PwC Annual Executive Healthcare Summit 2024

Frank Vandenbroucke, born on October 21, 1955, in Leuven, Belgium, is a distinguished Belgian politician and academic. A member of the Vooruit party, he has held numerous key government positions, including Minister of Social Affairs and Pensions, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and currently, Minister of Health and Social Affairs since October 2020.

Vandenbroucke studied economics at the Catholic University of Leuven and earned advanced degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Oxford. His political career began in the mid-1980s, and he has since been a central figure in shaping Belgium's social and health policies.

Kathleen Depoorter is a pharmacist and a Belgian federal member of parliament representing the New Flemish Alliance. She serves as a permanent member of the health, equal chances and emancipation committee, contributing to improve national healthcare. Depoorter also holds the role of a substitute member on the foreign affairs committee, where she oversees development cooperation initiatives. She has a role as an alderwoman in the city of Evergem, demonstrating her commitment to local governance and community development.

Hugues Malonne is Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP). He obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1999. He then earned a Certificate at Harvard Medical School and INSEAD in Paris, and an Executive Master in Management of Health and Care Institutions at the University of Brussels (ULB).

He started his career in academia as a Professor before moving on to the pharmaceutical industry. After a successful international career (in Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, China, etc.), he returned to Belgium.

With his expertise in market access, government affairs, public relations, public policy and pharmaceuticals, Hugues Malonne joined the FAMHP in 2017 as Director General. He successively headed the PRE and POST authorisation departments. As of September 2023, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the FAMHP.

Hugues Malonne has a particular interest in addressing drug shortages and exploring innovative therapies, including Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) and vaccines. He is also co-chair of the Steering Board of CMA (Critical Medicines Alliance).

Throughout his career, he has maintained close links with the academic world and continues to teach at ULB and UNamur.

Caroline Ven is CEO of pharma.be, the federation of the innovative biopharmaceutical industry in Belgium, since October 1st 2020. Before this, she led “The Blue Cluster”, a triple helix organisation dedicated to developing and promoting innovation. She started her career as an economist in the research department of a financial institution (KBC), headed the Economics Department of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (FEB), and was Managing Director of Etion, a platform of 4,000 decision makers, focussing on shared value leadership. She was also the Chief of Staff of two Belgian Prime Ministers, Yves Leterme and Herman Van Rompuy.  

Caroline Ven has held various board positions and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of the University of Leuven, a member of UGent Connect, the Belgian High Counsel of Employment, and the National Productivity Council of Belgium.  

She has written several books on economics and was, for almost ten years, one of the resident columnists of Belgian business newspaper De Tijd. 

Margot Cloet is managing director of Zorgnet-Icuro, the umbrella organization of Flemish general hospitals, mental health initiatives and not-for-profit elderly care facilities. She has held this position since 2017. Previously, Margot Cloet was successively a counselor, spokesperson, deputy chief of staff and chief of private secretary at various welfare and public health cabinets for 10 years. She’s passionated by healthcare end governance of healthcare systems.

Frédéric Clais is Country Manager for Eli Lilly Belgium & Luxembourg.  After finalizing his studies as pharmacists & his post-graduate of Master of Business Administration, he joined Eli Lilly Belgium 26 years ago.  Taking up multiple commercial and marketing functions within Lilly, Frédéric holds now the position as Country Manager for the last 9 years.

As Board member Frédéric Clais is since multiple years actively involved in Pharma.be, the association of innovative pharmaceutical companies in Belgium, and serving the association today as Chair of the Board

Sabrina Suetens is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in life sciences and healthcare. She began her career in the innovative pharmaceutical industry, later leading health data services and MedTech companies. 

Currently, she serves as the Managing Director at beMedTech, the Belgian federation of Medical Technologies. 

Sabrina is a strong advocate for leveraging medical technologies to improve patient outcomes in a cost-effective way. She firmly believes in the power of teamwork and building bridges between all stakeholders to foster a sustainable, accessible healthcare system.

Stefan Gijssels is Chair of the Patient Expert Center, he is member of the Board of Alzheimer Liga Vlaanderen, and member of ProLong, the lung cancer association. He is co-founder and former CEO of Digestive Cancers Europe. He became a patient advocate after he was treated for a metastatic colorectal cancer in 2015. Before that, he was Vice President Communications & Public Affairs at Janssen EMEA.

Giovanni Briganti is a psychiatrist and data scientist. At University of Mons, he is the Head of Department of Computational Medicine and Neuropsychiatry and holds the Chair of AI and Digital Medicine, offering the world’s first compulsory AI courses in the medical curriculum and coordinating many projects in AI in health. He is the lead of AI4Health at AI4Belgium.

Ann Van Gysel is the CEO of MEDVIA, an industry-driven membership organization that supports health entrepreneurs by fostering innovations in healthcare. A public-private partnership with VLAIO, Flanders’ innovation agency, MEDVIA counts 150 members from industry, hospitals and academia. Ann is also an independent member of the board of directors of Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). With a PhD in molecular biology, she previously established VIB’s communications department, served as the Managing Director of Flanders Bio and was the owner of the life sciences marketing agency Turnstone Communications.