News
Company News: Curetis Expands Commercial Team
– Company hires Willem Haagmans as Head of Sales EMEA –
Curetis N.V. (the “Company” and, together with Curetis AG, “Curetis“), a developer of next-level molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced the expansion of its commercial and general administrative team.
As of February 1, 2016, Willem Haagmans has joined the company as Head of Sales for the EMEA region.
Willem Haagmans previously worked at Beckman Coulter as General Manager Benelux. He is a highly experienced commercial executive with a strong track record, including the successful commercialization of innovative products and solutions in the molecular diagnostics industry as well as the significant increase of top-line revenue growth. Among others, Willem Haagmans has held prior international molecular diagnostics sales management positions with Roche, Nimblegen, and Vela Diagnostics, bringing extensive leadership experience with both large and small-to-medium sized molecular diagnostics companies. He will be based in the Venlo area near the Dutch-German border, right at the heart of Curetis’ European direct sales territories, and will head all direct sales efforts in DACH, Benelux, France, UK and possibly Nordic countries.
Curetis´ recruiting activities for Key Account Managers, sales team members and Clinical Application Specialists is well under way in these Western European markets. Therefore, the company expects to hire additional key talents in the coming months to further grow its European commercial teams in sales, marketing and business development.
In addition, Curetis has made further key hires to augment its corporate and commercial functions:
Bernd Bleile joined on February 1, 2016 as in-house Legal Counsel to provide additional legal and corporate counsel support for the growing commercial operations of Curetis.
Dr. Jie Song, a Chinese native with 14 years of working experience in science and research in Germany and deep scientific and clinical expertise in microbiology, will join Curetis on March 1, 2016 as Application Specialist for China and Asia to support Curetis’ growing commercial activities in Asia. With new partnerships and the sale and delivery of 20 Unyvero Analyzers to its Chinese and ASEAN partners, Curetis in Q4 of 2015 has started to expanded its commercial reach into Asia. Preparations for a Chinese CFDA clinical trial are under way and expected to be kicked off in the first half of this year.
“The recent hires are the first steps to executing and delivering upon our expansion plans highlighted during our IPO in November 2015,” said Oliver Schacht, CEO of Curetis. “By growing our commercial team and strengthening our footprint in the EMEA region, we aim at significantly increasing the number of our direct sales accounts and to continuously grow the installed base of Unyvero Systems throughout 2016 and beyond.”