Valorization Team (together with DCVA)

Prof. Dr. 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 the General Director of RegMed XB from 2016-2020 and a member of the board of governors of RegMed XB foundation. Marianne van der Steen received her Ph.D. 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 - Marianne van der Steen

Rob de Ree is Chair of valorization at the Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance (DCVA), co-manager along RegMed XB of FIRST, a joint early phase investment fund. Rob started his career in pharma in 1991 in sales and marketing at the cardiovascular division of Byk Gulden. Rob joined Medtronic in 1996 where he worked in various sales and marketing roles, and then he moved to Crucell where he led the licensing business after which he joined BMEYE, a startup in hemodynamic monitoring where he serves as CEO until it was sold to Edwards Lifesciences.

Rob was subsequently CEO of Dezima Pharma, which was sold to Amgen in October 2015. Currently, Rob is operating partner at Biogeneration Ventures since 2016, serving on the board and in interim management positions in the fund’s portfolio companies. In addition, he is CEO of NorthSea Therapeutics and serves on the board of Mellon Medical.

• BGV - Rob de Ree

Wouter obtained his PhD at the department of Nephrology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the field of vascular tissue engineering, where his research involved both (bio)-medical experiments and device engineering. During this time, he became well acquainted with the hurdles and opportunities facing the valorization of academic research. Following his PhD he joined the business development department at Catalyze-group, where worked with numerous researchers and companies in getting their technologies closer to the patients. Wouter completed his master’s degree with honors in bio-pharmaceutical sciences, with an extended master in science-based business. In his role as impact officer he hopes to work closely with researchers to get their ideas to the next level.

• LinkedIn - Wouter Jan Geelhoed

Margien Boels is an Impact Officer at the Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance (DCVA), where she’s responsible for the commercialization & valorization of DCVA consortia into solutions for patients and scalable biomed start-ups. She obtained a master’s degree in Nutrition and Health from Wageningen University and continued her academic career pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Medicine from Leiden University Medical Center in 2016 with the project “The glomerular endothelial glycocalyx in diabetic nephropathy, as part of a consortium of the Dutch Kidney Foundation. Later one, she worked as a stakeholder manager and as a Medical affairs Manager for Nutricia Nederland Medical.

• LinkedIn - Margien Boels