Dirk De Naeyer

Dirk is Head of Development Operations at Galapagos, responsible for all the development groups at the company. Dirk joined Galapagos in 2022 as Senior Vice President, Strategic Programs, to lead the diversification of the Galapagos portfolio into oncology and cell therapy.

Before joining Galapagos, Dirk was the Chief Operating Officer and later the Head of Kiadis Pharma, which developed T-cell and NK-cell immunotherapies. Prior to that, he progressed into global leadership roles at Janssen, in CMC Development as well as Global Clinical Operations, and led the R&D integration of Actelion.

Early in his career, Dirk worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and founded his own business. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering from the KU Leuven and an MBA from the University of Chicago.