Management Team

Filippo Petti is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Company, and Executive Director. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Petti worked in healthcare investment banking both at Wells Fargo Securities and William Blair & Company. Prior to his roles in investment banking, Mr. Petti spent several years in equity research covering U.S. biotechnology companies both at William Blair & Company and Wedbush Securities. He began his career as a research scientist at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focused on drug discovery and translational research, and later transitioning into corporate development with the company. Mr. Petti holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University, a Master of Science from St. John’s University and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.

Philippe Dechamps (representative of NandaDevi SRL), serves as Chief Legal Officer of the Company. Philippe started his legal career as an associate in Brussels with the law firm Linklaters De Bandt from 1994 to 1998. Until 2003, he then served as an Legal manager at Solvay Group to assist the company in its turnaround through several M&A operations in Europe, India and Far-East Asia. In 2003, he took over the position of Legal Director at Guidant, the United States company formerly active in the medical devices business before its acquisition by Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories in 2005. At Abbott, Philippe was leading the legal affairs of Abbott Vascular International outside of the United States. In 2008, Philippe joined Delhaize Group to lead the legal and government affairs in Europe and Asia, before becoming Group General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors in 2015. In this position, he piloted the legal strategy to merge Delhaize Group with Royal Ahold in July 2016. Since December 2018, Philippe is also member of the Board of Directors of Petserco SA, the holding company of the Tom&Co group. Philippe holds law degrees from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and a Master of Law (LL.M) from Harvard Law School.

David Gilham, Ph.D., serves the Company as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Gilham obtained his Ph.D from the University of Dundee, UK under the supervision of Professor Roland Wolf OBE working on cytochrome P4502D6 and Parkinson’s disease. In 1996, Dr. Gilham was recruited to work with Professor Robert Hawkins at the University of Bristol, UK to work on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells as a part of the Chimeric Eurocell European Programme lead by Prof Zelig Eshhar. In 1998, the group moved to the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, University of Manchester. The group maintained a strong translational focus delivering several clinical trials of CAR T (including the first such trial to be initiated in the UK) while developing a strong basic research core activity including the ATTACK European Programme that drew together colleagues working in T cell therapy across Europe. Along with achieving academic independence and promotion to Senior Fellow, Dr. Gilham took over the leadership of the laboratory group in 2009. The group moved to the Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester based within the Manchester Cancer Research Centre in 2015 and Dr. Gilham was appointed Reader in 2016. In September 2016, Dr. Gilham moved to the role of Vice President at Celyad Oncology to continue working upon immune based therapies for cancer and appointed to Chief Scientific Officer in May 2020

Frédéric Lehmann (representative of ImXense SRL), serves as Vice President Clinical Development & Medical Affairs of the Company. Dr. Lehmann is a physician by training, specialized in hematology and oncology. Dr. Lehmann has extensive experience in oncology drug development spanning early to late phase, including clinical trial design, translational research, regulatory interactions, and clinical risk management. He started his academic career at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels, followed by a position at the Institute Jules Bordet. He then moved to the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) as Medical Advisor. Dr. Lehmann began his corporate career at GlaxoSmithKline, where he led the early worldwide clinical development program for the Company’s cancer vaccines and went on to lead the research and development incubator for cancer immunotherapeutics.

Philippe Nobels (representative of MC Consult SRL) serves as Vice President of Human Resources of the Company. He started his career at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) as auditor in 1989. He also went in rotational assignment in Congo during 2 years on consulting missions for the World Bank. In 1995, he joined Fourcroy as plant controller. Then, he joined Dow Corning in 1997 where he held different positions in Finance and Human Resources. He led the HR operations in Europe, became the HR manager for Dow Corning in Belgium, and HR Business Partner for the sales and marketing functions globally. As a member of the sales and marketing Leadership teams, he contributed to Dow Corning’s major transformation initiatives to increase organizational effectiveness, employees’ engagement & performance as well as Business results. Mr. Nobels holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Namur.

Stephen Rubino, Ph.D., serves the Company as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Rubino brings over 30 years of pharmaceutical leadership experience to the role of Chief Business Officer, with emphasis in the areas of business development and licensing, new product development, commercial operations, pharmaceutical strategy and investor relations. Dr. Rubino currently serves as an independent board member of Sermonix Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Rubino has also served Novartis Pharmaceuticals in a wide range of roles and therapeutic areas, the last of which was as Global Head of Business Development and New Product Marketing, responsible for developing and building the product pipeline for Novartis’ Cell & Gene Therapies Unit. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Rubino worked for Schering–Plough (Merck) where his last role was head of the Global Solid Tumor Oncology & Autoimmune Business Unit responsible for the licensing and launch of Remicade, as well as the launch and commercialization of several global oncology brands. Dr. Rubino received his Ph.D. from Weill Cornell University (New York) and his Master of Business Association from Baruch University (New York).

Dr. Peggy Sotiropoulou joined Celyad Oncology in October 2017, bringing 15 years of experience in oncology and immuno-oncology. Dr. Sotiropoulou joined Celyad Oncology initially as R&D Manager, evolving to R&D Director in October 2018. In May 2020, Dr. Sotiropoulou was appointed Head of R&D, where she oversees a broad-range research program that aims to develop new strategies in CAR T cell designs to target hematological and solid malignancies. Dr. Sotiropoulou received her PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy from the Medical faculty of the University of Crete, prior to moving to the group of Professor Cédric Blanpain in the Université Libre de Bruxelles to investigate cancer development and the role of cancer stem cells. Prior to joining Celyad Oncology, Dr. Sotiropoulou was tenured Research Associate Professor in the Université Libre de Bruxelles, leading cutting-edge research on the response and sensitization of recalcitrant tumors to therapy.

Dr. Elena Spanjaard joined Celyad Oncology in August 2018 as the Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. In May 2020, she assumed responsibility for Quality Assurance in addition to Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining Celyad Oncology, Elena led global regulatory strategy for the allogeneic CAR T portfolio at Pfizer in collaboration with Servier and Cellectis. During Elena’s time at Pfizer, she specialized in early immuno-oncology and combination development. Elena’s career has spanned all stages of development in a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, autoimmune and rare diseases. Elena began her Regulatory career in early development of immuno-oncology cell therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where she developed strong expertise in T cell manufacturing and characterization. Trained in Immunology, Elena earned her PhD from Boston University School of Medicine.

Thomas Lequertier joined Celyad Oncology in March 2018 as Production Director, and was appointed Head of Cell Therapy Manufacturing Unit in October 2020. Prior to joining the Company, Thomas worked 13 years at Dow Corning where he held several positions of increasing responsibility within manufacturing and process engineering functions. During Thomas’ time at Dow Corning, he led manufacturing operations in Belgium and acquired expertise in building and upgrading production units. He also managed development and transfers of manufacturing processes globally. In his last role, he was in charge of defining and driving the implementation of continuous improvement projects across production sites in EU, US and Asia. Thomas holds a master degree in Bioengineering from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.