We Are argenx

Peter Verhaeghe has served as Director and Chairman of the argenx Board of Directors since July 2014. Since 1999, he has been the managing partner of VVGB Advocaten-Avocats, an international corporate finance law and tax law firm in Belgium. He also serves as lead counsel to a series of Belgian, Dutch, French, US and Swiss biotechnology and diagnostics companies.

He serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Haretis S.A. and as a Director of the Board of PMV. Mr. Verhaeghe holds a law degree from the University of Leuven and an LLM degree from Harvard Law School.

Dr. J. Donald deBethizy has served as a Director of argenx since May 2015. He has 30 years of experience managing and advising life sciences companies. Since 2014, he has been the President of White City Consulting, a firm he founded to advise technology-focused companies on strategies to optimize value. Previously, Don served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Santaris Pharma until its acquisition by Roche.

For 12 years prior, he was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Targacept. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Albumedix, Newron Pharmaceuticals and Noxxon Pharma. Don has held adjunct appointments at Wake Forest University Babcock School of Management, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Duke University. He holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Maryland, and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Utah State University.

Don serves as vice-chairman of the Board of Directors since February 2023.

Dr. Pamela Klein has served as a Director of Argenx since April 2016. Dr. Klein is founder of PMK BioResearch, which offers drug development consulting to corporate boards, management teams and the investment community. 

She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Patrys and I-MAB Biopharma and sits on scientific advisory boards for early-stage biotechnology companies.

Previously, Dr. Klein spent seven years at the National Cancer Institute lastly as Research Director of the NCI-Navy Breast Center, after which she joined Genentech and was VP, Development until 2001. She served as Chief Medical Officer for Intellikine, which was acquired by Takeda/Millennium. Dr. Klein holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from California State University and an M.D. from Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago and is trained in internal medicine and medical oncology.

Tony Rosenberg has served as a Director of argenx since April 2017.

Mr. Rosenberg was a Managing Director of MPM Capital, a venture capital firm, from 2015 to 2020. He was previously the Corporate Head of M&A and Licensing at Novartis Pharma, and before that the Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Pharma. Mr. Rosenberg is Chairman of the Board of Directors at Cullinan Therapeutics, Oculis and Nuclidium. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Leicester and a M.Sc. Physiology from the University of London.

James M. Daly has served as a Director argenx since May 2018. Mr. Daly is a biopharmaceutical executive with 30 years of experience leading U.S. and global businesses. He was most recently the Chief Commercial Officer of Incyte, a publicly traded oncology and inflammation company. Prior to this, Mr. Daly he held multiple leadership positions at Amgen, including his last role as Senior Vice President for North America Commercial Operations.

Before Amgen, he was at GlaxoSmithKline for nearly 17 years where he held various positions in both the U.S. and abroad, including Senior Vice President of the Respiratory Division with responsibility for sales, marketing and medical affairs. Mr. Daly currently serves as a Director of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Halozyme Therapeutics and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from the University at Buffalo, New York.

Camilla Sylvest is the Executive Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Corporate Affairs of Novo Nordisk A/S. She has more than 25 years of working experience within Novo Nordisk and was based in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Malaysia and China.

Over the years, Ms. Sylvest headed up affiliates of growing size and complexity in Europe within Novo Nordisk and was also Corporate VP Business Area Oceania and Southeast Asia (BAOS) and Senior Vice President and General Manager Novo Nordisk Region China. She also serves as the vice chair of the World Diabetes Foundation Board (WDF) and as a member of the Board in Danish Crown A/S.

Ms. Sylvest holds a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Odense, Denmark and an Executive MBA from the Scandinavian Management Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dr. Ana Céspedes is Chief Operating Officer of IAVI, a global organization dedicated to developing accessible vaccines and antibodies for infectious diseases. She joined IAVI in September 2018 and oversees Finance & Administration, Legal & Compliance, Business Development, HR, Operational Excellence, Global Access, External Affairs, Communications, and Regional Operations.

Over the past 22 years, Dr. Cespedes has held numerous positions within EMD Serono, Merck KGaA, Serono Iberia and Arthur Andersen, including Global Head of Market Access and Pricing for Merck KGaA and Head of Corporate Affairs for Merck. S.L. and Serono Iberia. She is co-founder of the Think Tank Spanish Women Leaders in Life Sciences (SWL), Board Member (Healthcare Chapter) of the IESE Business School, Faculty member of EADA Business School, and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ProPatients Institute. She holds a PhD in Pharmacy, a Master’s in General Management (PDG) from the IESE Business School and an Executive Certification in Strategy & Innovation from MIT.

Mr. Krognes joined the argenx Board of Directors in February 2023 as a non-executive director and chairperson of the audit and compliance committee. Mr. Krognes also serves on the Boards of Directors of Guardant Health, Denali Therapeutics, Gritstone bio, and Pliant Therapeutics. He previously served on the board of directors of RLS Global and Corvus.

Mr. Krognes was the chief financial officer of Denali Therapeutics from 2015 until retiring from that position in April 2022. He joined Denali as the founding chief financial officer, building and leading the finance team as well as supervising the IT and facilities functions. He led several successful financings including the initial public offering in 2017 and contributed significantly to the company’s strategy, growth and strong financial position.

