Ghent, Belgium, 20 January 2022 – Dr. Ann Van Gysel has been appointed as CEO of the flanders.healthTech spearhead cluster. She will lead the cluster, which brings together personalized and digital medicine and healthcare technology in Flanders, and supports the development and implementation of new technologies in the Flemish healthcare sector.
Herman Verrelst, who is taking over from Dirk Reyn as chairman of flanders.healthTech vzw, is satisfied: “Ann was chosen after an extensive selection procedure. She knows the sector very well and brings with her a broad experience and large network. She is a team player and has already successfully completed many challenges. We believe Ann is the right person in the right place.”
Ann Van Gysel has a PhD in biotechnology and was head of communication at VIB, the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology. She then took charge of flanders.bio and put the Flemish biotech hub on the international map with her team. Until recently, she was CEO of Turnstone Communications, a 7-member communications firm that Ann founded 10 years ago that offers services to pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech, and ICT companies, as well as a European consortium of hospitals and innovation companies committed to facilitating pediatric clinical studies.
Ann Van Gysel: “I am very happy with this new step in my career. Flanders belongs to the worldwide top in the life sciences, and with the new cluster flanders.healthTech under the authority of Minister Hilde Crevits we can now meet the challenges posed by digital and personalized medicine and care. By joining the forces of our universities, hospitals, knowledge institutions, and companies, we can really accelerate innovation here. Flanders has all the ingredients to become the center for the care of the future. I look forward to tackling this together with Piet Verhoeve, who has been preparing and starting up the cluster in recent months.”
About flanders.healthTech
flanders.healthTech is the seventh cluster that was established within the impulse program of the Flemish government and the cluster policy of VLAIO. More than 70 R&D partners from the Flemish ecosystem are committed to working together on new HealthTech applications with a focus on four themes: personalized medicine, digital medicine, efficient healthcare, and groundbreaking healthcare innovations. flanders.healthTech is an initiative of the umbrella organizations flanders.bio, Medtech Flanders and DSP Valley.
More information: www.flandershealth.tech
