Board of Directors

Bernard Mulder has more than two decades of experience in the life sciences industry. He worked for Organon for 12 years, of which he spent 10 years abroad in Asia, Europe and the USA. He held several medical, marketing, sales and managerial positions in the different countries. After returning to the Netherlands, he worked as Global VP Marketing, Sales and Business Development for Avantium Pharma.

In 2011, Bernard co-founded Eagle Rock Life Sciences to support life sciences enterprises from early start-ups to mature companies (hands-on) and also invested in start-ups. Most recently, he worked for Boehringer Ingelheim for the medical department. Bernard earned his medical degree at Leiden University and his MBA from New York Institute of Technology.

• LinkedIn - Bernard Mulder

Prof. Luyten is Professor Emeritus at the KU Leuven, Belgium.

After a residency in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the University Hospitals in Ghent, Belgium, he completed a postdoctoral training in cartilage and bone biology under the mentorship of AH Reddi at the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, USA. In 1992, he became Group Leader at this same Institute. In 1997, he accepted the position of Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the University Hospitals in Leuven, Belgium. He also became director of the Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Center and of Prometheus, an interdisciplinary platform for Skeletal Tissue Engineering at the KU Leuven, Belgium.

He belongs to the few academicians that can bridge the gap between bench and bedside and make a successful translation of innovative treatments to the patient and market. As co-founder of TiGenix, he was instrumental in the development of ChondroCelect™, the first cell based ATMP with central registration at the European Medicines Agency. Prof. Luyten is/was member of the board of Directors of several SMEs and serves as Medical and Scientific Advisor for the biotech/pharma sector, in particular for regenerative medicine products.

• KU Leuven - Frank Luyten

Marianne van der Steen is Professor of Entrepreneurship in Healthcare at the Technology-inspired Institute of Regenerative Medicine (MERLN), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University. She has been appointed director of RegMed XB and member of the board of governors of RegMed XB foundation. Marianne van der Steen received her PhD degree in 1999 from Twente University. Her research focus is on biomedical entrepreneurship, specifically on the scaling-up of ventures. At MERLN, she is responsible for biomedical entrepreneurship valorization, training and education from the lab to a spin-off company.

In addition, she is the founding director of executive life sciences entrepreneurship programs such as the Global Investor Forum, the Global Scale-up Program and the executive Master MBI Life Sciences & Health (currently member of the advisory board). Since 2006, she has been involved in life sciences start-ups, served in early stage start-up investor boards and national and international advisory boards related to entrepreneurship and valorization in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States.

• MERLN Institute - Marianne van der Steen

Tom Oostrom (1964) has been Managing Director of the Dutch Kidney Foundation since 2010. He started as head of the policy section in 2005. With the motto "Life comes first" the Kidney Foundation gives everything to make sure kidney patients survive ánd their quality of life improves. Tom Oostrom learned from practice: he started out as a nurse. His drive is to make a real difference for kidney patients, to help make their lives livable.

Since 2012 Oostrom has been the chair of the cooperating healthcare funds (Samenwerkende Gezondheidsfondsen) in which 21 large funds are united. He is also a member of the Regiegroep Life Sciences & Health and is committed to promote active involvement of healthcare funds in the topsector policy. Oostrom is also vice-president of the NPHF, Federation for Health.In Leiden Oostrom studied to become a nurse (1986). He studied Policy & Management in Healthcare at Erasmus University Rotterdam (1991).

• LinkedIn - Tom Oostrom

After his study at Nyenrode Business University, he obtained his MBA from the KU in Leuven, Belgium. Nearly 25 years he has worked for the pharmaceutical company Organon/ Schering-Plough, mainly abroad: Germany, India, Finland, México and France. He held several senior managerial positions in those countries. Also he lead a team responsible for the development and worldwide commercialization of new fertility products. Thereafter he switched to the cure and care market in the Netherlands with consultancy and interim-management activities (e.g. elderly care, palliative care). In addition he is examiner/ supervisor International Business at the HAN, University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

• LinkedIn - Erik Eijrond