BioWin expands its ‘Growth & Financing’ member service by appointing two industry experts
Nadia Verwilghen and Bernard Linsmeau will lead service offer to support biotech and medtech companies in accelerating business growth and raising funds in challenging markets
Gosselies, Belgium, November 29, 2022 – BioWin, the health cluster of Wallonia, today announces the appointment of two growth and financing directors. In these newly created positions, Nadia Verwilghen and Bernard Linsmeau will support the strategic development and financing of BioWin’s members. In parallel, they will also contribute to the evolution of the cluster’s economic model.
Despite a booming sector, Wallonia’s biopharma and medtech companies are still facing key challenges, including raising funds throughout development stages, finding industry partners and accelerating business growth. BioWin has identified a need for support among its members. The cluster can address this need thanks to its strong expertise in business development and finance, focused on the entrepreneurial community and an extensive, committed, network.
Nadia Verwilghen, newly appointed Growth & Financing Director at BioWin, brings more than 25 years of experience in facilitating the development and structuring of businesses within the technology, digital, medtech and industrial sectors, on an international scale. Until last year, she served as VP Finance for iSTAR Medical, a medtech company, where she played a key role in its successful development from clinical stage to commercial launch. Her experience includes various executive positions in finance and corporate business development in international companies, and non-executive board positions. Nadia holds a master’s degree in business administration and finance, a master’s degree in tax law and is certified in corporate governance.
“The healthcare sector in Wallonia is one of the most thriving in Europe, in terms of growth, employment and number of companies. As a result, biotech and medtech companies in the region are always in search of funds and partners to drive growth at every stage of their development. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to support the Belgian health sector by using my CFO experience to help businesses in need of strategic development and financing, and to back entrepreneurs bringing innovative products and services to market,” said Nadia Verwilghen.
Bernard Linsmeau takes on the role of business development & growth director. He brings to BioWin his extensive knowledge in strategic and corporate business development in the human health sector. As former Head of Global Strategic Ventures and Alliances at GSK Vaccines, he led many pivotal projects, including equity and M&A deals, in/out-licensing, technology transfers and international commercial and development alliances. With over 30 years of experience in human health and consultancy services, Bernard is always keen on leveraging his background in science and economics to help innovative life sciences companies grow.
“I’m delighted to join the BioWin team for this critical mission, especially at a time when raising funds in the biotech and medtech industry requires a strong business acumen and the expertise to convince investors and partners to back breakthrough scientific projects. I am confident that my professional experience and network will help further develop and strengthen the health ecosystem in Wallonia,” said Bernard Linsmeau.
“These two appointments reflect our strong commitment to the health ecosystem in Wallonia and our support to members with their growth and business development, by expanding our service offerings in this area. Nadia and Bernard’s specialized backgrounds in both the medtech and biotech sectors, at executive levels, give them a substantial business and financial perspective that will be extremely valuable to our members,” said Sylvie Ponchaut, Managing Director at BioWin.
For more details about the Growth & Financing service: https://biowin.org/growthandfinancing/
Contact: growth@biowin.org
About BioWin
BioWin is the health cluster in Wallonia, Belgium, the regional reference for all stakeholders in health, biotech and medtech research and innovation projects. It includes 250 members from the private, public and academic sectors.
Its mission is to accelerate innovation to meet tomorrow’s public health challenges and develop the knowledge, employment and competitiveness of all players in the health sector ecosystem, by bringing together all the innovation players in Wallonia’s life sciences field, with the goal of stimulating regional economic redeployment. The cluster is also involved in implementing the sector’s industrial policy (industrial innovation and research, training, support for business growth), to develop and anchor skills, knowledge and jobs.
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