Our Leadership
A multi-talented and experienced leadership team and board of directors.
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Matt Kapusta
Chief Executive Officer
“At uniQure, we are blessed to be in a position to transform the lives of millions of people living with intractable diseases. Their courage powers a tremendous sense of urgency and purpose in everything we do.”
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Walid Abi-Saab, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
“I am honored and privileged to work at uniQure to develop gene therapies that promise to transform the lives of patients suffering from serious diseases with unmet medical need.”
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Amin Abujoub, Ph.D.
Chief Technical Operations Officer
“At uniQure, our relentless focus on quality is a core value that guides us as we work to bring transformative gene therapies to patients.”
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Erin Boyer
Chief People and Culture Officer
“Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within our control, and so we are committed to measuring our culture, soliciting feedback, acting, and then measuring again as we progress.”
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Christian Klemt
Chief Financial Officer
“It is very motivating to be part of a smart team that is dedicated to developing potentially curative treatments for certain devastating diseases.”
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Richard Porter
Chief Business and Scientific Officer
“Our dedicated and focused team is developing potential transformative gene therapies for patients with severe diseases. uniQure is a leader in the gene therapy field, and we’re excited to advance our programs rapidly to the clinic for the benefit of the patients we serve.”
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Jeannette Potts, Ph.D., J.D.
Chief Legal and Compliance Officer
“I am inspired by the inherent role integrity has in all that we do and how we execute our purpose of delivering gene therapy products to patients with serious unmet medical needs.”
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David Meek
Non-Executive Member
(Chairman) David Meek has served as a member of our Board since June 2018 and as Chair of our Board since June 2021. Mr. Meek has more than 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in which he has held various global executive positions in major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Mr. Meek served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRTX), a publicly traded commercial-stage oncology company, from September 2021 to August 2023. Mirati has since been acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. From January 2020 to March 2021, Mr. Meek served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of FerGene, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on gene therapies for the treatment of cancer. From July 2016 to January 2020, Mr. Meek served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Ipsen, a publicly traded global biopharmaceutical company based in France. Prior to joining Ipsen, Mr. Meek held executive leadership roles including serving as Executive Vice President and President of Oncology at Baxalta Incorporated from 2014 to 2016 leading up to its acquisition by Shire, and serving as Chief Commercial Officer of Endocyte, Inc. from 2012 to 2014. He also served in executive leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Novartis Oncology from 2005 to 2012, after beginning his career at Johnson & Johnson, Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1989 to 2004. Mr. Meek has served as a non-executive director of Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: FUSN), a radiopharmaceuticals biotechnology company, since October 2023. Mr. Meek served on the boards of Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America and European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations. He also previously served on the board of directors of Entasis Therapeutics Inc. from June 2019 to July 2022 (acquired by Innoviva, Inc.). Mr. Meek holds a B.A. from the University of Cincinnati.
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Madhavan Balachandran
Non-Executive Member
Madhavan Balachandran has served as a member of our Board since September 2017. Mr. Balachandran served as a director of Catalent, Inc. (NYSE: CTLT) from May 2017 to January 2024. Mr. Balachandran was Executive Vice President, Operations of Amgen Inc., a global biotechnology company, from August 2012 until July 2016 and retired as an Executive Vice President in January 2017. Mr. Balachandran joined Amgen in 1997 as Associate Director, Engineering. He became Director, Engineering in 1998, and, from 1999 to 2001, he held the position of Senior Director, Engineering and Operations Services before moving to the position of Vice President, Information Systems from 2001 to 2002. Thereafter, Mr. Balachandran was Vice President, Puerto Rico Operations from May 2002 to February 2007. From February 2007 to October 2007, Mr. Balachandran was Vice President, Site Operations, and from October 2007 to August 2012, he held the position of Senior Vice President, Manufacturing. Prior to his tenure at Amgen, Mr. Balachandran held leadership positions at Copley Pharmaceuticals, now a part of Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., and Burroughs Wellcome Company, a predecessor before mergers of GlaxoSmithKline plc. Mr. Balachandran holds a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from The State University of New York at Buffalo, a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and an MBA from East Carolina University.
