A company of visionaries
Meet our team and advisors
The management team
An experienced team combining business experience with technical expertise
Hugo de Wit
CEO
Hugo de Wit has over 30 years of experience in life sciences, leading multi-cultural teams and scaling start-ups, scale-ups, and large corporations. He was Head of Business Area Cell Culture Technologies at Sartorius and held roles at Lonza, Merck, Siegfried, and PanGenetics. He holds a MSc and an executive MBA.
Andrea Candelli, PhD
CSO & Head of Marketing and Business Development
As cofounder of LUMICKS Andrea is an expert in the field of single-molecule applications, turning a self-built proof-of-concept prototype into a business opportunity. Currently, Andrea oversees the scientific vision and market creation strategy to Biotech and Pharma.
Gerrit Sitters, PhD
General Manager, Cell Avidity Business
During his PhD in Physics at the VU University Gerrit further developed both C-Trap & acoustic force spectroscopy technologies, and later co-founded LUMICKS. He now focuses on top market requirements for Cell Avidity technology and leads the technical and commercial roadmap.
Gijs Oude Elberink
COO
Having previously worked at Philips and at FEI —now Thermo Fisher Scientific— as Operations Director and Head of Global Sourcing & Operations Director respectively, Gijs is currently overseeing overall Operations including Sourcing, Service, IT, and Office at LUMICKS.
Edmee Verhulp
CFO
Edmee is a tech-CFO with a background in biotechnology, business economics and business valuation. She has a broad experience in VC/growth-backed technology companies across genomics, cleantech and industrial biotech. Previously she has led the acquisition of Bluebee by Illumina and has been an (advisory) board member for several businesses and government bodies.
Jos Maas, PhD
General Manager, Dynamic Single-Molecule Business
Jos brings a track record of growing high-tech businesses on a global scale and significant expertise in product marketing. Previously, he held several management positions at Nearfield Instruments, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Phenom-World (a spin-off from FEI Company), and ASML.
The board of directors
Seasoned business & life science experts advising us on strategy and key decisions
Melissa McLaughlin (USA), Chair
Chief People Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals. Previously held positions as HR World Director at Johnson & Johnson, and Vice President, HR at Expedia. Currently advises Google Ventures‘ companies on HR strategy.
Solange Bullukian (USA)
Strategic finance leader with experience in Fortune 500, scale-up and start-up organizations. Founder and Managing Principal of Scale2Growth. Previously CFO of Twist Bioscience, president, corporate controller, and CAO for Agilent Technologies, Board Member and Audit Committee Chair of Olink and Inari Agriculture.
Don Kania (USA)
Board Chair emeritus
Serves on the boards of Intuitive Surgical and Nanostring Technologies, as well as several non profit organizations. Former CEO at FEI (acquired by ThermoFisher), COO at Veeco. PhD in Physics & Engineering from University of Michigan.
Alex Slack (USA)
Founding Partner of Lauxera Capital Partners. Former Managing Director on Maverick Capital‘s healthcare team, Analyst at Jackson Square Partners, and Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Pieter van der Meer (NL)
Seasoned life science venture capitalist. Founder and managing partner of Gilde Healthcare.
Peter van den Broek (NL)
20 years of experience as a senior executive with General Electric and Danaher. Previously CEO of Leica and SVP at Fluke.
Hugo de Wit (NL)
Hugo de Wit has over 30 years of experience in life sciences, leading multi-cultural teams and scaling start-ups, scale-ups, and large corporations. He was Head of Business Area Cell Culture Technologies at Sartorius and held roles at Lonza, Merck, Siegfried, and PanGenetics. He holds a MSc and an executive MBA.
Vali Barsan (USA)
Next generation sequencing engineer and oncologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Barsan has led numerous life science investments in life science tools, molecular diagnostics, and next generation medicines at SoftBank. Serves on multiple boards including Umoja Biopharma, Neuron23, and ArsenalBio.
The board of directors
Seasoned business & life science experts advising us on strategy and key decisions
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Don Kania (USA), Chair of the Board
Serves on the boards of Intuitive Surgical and Nanostring Technologies, as well as several non profit organizations. Former CEO at FEI (acquired by ThermoFisher), COO at Veeco. PhD in Physics & Engineering from University of Michigan.
