug delivery/drug targeting.
Em-Prof. Dr. Han van den Bosch
Former UCAB board member and chairman. Active as partner and consultant for International Public Health organizations and small Biotech. Emeritus-Professor on a chair for "International Public Health and the Pharmaceutical Industry" at the Athena Institute of the Free University in Amsterdam. Previously industry executive responsible for vaccine R&D.
Prof. Dr. Adam Cohen
Professor clinical pharmacology at the University of Leiden. Until 2018 he was CEO and founder of the Centre for Human Drug Research, a leading institute for research of new medical products in humans. He now advises biotech companies investors and on IP issues and works as an educator and publicist.
Prof Dr. Toine Egberts
Prof. Egberts (co)author of over 450 international publications, obtained his PharmD in 1990 at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He was professor of clinical pharmacoepidemiology and chief pharmacist of the department of clinical pharmacy of the University Medical Center Utrecht. Since November 2018 he is director of doctor education of the Graduate School of Life Sciences of the Utrecht University. His research activities focus on a) the clinical pharmacology / clinical pharmacoepidemiology of drugs used in the treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders, and b) on innovations in clinical pharmacy systems.
Dr. Jan Hendriks
Jan Hendriks, PhD is an independent vaccinologist with over 30 years of experience in global health mainly in technology transfer projects. As liaison manager with WHO for the former Netherlands Vaccine Institute in Bilthoven he was involved in the establishment of the Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN). From 2013 to 2015 he was seconded to WHO Geneva as coordinator of the Global Programme in Influenza Vaccines. He currently is a member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and an adviser to the Emerging Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers Network (EBPMN).
Dr. Ellen ’t Hoen, LLM, PhD
Director of Medicines Law & Policy and Global Health Law fellow at the Law Faculty of the University of Groningen and former director the Medicines Patent Pool. She is a lawyer and public health advocate with over 30 years of experience working on pharmaceutical and intellectual property policies.
Mr. Cees de Joncheere
Chairs the Netherlands Antibiotics Development Platform; member of the International Narcotics Control Board, and member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Medicines Patent Pool. Former Director of the WHO department Essential Medicines and Health Products
Prof. Dr. Enrico Mastrobattista
Professor of Pharmaceutical biotechnology and delivery Utrecht University. His focus is on the design and testing of bio-inspired drug delivery systems, with a special emphasis on the delivery of protein and nucleic acid based therapeutics.
Prof. Dr. Ellen Moors
Professor Sustainable Innovation at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University and research director of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Her focus is on the dynamics and governance of technological innovations in science-based sectors, such as in health and life sciences and agri-food.