Our History

Pascal Doguet holds a PhD in electronics from the UCLouvain. During his thesis, he was involved in the development of a visual prosthesis, designing the prosthesis electronics and application specific integrated circuits. He worked at Neurotech as Chief Technology Officer, in charge of the R&D department and responsible for the development of the vagus nerve stimulator and other industrial projects involving implants for Deep Brain Stimulation and Sleep Apnea that he entirely designed. Multilingual and driven by challenges, he also has extensive experience in coordinating research projects at national and international levels.

Carole Monterrat has a scientific background in the field of physiology, having received her PhD in molecular mechanisms of insulin release. After postdoctoral studies at UC Louvain in Belgium, Carole received an MBA, and continued her education in finance at the Solvay School in Brussels. She has extensive experience in business management, as vice-president at the start-up Promethera Biosciences, and CFO at A-Mansia Biotech where she coordinated HR, finance & grant management. Carole also served as investment manager at Vives investment fund and as CFO at Sopartec (Tech Transfer Office) in Louvain, Belgium. She also has several years of experience as an expert consultant and evaluator of small businesses for EASME of the European Commission and the ERC.

Gijs Klarenbeek holds an MD from the University of Leuven and was trained as a general surgeon. Following his clinical and academic experience, Gijs held for over 15 years roles in Medical Affairs and Clinical development in pharmaceutical and medtech companies, with a strong focus on clinical strategy for (implantable) medical devices, including preclinical evalulation and pre-approval development, to post market clinical requirements across different therapeutic areas. 

More than 20 years of experience in medical device marketing & market access. In neurostimulation, Anne has launched 2 industry-first implantable systems on the EU market (DBS for dystonia and ONS for chronic migraine).

Before joining Synergia Medical, Dan has held operational management positions in medical device companies such as DePuy Spine (a Johnson & Johnson company), Synthes, Biwi and iSTAR Medical. Prior to that, Dan worked for 6 years in the automotive and electronics industries. His operational responsibilities included global supply chain management, global manufacturing, product development, engineering, procurement and logistics. Dan also has experience in prototyping, testing and quality systems, as well as extensive, multi-site, operational experience in various environments such as start-up, ramp up, and corporations.

Dan is a Swiss national with an Engineering degree in electronics and physics from the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, and is a certified Six Sigma Black belt.

Sophie Baratte was the General Manager of Johnson & Johnson France and the Sorin Group, before becoming the CEO of CitoxLab in 2009. She then continued her career as EMEA S&M VP for Lifecell and as CEO of Cellnovo Group. She has a good experience in the US Market and a good understanding of all health and economics environments across Europe.

She studied Life Sciences Engineering in France. She holds a PhD in Biotechnologies and an MBA from the HEC Paris.

Yves Jongen, a Belgian national, born on October 27^th, 1947, is a Civil Engineer in electronics with an additional certification in nuclear sciences. After having managed the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve’s Cyclotron Research Center, he founded Ion Beam Applications (IBA) in 1986.

Currently Chief Research Officer, he is a member of the executive committee. He is the author of over a dozen patents and more than 200 publications in the particle accelerator field.

Furthermore, Yves Jongen is the Chairman of the Board of the Industry cluster “Pôle MecaTech” as well as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the class Technology and Society.

Marc Nolet de Brauwere was appointed CEO of PhysIOL in 1997 when he took over the company. He previously held different positions at Petrofina S.A. in the US and as an associate at McKinsey.

He is currently an Independent Director at Cardiatis, Mymicroinvest, Endo Tools Therapeutics, Biotech Coaching, iSTAR Medical and Aliaxis and is currently a Member of the Ashoka Support Network.

He holds a Master’s degree in Civil Mining Engineering from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium and a Master’s degree in Industrial Management from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Pierre DETRIXHE is Investment Manager at INVESTSUD Group. Prior to that, he worked as Technology Transfer Officer and Scientist in biotechnology. He holds a master in Bioengineering (ULiège) and a master in Management (UCL). 
At INVESTSUD Group, Pierre manages the “Financière spin-off luxembourgeoise” which is a specialized vehicle investing in seed and early-stage technological start-ups. The portfolio companies features some of the regional leading tech companies mainly in the Life Sciences and in the Medtech Industries.

Els Hubloux is a Partner at Newton Biocapital Partners. She has over 23 years of experience in the life sciences sector, of which 17 years as a venture capital professional. She has also acted as CFO of a diagnostics start-up and has been a director of a number of life sciences and medtech companies. She holds a Master’s degree in chemical engineering.

Pascal Doguet holds a PhD in electronics from the UCLouvain. During his thesis, he was involved in the development of a visual prosthesis, designing the prosthesis electronics and application specific integrated circuits. He worked at Neurotech as Chief Technology Officer, in charge of the R&D department and responsible for the development of the vagus nerve stimulator and other industrial projects involving implants for Deep Brain Stimulation and Sleep Apnea that he entirely designed. Multilingual and driven by challenges, he also has extensive experience in coordinating research projects at national and international levels.

Attila Borbath’s M.Sc. in Business Administration and Engineering from the UCLouvain followed by the CEMS Master’s in International Management naturally brought him to pave his professional way in a technological start-up in the finance sector for 10 years.

In parallel, he obtained his Airline Transport Pilot License. He was then convinced by the idea of joining an innovative technology start-up where he had the role of VP Sales & Marketing. In 2013 he moved to Synergia Medical that he co-founded. Well-travelled, multilingual and energetic, Attila has developed remarkable management, entrepreneurial, marketing and business development skills.

Denis Gestin has over 30 years of experience in the management of medical device companies.

He worked for more than 20 years at Abbott Laboratories (previously St. Jude Medical), where he occupied the positions of President of the International Division and then Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Integration. He has a wide experience in neurostimulation, as he was involved in St Jude’s acquisition of Advanced Neuromodulation System and Spinal Modulation.

Enrique Vega holds a Master's Degree in industrial engineering from ICAI (Spain) and ESIEE (France). He started his career developing algorithms for CPAP devices to monitor and treat Sleep Apnea patients. After an MBA at INSEAD, he worked in the cardiology and heart failure businesses in different positions (sales, business management) and in different countries (France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America).

In 2013, he joined the New Ventures department of Livanova, and participated on the investment and management of different start-ups in neuromodulation for heart failure and sleep apnea. In 2016, he became the CEO of Nyxoah, and brought the company from R&D stage to CE-Mark, IDE-FDA approval, and IPO preparation process. He is today supporting different early-stage start-up to accelerate their path to market.