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Robert Gut
Non-Executive Member
Robert Gut was elected to his current term as a Non-Executive Director in June 2022. Dr. Gut first joined our Board in June 2018 and previously served as both a Non-Executive and an Executive Director. He also served as our Chief Medical Officer from August 2018 until October 2020. As our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Gut led clinical development, clinical operation, and medical team activities that successfully initiated and executed our HOPE‑B pivotal trial of etranacogene dezaparvovec for hemophilia B and our Phase 1/2 clinical trial of AMT 130 for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. In October 2020, he resigned as Chief Medical Officer and as Executive Director (because under Dutch law, our Executive Directors must hold an executive position with the Company). In December 2020, he was reappointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director. Dr. Gut has more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry-leading, clinical development, and medical affairs activities in rare disorders and other therapeutic areas. For most of his career, Dr. Gut worked at Novo Nordisk Inc. (NYSE: NVO), where he headed the company’s U.S. Biopharm Medical organization with leading products in hemophilia, endocrinology, and women’s health (NovoSeven®, Norditropin®, and Vagifem®), totaling approximately $1.6 billion in U.S. revenue. Over his career, Dr. Gut has worked on many INDs and BLAs submissions, early-stage and late-stage drug development. He helped to achieve 11 different FDA and EMA approvals and the successful launches of those products overseeing medical activities, including medical science liaisons and health economics and outcomes teams building. He has also served for the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research as a member of the Advisory Committees for Reproductive Health Drugs and Drug Safety and Risk Management. Dr. Gut was the Chief Medical Officer of Versartis, Inc. in 2017. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical University of Lublin and his Doctorate from the Lublin Institute of Medicine, Poland. He attended numerous postgraduate programs at Wharton, Stanford, and Harvard Business School.
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Rachelle Jacques
Non-Executive Member
Rachelle Jacques has served as a member of our Board since October 2021. Ms. Jacques has more than 25 years of industry experience, with strong global experience in strategic, cross-functional leadership roles spanning finance, business operations, manufacturing and commercial, including the successful launches of several novel therapies for rare diseases. Ms. Jacques currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Akari Therapeutics, Inc. a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative therapeutics to treat orphan autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, a position which she has held since her appointment in March 2022. From February 2019 to March 2022, Ms. Jacques has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Enzyvant Therapeutics, Inc. focusing on the development of transformative regenerative therapies for rare diseases. From August 2017 to February 2019, she served as Senior Vice President and Global Complement Franchise Head at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she was responsible for global franchise strategy development and execution across the therapeutic areas of hematology, nephrology, and neurology. From January 2016 to June 2017, she served as Vice President of U.S. Hematology Marketing at Baxalta Incorporated and then Shire plc, following Shire’s acquisition of Baxalta in 2016. From July 2015 to June 2016, Ms. Jacques served as Vice President of Business Operations at Baxalta after its spinoff from Baxter International. Ms. Jacques held multiple leadership positions at Baxter, including Vice President of Finance, U.S. BioScience Business. Earlier in her career, Ms. Jacques served in various roles at Dow Corning Corporation, including operational management positions in the U.S., Europe, and China. Ms. Jacques received her B.A. in business administration from Alma College. Earlier in her career Ms. Jacques served as a financial auditor for Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touché. Ms. Jacques has served on the board of directors of Corbus Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CRBP) since April 2019 and previously served on the board of directors of Viela Bio from April 2020 to February 2021. She is a founding member of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) Action for Equality Task Force, and is a member of the board of trustees of Alma College.