Solange Glaize (USA)
Strategic finance leader with experience in Fortune 500, scale-up and start-up organizations. Previously CFO of Twist Bioscience, president, corporate controller, and CAO for Agilent Technologies, Board Member and Audit Committee Chair of Olink.
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Melissa McLaughlin (USA)
Chief People Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals. Previously held positions as HR World Director at Johnson & Johnson, and Vice President, HR at Expedia. Currently advises Google Ventures‘ companies on HR strategy.
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Alex Slack (USA)
Founding Partner of Lauxera Capital Partners. Former Managing Director on Maverick Capital‘s healthcare team, Analyst at Jackson Square Partners, and Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company.
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Pieter van der Meer (NL)
Seasoned life science venture capitalist. Founder and managing partner of Gilde Healthcare.
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Peter van den Broek (NL)
20 years of experience as a senior executive with General Electric and Danaher. Previously CEO of Leica and SVP at Fluke.
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Hugo de Wit (NL)
Hugo de Wit has over 30 years of experience in life sciences, leading multi-cultural teams and scaling start-ups, scale-ups, and large corporations. He was Head of Business Area Cell Culture Technologies at Sartorius and held roles at Lonza, Merck, Siegfried, and PanGenetics. He holds a MSc and an executive MBA.
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Vali Barsan (USA)
Next generation sequencing engineer and oncologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Barsan has led numerous life science investments in life science tools, molecular diagnostics, and next generation medicines at SoftBank. Serves on multiple boards including Umoja Biopharma, Neuron23, and ArsenalBio.
The technical advisory board
The most knowledgeable people on our applications and technology
Dr. Michael Schnall-Levin (USA)
SVP R&D and founding scientist at 10x Genomics with extensive experience in successfully scaling up the company and bringing new products to market.
Prof.dr. Gijs Wuite (NL)
Biophysicist, PhD from UC Berkeley, single-molecule force spectroscopy and optical tweezers expert. Co-founded LUMICKS in 2014.
Prof.dr.ir. Erwin Peterman (NL)
Biophysicist, Post-doc Stanford University at W.E. Moerner (Nobel laureate 2014), single-molecule microscopy expert. Co-founded LUMICKS in 2014.
Dr. Sadik Kassim (USA)
Scientist and executive with extensive experience in the biotech industry and expert in cell and gene therapy. Currently, CTO at Danaher.
The technical advisory board
The most knowledgeable people on our applications and technology
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Prof.dr. Gijs Wuite (NL)
Biophysicist, PhD from UC Berkeley, single-molecule force spectroscopy and optical tweezers expert. Co-founded LUMICKS in 2014.
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Prof.dr.ir. Erwin Peterman (NL)
Biophysicist, Post-doc Stanford University at W.E. Moerner (Nobel laureate 2014), single-molecule microscopy expert. Co-founded LUMICKS in 2014.
Gigi Wang (US)
Global mentor for entrepreneurship and innovation. Managing Partner of MG-Team, LLC. Chair of Berkeley Method Boot-camp, Board Member MITEF/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB).
Dr. John Rediske (US)
Project lead at Novartis in areas of immune therapies and oncology biologic therapeutics, Core team member workings towards registration of Kymriah. Obtained PhD in Immunology at Albany Medical College and Post Doc in inflammation at the University of Michigan.
LUMICKS Scientific advisory board
The most knowledgeable scientists supporting LUMICKS in the next step of our journey
Dr. Marcela Maus (USA)
Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Renowned for her pioneering work in CAR-T cell therapy and advancing cancer immunotherapy for solid tumors.
Matteo Ferrari, PhD (UK)
Senior Director of Binder Discovery at Autolus Ltd. Expert in immuno-oncology with extensive experience in developing engineered T cell therapies and novel protein binders for innovative CAR-T cell therapeutics.
David Ferrick, PhD (USA)
Former Chief Scientific Officer at Axion BioSystems and Seahorse Bioscience. Innovator in cellular metabolism analysis, contributing significantly to the development of technologies that measure cellular functions.
