Team

Patrick Van Beneden (1962) has worked at Gimv since 1985. He heads up the Life Sciences business unit.

He is a board member of various listed and non-listed investments, including Acertys, ActoGeniX, Astex, DeVGen, Vitromics and the Biotech Fonds Vlaanderen. Former board seats include Innogenetics, Crucell, Avalon, Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly) and Crop Design (acquired by BASF).

Patrick Van Beneden has a degree in Financial Sciences from VLEKHO in Brussels.

Jim Van heusden (1971) currently serves on the board of Ablynx (Belgium), ActoGeniX (Belgium), Nereus Pharmaceuticals (USA), Pronota (Belgium) and Prosensa (The Netherlands) and has been a board member at CropDesign (acquired by BASF).

Prior to joining Gimv in 2001, he worked as a senior scientist at the department of Oncology Drug Discovery at Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson company, where he also served on the research management committee of the collaboration with Rigel Pharmaceuticals (US).

He holds BSc and MSc degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands).

Karl Nägler (1972) joined Gimv in 2011.

Prior to joining Gimv he worked as General Partner with Ventech, a Paris-based Europe and China focused VC fund where he led investments into Covagen, Funxional Therapeutics, Themis and Prosonix and served on the boards of those companies. He also served on the board of Actogenix.

Karl started his professional career between 2002 and 2009 at Atlas Venture (London and Munich), a transatlantic venture fund where he was instrumental in the formation and/or financing of several start-ups across Europe, including U3 Pharma (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo) and Nitec Pharma (acquired by Horizon Pharma). Previously, he worked as a Scientific Fellow at the CNRS for Neurochemistry in Strasbourg (France).

Karl holds a PhD in the area of molecular neurobiology from the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin (Germany) and a diploma in Biology from the Free University of Berlin.

Christophe Van Vaeck (1973) started at Gimv in 2008 as a Senior Investment Manager.

During the previous eight years, he had been working as a Financial Analyst in the Life Sciences sector. He started his career at Bank Degroof and later worked at KBC Securities, where he guided several IPOs, including those of Galapagos, deVGen, Thrombogenics and Ablynx.

Christophe Van Vaeck earned his PhD in Biology at the lab of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

Helga Aerts (1977) joined Gimv in 2008. Before, she worked at Basell Polyolefins Company BVBA (Brussels, Belgium), where she focused on finance reporting and on Reporting, Improvement of Processes and Projects (RIPP).

Helga Aerts holds a Master’s degree in Criminology from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from PHL University College (Belgium).