Chair of the Board

Caroline Vanovermeire is the Global Director of Talent Management at ASML, a multinational corporation and a global leader in the semiconductor industry. She is the founder of Effra Consult, a business that focuses on all things people to boost business performance. In addition, she is a mentor to start-ups in the FinTech industry. Caroline was previously the Global Head of Organizational Development for all Support functions at Barclays and a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Advisory practice. Caroline is a trained psychologist and coach and has a Masters degree in Human Resources management.

CEO & Board Member

Dr. Liesbeth Ceelen brings over 20 years of experience across multinational, start-up, and scale-up environments. Following her PhD in Veterinary Sciences, she built expertise in operational and quality management, scientific business development, and strategic growth. She also holds an Executive MBA from Vlerick Business School, where she was recently honoured with the Vlerick Venture Award 2025 for her entrepreneurial leadership. As CEO of BioLizard, Liesbeth represents the company’s vision to clients, investors, and partner, driving external positioning, organisational development, and M&A strategy to foster excellence, innovation, and sustainable growth.

Co-Founder, Board Member, & Scientific Advisor

Prof. Wim Van Criekinge, together with Jan Van den Berghe, is a co-founder of the Novalis Biotech Incubation. He is a tenured professor at the University of Gent with nearly 200 peer-reviewed international publications to his name. He founded and heads the laboratory for computational genomics and bioinformatics (BIOBIX) as well as the core sequencing facility (NXTGNT) with global collaborative reach across applied bioscience and clinical discovery. He is a co-founder of BioLizard and he leads the scientific development of the company as well as coaching the consultants. His main interest is the use of machine learning in computational biology and bioinformatics.

Fund Manager Novalis

Prior to working for Novalis Biotech Incubation, Dr. Kjell Mortier acquired approximately 20 years of experience in the biotech industry working in various scientific roles. At Ablynx, now part of Sanofi, he was responsible for the bioanalytical and immunogenicity part of dedicated clinical programs. At Eurofins, a leading CRO in the pharma, food and environmental industry, he supported the CMC-analytical part for various customers in the pharma industry. Kjell also obtained certification for financial analysis at EHSAL Management School.

Independent Advisor

Laurie is a senior executive and independent board member with more than thirty years of leadership experience and transformative strategies across numerous life science markets. She has a proven track record of impeccable commercial execution, leading to acceleration of growth, profitability, global branding, and emerging market development. She has demonstrated the ability to build, galvanize, and mobilize global scientific and commercial teams. Her passion for leadership development, succession planning, and team followership is realized by her unbounded resourceful problem-solving, creative strategies to achieve a competitive edge, and market-dominant results.

Scientific Advisor

Paul is an experienced executive in innovative software product creation and management, including vision, strategy, and execution. His focus on advanced data analytics and software architecture for health care, biotech, and life sciences applications make him a perfect fit for BioLizard’s leadership team. Paul has worked on every aspect of the software product life cycle, and his expertise is invaluable in helping BioLizard help their customers leverage the full potential of data for life sciences and health care.

Scientific Advisor

Samuel Pine is an accomplished drug development expert with over 25 years leading biotherapeutic, vaccine, and diagnostic projects and teams. He regularly contributes to scientific discussions in the fields of immunogenicity and bioanalysis at international symposia and is an active member of industry working groups and global consortia. In his current role as Head of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Bioanalysis at Argenx, he provides leadership and guidance to translational scientists developing and implementing PK, ADA and biomarker methods across a broad range of therapeutic areas and drug modalities. Prior to Argenx, Samuel held roles of increasing responsibility at Sanofi, BioAgilytix, Allergan, the Infectious Disease Research Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Chiron/Novartis. He received his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz and his PhD in Pathobiology from the University of Washington.

Scientific Advisor

Hans Ulrichts holds a PhD in Biochemistry from KU Leuven. He began his career in drug development at Ablynx (a Sanofi company), where he led the non-clinical and clinical pharmacology efforts for its lead development program, caplacizumab—an anti-von Willebrand Factor (vWF) Nanobody approved for the treatment of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) and now marketed as Cablivi.

He has since held senior leadership positions, including Director of Bioanalytical Scientific Management at UCB Pharma and Chief Development Officer at Aelin Therapeutics. Currently, he advises multiple biotechnology companies, offering strategic guidance in drug development and translational science.