Our team
We’d love to introduce you to the people who make things happen – our management team, board, medical advisors and investors.
Our team
We’d love to introduce you to the people who make things happen – our management team, board, medical advisors and investors.
Our team
Frans Cromme
CEO
Frans joined ViCentra in May 2019. He has over 20 years of experience in medtech, pharmaceuticals and in vitro diagnostics with roles in marketing, R&D and general management. He has a PhD in oncology as well as an MSc in molecular biology. Frans has lived in a number of countries in Europe and Latin America and loves to climb mountains. Frans’ favourite thing about Kaleido? That it is truly designed to make life easier for people with diabetes, without compromise.
Leo Toole
CFO
Leo joined ViCentra in January 2023, bringing more than 25 years’ experience in the medical technology, pharmaceutical, and FMCG sectors. His experience includes building finance teams, completing public & private financing and executing several mergers & acquisitions. From Ireland, he is a business graduate from Trinity College Dublin with an MBA from INSEAD. Leo is very motivated to deliver disruptive technology that improves lives. For fun, he helps coach his kids’ sports teams and goes hiking.
Sarah Lee
HR Manager
Travel lover Sarah joined ViCentra in 2015 and has been involved with our HR department from an early stage. She has a 2:1 Honours degree in Law, a four year programme which integrated the LPC and gave her a practical and knowledgeable basis for her future in HR. Sarah’s favourite thing about Kaleido is the motivated, talented and fun people at ViCentra that are able to bring the full Kaleido experience to its customers.
Ruairi Duffy
VP of Research & Development
Ruairi joined ViCentra in 2019 and leads our R&D activities. Prior to this, Ruairi held senior positions in various pharma, medtech and product design organizations in multiple countries. Ruairi has a wealth of experience and a proven track record in medical device product design & development. He is a strong advocate for designing, and bringing to market, simple and intuitive medical products that allows users to live life on their terms: say hello to Kaleido! Outside of work, Ruairi enjoys sport, cooking and classic cars.
Tim Oakes
CTO and Co-founder
As co-founder, we wouldn’t be where we are today without Tim. Tim is an award-winning design engineer with over seven years of experience in the medical device field, mostly related to drug delivery systems. Having grown up with a father with Type 1 diabetes, Tim has first-hand knowledge of the challenges of trying to fit medical devices into daily life. Tim’s ultimate goal for Kaleido? To keep things simple so Kaleido can make life easier for people with diabetes.
Sophia Lam
VP of Quality & Regulatory
Sophia joined ViCentra in 2019 with over 20 years of experience in Quality and Regulatory. Working mostly within the medtech industry, she has significant knowledge on regulatory filings, regulatory inspections and design controls. As a real foody Sophia likes to spend her spare time by going on culinary adventures with friends and family. The best thing about Kaleido for Sophia is that it is an easy to manage, small device which drastically improves the quality of life for people with diabetes.
Wilco van der Lugt
VP of Commercial
Wilco joined ViCentra in March 2023. He has worked in the medical device industry for almost 25 years in a variety of commercial roles. Wilco has a clinical background in radiology and radiotherapy. He has experience in launching new products, along with implementation of customer focused sales and marketing initiatives. Wilco also has leadership experience, working with multifunctional and multicultural teams based across multiple countries.
Outside of work Wilco enjoys spending time with his family. He also spends hours underwater as a fully qualified scuba diver, and loves to ride his race bicycle and motorcycle. His favorite thing about Kaleido? “improving quality of life” for people with diabetes.
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Pieter Van Hoof
VP of Operations
Pieter joined ViCentra in July 2021 and is responsible for ViCentra’s Operations. Since the start of his career, Pieter has predominantly developed his Operations expertise working in the pharmaceutical, chemical and medical device industry assuming various increasingly more responsible roles in manufacturing, supply Chain and general management always with a focus on developing an effective and efficient Operations organization. Outside work he enjoys spending time with his family and getting together with friends for a good ride on the gravel bike and supporting his local football team.
