Markwin Velders

Dr. Markwin Velders obtained his PhD in molecular immunology at the Leiden University and worked as scientist and assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago, authoring over 40 peer reviewed papers. He served as CSO at AM-Pharma, a biopharma company developing treatment for acute kidney injury. He subsequently joined TNO, where he held positions as operations manager and Business Unit manager. In 2013, he was involved in NKI spin-off T-Cell Factory. There he played a crucial role in its acquisition by Kite Pharma. He was also CEO of SomantiX, a biotech company developing on angiogenesis inhibitors. From 2015 until 2020, Markwin Velders worked as Vice President Operations and managing director at Kite Pharma. In this period he established the company’s EU headquarters and built the organization from 3 to more than 300 employees. After the company’s acquisition by Gilead in 2017, Markwin headed the establishment of its CAR-T commercial manufacturing site, in Hoofddorp (The Netherlands), playing a key role in the advancement and commercial launch of Kite’s CAR-T therapy in Europe. From 2017 to 2021 he was the chairman of the board of HollandBIO, the association of Dutch biotech companies. He is also supervisory board member at Amarna, a Dutch gene therapy developer, and ISA Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage immunotherapy company. In addition he is advisor to several other biotech companies and VCs in EU, UK and USA. Markwin Velders brings over 20 years of experience at leading positions in various biotech companies. He combines scientific, managerial and commercial experience, specifically in the field of cell and gene therapy.

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