Board of directors

• Marc Zabeau, Chairman

  

  After having worked for 10 years in renowned international research institutes such as Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York, US, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, Marc Zabeau moved to the biotech industry as an entrepreneur. Starting as Director of Research of Plant Genetic Systems he went on to found a number of biotech companies, both in Europe and the US, such as Helix, KeyGene, GenScope and Methexis. He then moved back to Academia where he presently combines the position of director of the Technology Transfer Office at the university of Gent with entrepreneurship in innovative biotech companies.
  He was also Scientific director of the Department of Plant Systems Biology in the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Gent, Belgium and continues to be part-time professor at the University of Brussels in Molecular Technology.

• Roel Baets

  

  Roel Baets is full professor at Ghent University where he leads the Photonics Research Group in the Department of Information Technology (INTEC). The Photonics Research Group consists of six professors and 30 to 40 PhD students and postdocs and is associated with IMEC. The group focuses on new concepts for integrated photonic components and circuits for telecommunications and datacommunications as well as for optical sensing and bio-sensing. Most of the research efforts are geared towards silicon photonics and heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductors as well as other materials with silicon photonic devices.
  Roel Baets received an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Ghent University in 1980 and a second MSc degree from Stanford University in 1981. He received a PhD degree from Ghent University in 1984. From 1984 till 1989 he worked as post-doctoral researcher of IMEC, seconded to Ghent University. Since 1989 he is a professor in the engineering faculty of Ghent University. He has also held part-time positions as professor at the Technical Universities of Delft and Eindhoven. He is a fellow of the IEEE.
  Currently Roel Baets is holder of a Methusalem-grant of the Flemish government. He directs the multidisciplinary Center for Nano- and Biophotonics of Ghent University, which clusters the research of 16 professors in four different faculties. He also coordinates the joint research of Ghent University and IMEC in the field of silicon photonics. 

• Ludo Deferm

  

  Ludo Deferm is Executive Vice-President of imec. As head of Business Development he is responsible for the business development, legal and IP/patent groups worldwide as well as for all public relations and marketing communications activities. Within the scope of his responsibilities he is actively involved in the creation of new spin-off companies and in the expansion of imec. Ludo received the Electrical Engineering Degree in Electronics and Mechanics in 1982 and the Ph. D. Degree in 1989 from the University of Leuven, Belgium. From 1982 to 1985, he was a research assistant at the University of Leuven, being responsible for the development of a 3 µm CMOS process for external customers. In 1985 he joined imec and until 1991, he was involved in the development of a number of processes such as 1.25 µm CMOS, EEPROM-EPROM-CMOS and BiCMOS. Additionally he lead the research on submicron Si bipolar transistors and parasitic bipolar transistor effects in CMOS. In 1992 he became head of the Si Process Development Group with major activities on submicron CMOS, NVM-CMOS and BiCMOS process development and integration. In 1997 he became department director of Process Integration and Process Transfer of CMOS and CMOS-based technologies and in mid 1998 he became adjunct vice president of the Silicon Technology and Device Integration division.

• Martin De Prycker, CEO

  

  Martin De Prycker was CEO of Barco n.v. (Euronext Brussel: BAR) between 2002 and 2009. Prior to that he had several positions at Alcatel. From 1982 to 1996 he held a number of technology management positions at Alcatel and from 1996 to 2000 Martin De Prycker was president of the Internet Access Division. Under his leadership Alcatel became world leader in the broadband access market, especially in the DSL market space. In 2000 he became CTO of Alcatel and member of the Executive Committee. He is also a member of the board of directors of several companies and is advicing companies with respect to their Innovation Strategy and execution.
  Martin holds a Ph.D. in computer sciences and an M.Sc. in Electronics and computer sciences from UGent as well as an MBA from the University of Antwerp. From 1988 to 1992 he lectured part-time at Boston University and from 1994 to 1999 at the University of Ghent. In 1991 he was the first to write a book on ATM "Asynchronous Transfer Mode”, which was translated in 4 languages.