Management Team

Michel Lussier serves as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lussier co-founded Cardio3 Biosciences SA the company which became Celyad SA. Mr. Lussier currently serves also on several Boards of Directors: iSTAR Medical SA and Gabi Smart Care SA as Chairman, Occlutech AG as board member. Previously, Mr. Lussier founded MedPole SA and its  North American affiliate Medpole LTD, a Medtech and cell therapy incubator for start-up companies, serving as CEO until July 2020. From May 2014 until September 2020, Mr. Lussier also served as the CEO of Metronom Health Inc, an early stage medical device company founded by Fjord Ventures. Prior to that, from 2002 to 2013, he worked for Volcano Corporation, where he served in global leadership positions. Mr. Lussier started his career with Medtronic where he held a number of technical, marketing, sales than general management roles. Mr. Lussier obtained a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Electrical Engineering and Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Montreal. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.

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.

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.

Dr. Morris is a medical oncologist with over 20 years of oncology drug development experience in the international biotech and pharmaceutical space. Prior to joining Celyad Oncology, Dr. Morris served as Chief Medical Officer of Radius Health and held leadership positions at PsiOxus Therapeutics, ImmunoGen Inc and Allos Therapeutics, where he contributed to all phases of development for solid and hematological tumor indications, as well as life-cycle management development activities for FOLOTYN (pralatrexate) while at Allos. Before serving in these positions, he was Vice President of Worldwide Clinical Research at Cephalon, Inc., where he helped the company achieve its first oncology drug approval for Treanda® (bendamustine). He spent the early years of his career in various roles at AstraZeneca, where he significantly contributed to the worldwide development of Faslodex (fulvestrant), co-authored multiple publications regarding fulvestrant and breast cancer, and supported early clinical development activities for Iressa® (gefitinib).

Dr. Morris holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Medical Science in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics degree from Sheffield University Medical School in the UK and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

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.

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.