Johan Cardoen

Until April 2020 Johan was Managing Director of VIB, a dedicated life science research organization based in Belgium. In this role, Johan was in addition to the executive management responsible for VIB’s Innovation and Business Team. Today he is a Board Director at Biotalys (BE), Aphea.Bio, Complix (BE) and is Chairman of Meiogenix (an Institut Curie spin-off, FR). I

n the past he held board positions at argenx, Actogenix (now Intrexon), Applied-Maths (now bioMérieux), Pronota (now Mycartis), Multiplicom (now Agilent), GST (now Boehringer Ingelheim) and was Chairman of Flandersbio from 20007-2012, and he was also Chairman of the LP Board of V-Bio Ventures (2015-May 2020). Until 2012, Johan was CEO of CropDesign N.V., today part of BASF. He developed and implemented a dual track strategy (IPO/trade sale) which led to an acquisition of CropDesign by BASF in 2006. Prior to joining CropDesign in 1999, Johan was Head of Technology Acquisition at AgrEvo Hoechst Schering/Aventis (now Bayer CropScience) and was responsible for all biotechnology-related technology acquisitions and he started his professional career as business development manager at Plant Genetic Systems (PGS) in 1988. Johan who is a Science Fellow of KU Leuven, received his Ph.D. in biology from KU Leuven, Belgium in 1987) and a business degree from KU Leuven (1990).