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Matt Kapusta
Executive Member
Matt Kapusta has been Chief Executive Officer of uniQure since December 2016, and currently serves on our Board. Mr. Kapusta also served as our Chief Financial Officer from January 2015 until June 2021. Prior to joining uniQure, Mr. Kapusta held executive roles at AngioDynamics (Nasdaq: ANGO) from 2011 to 2015 and Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) from 2009 to 2011. Mr. Kapusta’s career also includes more than a decade of investment banking experience focused on emerging life-sciences companies. Mr. Kapusta was Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking at Collins Stewart, and held various positions at Wells Fargo Securities, Robertson Stephens, and PaineWebber. Mr. Kapusta holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, a B.B.A. from University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and earned his C.P.A license while at Ernst & Young. Mr. Kapusta has served as a director of Decibel Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DBTX) since March 2023.
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Jack Kaye
Non-Executive Member
Jack Kaye has served as a member of our Board since 2016. Mr. Kaye serves as Chair of our Audit Committee and as a member of our Compensation Committee. Mr. Kaye has served on the board of directors of Dyadic International, Inc. (OTC: DYAI) since February 2015, and on the board of directors of TDA Industries, Inc., a private company, since February 2024. At Dyadic, Mr. Kaye serves as Chair of the company’s audit committee and as a member of the compensation committee. He has also served as Chairman of the audit committee of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: KERX) from 2006 to 2016. Mr. Kaye was a partner at Deloitte LLP from 1978 until May 2006. At Deloitte, he was responsible for servicing a diverse client base of public and private, global, and domestic companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Kaye has extensive experience consulting with clients on accounting and reporting matters, private and public debt financings, SEC rules and regulations, corporate governance, and Sarbanes-Oxley matters. Prior to retiring, Mr. Kaye served as Partner-in-Charge of Deloitte’s Tri-State Core Client practice, a position he held for more than 20 years. Mr. Kaye has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baruch College and is a Certified Public Accountant.
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Leonard Post
Non-Executive Member
Leonard Post has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, where he has held various global executive positions and has extensive experience in the research and development of product candidates. From 2016 to January 2024, Dr. Post has served as Chief Scientific Officer of Vivace Therapeutics, an oncology company working on small molecules targeting the hippo pathway and, from 2018 to January 2024, as Chief Scientific Officer of its sister company Virtuoso Therapeutics, a company working on bispecific antibodies for oncology. From February 2010 until June 2016, Dr. Post worked at BioMarin (Nasdaq: BMRN), in various positions including Chief Scientific Officer. During that time, he oversaw the initiation of BioMarin’s first gene therapy project for hemophilia A. Prior to that, Dr. Post served as Chief Scientific Officer of LEAD Therapeutics, Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President of Discovery Research at Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals. He is also currently an advisor to Canaan Partners. Dr. Post is a virologist by training and did early work on the engineering of the herpes simplex virus as a post-doctoral fellow. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, and a Doctorate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin.
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Jeremy Springhorn
Non-Executive Member
Jeremy Springhorn has served as a member of our Board since September 2017. Since April 2021, Dr. Springhorn has been Chief Executive Officer of Nido Biosciences, a developer of small molecule therapeutics. Prior to taking his position at Nido, Dr. Springhorn was Chief Business Officer of Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYRS) from November 2017 until April 2021. Prior to taking his position at Syros, Dr. Springhorn served as Partner, Corporate Development at Flagship Pioneering from March 2015 until June 2017 where he worked with VentureLabs in helping companies in various strategic and corporate development capacities, creating next generation startups, and working with Flagship’s Corporate Limited Partners. Prior to joining Flagship, Dr. Springhorn was one of the original scientists at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALXN) and was one of the original inventors of the drug Soliris®. At Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Springhorn was Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development from 2006 until March 2015. Dr. Springhorn started at Alexion in 1992, where he served in various leadership roles in R&D before switching to Business Development in 2006. Prior to 1992, Dr. Springhorn received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans and his BA from Colby College.
Board of Directors term information can be found on our Corporate Governance section.