His extensive leadership experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry includes 12 years at Roche and Genentech serving as chief financial officer of Genentech for six years and global head of Roche’s mergers & acquisition team for six years. He chaired the Genentech Access to Care Foundation and represented Genentech on the board and executive committee of the California Life Science Association.

Before that, he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and as a venture capitalist in Scandinavia. Mr. Krognes holds a master’s in business administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Tim Van Hauwermeiren co-founded argenx and has served as Chief Executive Officer since April 2008. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since July 2014.

Tim has more than 20 years of general management and business development experience across the life sciences and consumer goods sectors, including at Ablynx and Procter & Gamble. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in bioengineering from Ghent University and an Executive MBA from The Vlerick School of Management. 

Tim serves on the Board of Directors of iTeos Pharmaceuticals Inc and Lexeo Therapeutics, Inc.

Key Terms of Contract

Dr. Brian L. Kotzin serves as a director since 2024. He is a member of the board of directors at Biora Therapeutics, Inc. and Genascence Corporation. He served as Senior Vice President for Nektar Therapeutics, Inc. from April 2017 to June 2023, and has held various leadership positions at Nektar, including serving as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Clinical Development from January 2021 to September 2021 and again from May 2022 to June 2023.

From 2004 to 2015, Dr. Kotzin was Vice President, Global and Clinical Development and Head, Inflammation Therapeutic Area at Amgen Inc., directing the global development efforts for product candidates in the inflammation area. During his employment at Amgen, he also served as Vice President of Translational Sciences and Head of Medical Sciences from 2006 to 2011. Prior to entering the life sciences industry, Dr. Kotzin held several positions as a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where his research focused on immunopathogenesis of disease. He has also held leadership roles at several national organizations, including as a member of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Board of Directors, Member and Chairperson of the NIH Immunological Sciences Study Section, Chairperson of the NIH Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence, and Member of the Board of Directors for the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies.

He is currently an elected Master of the ACR. Dr. Kotzin received an M.D. from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Southern California.

Dr. David L. Lacey served as a Director of argenx from 2014 to 2021, when he transitions to an advisory role. He has been a biopharmaceutical consultant since 2011, where he advises academic institutions, biotechnology companies and venture capital firms.

From 1994 until his retirement in 2011, he held various positions, including Head of Discovery Research, at Amgen Inc., where he played a fundamental scientific role in the discovery of the OPG/RANKL/RANK pathway, which led to the development of the anti-RANKL human mAb denosumab, for both osteoporosis (Prolia) and cancer-related bone diseases (XGEVA).

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in biology and an M.D. from the University of Colorado, and has his board certification in anatomic pathology.

Hans de Haard is a co-founder of argenx and served as Chief Scientific Officer until 2022 before he transitioned to be an Ambassador for our Immunology Innovation Program and a Board Advisor.  Hans is a serial pioneer of antibody platforms and has been active in the antibody engineering field since 1989, initially at AKZO Nobel and subsequently at the University of Maastricht where he created a large non-immune human Fab library that subsequently became a core asset of Dyax, yielding multiple therapeutic antibodies including ImClone products IMC-A12, IMC-1F8 and the recently approved anti-VEGFR2 antibody ramucirumab (formerly called IMC-1121B).

From 1998 to 2002 he was responsible for the discovery of llama VHH-based products at Unilever. Just prior to argenx, Hans was on the discovery team at Ablynx where he was responsible for setting up the Nanobody® discovery engine and played a central role in the development of the Nanoclone® methodology based on B cell selection.

Throughout his career, Hans has discovered numerous therapeutic antibody leads, seven of which are now progressing in the clinic. He holds a Master of Science in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Immunology from the University of Maastricht. He is a Professor of Immunology at the University of Franche Comté.

Wim Parys served as the Chief Medical Officer of argenx from 2019 until 2022, when he transitioned to an advisory role to the Board. He has over 25 years of experience leading successful clinical programs in biopharma, including the development and regulatory submission of seven now-approved drugs.

Prior to argenx, he was the R&D Head of the newly established Global Public Health group at Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) responsible for a portfolio including programs in HIV (developing first long-acting therapy), TB, dengue fever and malaria. Before this, Wim was the Head of Development of the Infectious Disease Therapeutic Area of Janssen and Tibotec where he developed and launched innovative drugs for HIV (Prezista™, Intelence™ and Edurant™), Hepatitis C (Incivo™, Olysio™/Sovriad™), and TB ((Sirturo™).

He started his career within the Johnson & Johnson organization at the Janssen Research Foundation in Belgium where he led the R&D team developing galantamine (Reminyl™/Razadyne™) for Alzheimer’s disease. He obtained his medical degree from the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium and worked in private practice for nine years prior to joining industry.

Keith Woods served as the chief operating officer of argenx from April 2018 to March 2023, after which he transitioned to serve as an advisor on the Board of Directors.

Mr. Woods has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He most recently served as senior vice president of North American operations for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Alexion), where he managed a team of several hundred people in the U.S. and Canada and was responsible for more than $1 billion in annual sales. Within Alexion, he previously served as vice president and managing director of Alexion UK, overseeing all aspects of Alexion’s UK business, vice president of U.S. operations and executive director of sales, leading the launch of Soliris in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Prior to joining Alexion, he held various positions of increasing responsibility within Roche, Amgen and Eisai Co., Ltd., over a span of 20 years. Keith Woods holds a Bachelor of Science. in marketing from Florida State University.