Lourens Keers
Head of Digital & Customer Engagement
Lourens joined ViCentra in December 2022 and leads our Product Management and Communication activities. He has over 15 years of experience in driving innovation in various industries, focusing on customers to solve complex challenges. On the side, he founded the first escape room in Amsterdam and completed a MBA at Nyenrode. He is committed to make living with diabetes drastically easier, together with a great team of talented people. Outside ViCentra, Lourens spends most of his time with his family or on padel- and tenniscourt.
Our board
Jan Keltjens
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Jan joined our Board as Chairman in 2017. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of JenaValve Technologies Inc. and member of the Board of Directors of Welcony Inc.
Prior to this he served as Chairman of Nightbalance, Board member and CEO of Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation, Chairman and CEO of Endosense SA, Executive Chairman of Surpass Medical, President and CEO of AngioDynamics Inc [NASDAQ:ANGO] and CEO of CryoCath Technologies Inc. [TSX:CYT]. In addition, he is associated with a number of venture capital funds. These include NextGen Ventures and Brightlands Venture Partner Funds.
Jan also served as Worldwide General Manager at Cordis Neurovascular, a Johnson & Johnson company, as well as various global and regional leadership roles in Operations, R&D and Marketing at Cordis, Johnson & Johnson. Prior to this, Jan led R&D departments at Unilever.
Thijs Cohen Tervaert
Non-executive Board Member
Thijs Cohen Tervaert is a Junior Partner at INKEF. Thijs currently also serves on the board of TargED BioPharmaceuticals, Calypso Biotech, iOnctura, Audion Therapeutics, Aidence and Castor. Prior to INKEF, Thijs was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group with a focus on health care and technology. He worked on projects for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and insurers. During a one year secondment, Thijs helped to establish the Amsterdam Health and Technology Institute in 2014. Thijs is a medical doctor and graduated at Leiden University. He has also co-authored several scientific papers.
Anne Portwich
Non-executive Board Member
Anne Portwich is a Partner in the EQT Life Sciences team. Anne worked for LSP from 2001 until 2022, when LSP joined forces with EQT and was renamed EQT Life Sciences.
Prior to joining LSP, Anne worked as a Scientist and Project Leader at OctoPlus in Leiden, the Netherlands. Anne holds an MSc in Biochemistry from the University of Hanover and a PhD from the Max-Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology in Bremen.
Sonia Hallen
Non-executive Board Member
Sonia Hallen, PhD, is an Associate at EQT Life Sciences, having joined the firm in 2019. Prior to EQT Life Sciences, Sonia founded two companies: InfectDetect, a GSK-funded start-up focused in infectious disease diagnostics, and Digital Biosciences, an artificial intelligence-based clinical trial design platform. Prior to this, Sonia was a strategy consultant at Accenture UKI within the Life Sciences practice where she led operational and commercial strategy for major global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Before joining Accenture, Sonia was a Stem Cell Scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, in Melbourne, Australia, where her research focused on rebuilding the heart with smart stem cell biomaterials. Sonia received a BEng in Chemical Engineering from McGill University (CA), an MSc in Biotechnology from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), and her PhD in Regenerative Medicine from Imperial College London (UK).
Linze Dijkstra
Non-executive Board Member
Linze Dijkstra is a managing partner at Health Innovations and has 20 years of experience in healthcare. Linze sits on the board of ViCentra and is investor director at several of the portfolio companies of Health Innovations, including NovioSense (continuous glucose monitoring), NightBalance (a sleep position trainer for people with sleep apnea) and Stroke2prevent (preventing strokes during cardiac surgery). Prior to Health Innovations, Linze was Director Healthcare at ABN Amro, where he was responsible for the company’s healthcare activities in the Netherlands. Linze also worked as a healthcare-consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and holds a Master of Science in Business Administration from the University of Twente.
