Management
R. Strijker | J. Hoeijmakers | G. Zondag | L. Dam | T. Berkvens | I. vd Pluijm | G. Hateboer
The Chief Executive Officer of DNage is Dr. Rein Strijker. Rein is currently member of the Board of Management of Pharming Group N.V. and Chief Commercial Officer. He will leave this position as soon as the spin-out has been formally completed. Before the acquisition of DNage by Pharming he was CEO of The Company. Prior to DNage, Mr. Strijker has held various management positions at Pharming, GenPharm and Genentech Inc. in the USA, Belgium and The Netherlands. These positions included senior functions in R&D, Intellectual Property management, licensing and business development, finance and general management. In addition, he is currently the vice-chairman of the board of Biofarmind, the Dutch foundation of pharmaceutical biotechnology. He is also a member of the supervisory board of Biopartner Foundation Leiden and a member of the advisory board of the Leiden Bio Science Park. Dr Strijker received his Ph.D. at the State University of Groningen in the area of molecular biology. back to top
Dr. Jan Hoeijmakers is the (non-executive) Chief Science Officer. For various reasons The Company and Dr. Hoeijmakers have agreed that he will remain an employee of the Erasmus Medical Center, but will intimately and exclusively be involved with DNage. This is accomplished by (at least) weekly meetings to discuss scientific progress and future directions of research. In addition, Dr, Hoeijmakers has an extensive international scientific network useful to keep up to date with recent developments in the field. Professor Hoeijmakers studied Biology at the Nijmegen University and did his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam before joining the Erasmus University in Rotterdam to work on DNA repair in mammals. His team cloned the first of many subsequent human DNA repair genes, discovered the strong evolutionary conservation of DNA repair systems, elucidated the basis of several human repair syndromes, generated a large number of DNA repair mouse mutants that provided insight into the etiology of human repair syndromes and discovered a link between DNA damage, repair, transcription and ageing and an unexpected connection with longevity. Professor Hoeijmakers plays a leading role in several national and international scientific organizations and his work has been awarded with important prizes such as the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine in Europe and the Dutch Spinoza award. He has published over 300 papers in the field of genetics and DNA repair and his team owns several patents in genome stability. In 1993, he became the professor of Molecular Genetics and since 1999 he has been the head of the Department of Genetics of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. back to top
Dr. Gerben C.M. Zondag is our Vice President Technology Affairs. He is currently responsible for the technological/scientific part of the DNage business development, initiation of research collaborations, writing of Orphan Drug and grant applications, and is actively involved in DNage's research, (pre-)clinical programs, and expansion of DNage's IP portfolio. Dr Zondag joined DNage in 2006. Previously, he worked as Scientific Director for a CRO (Baseclear B.V.), and as a senior scientist for Pharming Technologies. Dr Zondag has ten years experience in managing scientific projects and personnel and he is well-acquainted with Dutch biotech companies and research institutes in the life science field. Dr Zondag has a background in molecular biology and received his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. back to top
Dr. Lia P.M. Dam, Vice President Clinical Operations, is currently responsible for the proper execution of clinical trials in the field of age-related diseases. Dr Dam joined Pharming in 2008. She has more than 10 years of experience in clinical research in the field of project management and data management. Previously, she held various positions in clinical research at IATEC B.V. Dr Dam received her Ph.D. from Utrecht University, faculty of Pharmacy. back to top
Dr. Theo Berkvens is our Vice President New Business Development and is currently responsible for establishing the non-pharma business of DNage. Theo is also owner of Berkvens Management Consultancy providing Strategic Consultancy and Executive Coaching for Life Sciences Companies. Dr Berkvens was employed since 1995 by the California based Biotech company Genencor Inc. At Genencor Dr Berkvens held various business and M&S positions. In this position Dr Berkvens was also a member of the industry steering group of the Suschem initiative. Prior to joining Genencor Dr Berkvens served at the head quarters of the Royal Gist Brocades as Director Marketing and Sales of the detergents enzymes business unit and as manager New Business Development of the Food Ingredients Division. Theo did several postgraduate trainings in Molecular Biology at the Dutch Cancer Institute and the State University Leiden where Dr Berkvens did his thesis work in the field of Molecular Biology and obtained his degree in 1998. Furthermore he studied Marketing and General Management at the Dutch institute for marketing as well as at the Nyenrode Management University and followed several graduate and postgraduate trainings in management and (creative) leadership at international schools and institutes. back to top
Dr. Ingrid van der Pluijm, Senior Director Research, is responsible for managing the research department within DNage and for maintaining the scientific contacts and interactions with the department of Genetics of the Erasmus Medical Center. Dr. van der Pluijm obtained her PhD title in 2006 in that same department based on research in the field of ageing diseases and DNA-repair. She has pubished several scientific articles in the field and has presented her work in several scientific and medical meetings. back to top
Dr. Guus Hateboer Senior Director, Intellectual Property, is currently responsible for all intellectual property projects of The Company. Dr Hateboer joined DNage in 2009. Dr Hateboer has more than 10 years of experience in the biotech industry. He held a position at Kiadis Pharma B.V. as Director Intellectual Property and Licensing. He previously held various positions at Crucell N.V. in both R&D and intellectual property. He received his Ph.D. from Utrecht University, is a European Patent Attorney and, as such, allowed to act before the European Patent Office.
In addition to the above people, DNage employs 8 people who are all active in Research and Development. Expertise in the areas of Human Resources, Finance and Quality Affairs are being provided by Pharming under a service agreement between Pharming and DNage. Other expertise, for instance in the fields of legal affairs, regulatory affairs, medical and manufacturing are acquired either from Pharming or from other third parties. back to top