Remmert Laan
Non-executive Board Member
Remmert (Rem) Laan, is President of Diabetes Insights, LLC, a consulting company specialising in marketing and business development for manufacturers of diabetes drugs, devices and apps and he brings expert knowledge of the diabetes market to ViCentra’s Board . Prior to launching Diabetes Insights in 2015, Rem served as Executive Director of the William Sansum Diabetes Center in Santa Barbara, California. He also holds more than 15 years’ experience in diabetes device commercialisation, including insulin pump products. From 2003 to 2013, Rem served in various capacities with Roche Diabetes Care, including Vice President, External Affairs, North America, and Vice President, Insulin Delivery Systems Global Marketing and Reimbursement.
Jan Paul van Geen
Non-executive Board Member
Jan Paul van Geen is Partner at Partners in Equity since 2020 and joined the board of ViCentra in January 2023. Next to ViCentra, Jan Paul currently holds several board positions at other portfolio companies and funds in the PiE portfolio. Prior to joining Partners in Equity Jan Paul had several management positions within ABN AMRO and Vodafone on the intersection of strategy and operations. Jan Paul is member of the advisory board of Bartimeus Fonds.
Our advisors
Dr. G. E. M. G. Storms
Medical Advisor
Dr. G. E. M. G. (Fred) Storms is one of the Netherlands’ leading authorities on the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Medical Director of the Diabetes Care team at St. Antonius Hospital, Utrecht until his retirement in 2016, Dr. Storms holds a special interest in the medical and technical advancements being made to improve diabetes treatment, and, as such, his work has long focussed on encouraging and supporting such advancements. He has participated in multiple international studies, including AT.LANTUS, PROactive, ONTARGET and EMPA-REG, and contributed to several trials of leading insulin pump therapies.
Anton Kittelberger
Innovation Advisor
Anton has devoted his professional life to improving the lives of people with diabetes. He is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of 9am.health, the first direct to consumer virtual diabetes clinic in the United States. It combines prescriptions, medication delivery, labs, and required specialists, making healthcare for people with (pre-)diabetes and related diseases incredibly convenient and affordable. Before 9am.health, Anton and his team built mySugr – a digital therapy management platform focused on people with diabetes. MySugr was acquired by Roche in 2017 and is now serving over 4 million users. Anton is also an active Startups investor in healthcare.
Our investors
INKEF
INKEF Capital is a leading venture capital firm based in Amsterdam with a proven history in backing promising early stage companies in Europe. INKEF takes pride in being a patient, long-term investor with the ability to support companies through several funding rounds all the way up to IPO. From the early stages of being a technology or life science venture, INKEF supports entrepreneurs building their ideas into successful international businesses. Inkef’s investments include Onward Medical, Castor, iOnctura, Cardior and GitLab, Remote among others.
EQT Life Science
EQT Life Sciences was formed in 2022 following the integration of LSP, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, into the EQT platform. As LSP, the firm raised over EUR 3.0 billion and supported the growth of more than 150 companies since it started to invest over 30 years ago. With a dedicated team of highly experienced investment professionals coming from backgrounds in medicine, science, business, and finance, EQT Life Sciences backs the smartest inventors who have ideas that could truly make a difference for patients. The team combines deep sector knowledge, analytical skills, and investment experience to provide the added value that inventors seek.
Health Innovations
Since 2007, Health Innovations has been investing in technology-driven healthcare start-ups, with a focus on early stage investments in Dutch medical device and service companies. Shareholders in their funds include ABN AMRO, Mediq and healthcare insurers Achmea and VGZ. The Dutch government also supports Health Innovations via a seed capital arrangement.
Invest-NL
Invest-NL is the National Financing and Development Institution of the Netherlands that, as an impact investor, focuses on making financeable what doesn’t seem to be financeable. Together with other financiers, investors and development specialists – both private and public – Invest-NL’s primary attention is on the larger societal challenges like the transition to a carbon neutral and circular economy, affordable and accessible healthcare, and deep tech.
Partners in Equity
Partners in Equity is an Amsterdam based privately owned investment firm with a long term focus. The firm supports companies and funds active in Healthcare, Education an Agrifood, all with an impact and tech angle and significantly changing the playing field.