Our commitment to corporate governance underpins the trust that our investors, employees and institutions have in us. We maintain our efforts to keep this trust as we continue to grow.
Executive Committee
Valneva’s Executive Committee is a highly dedicated international team, with diverse backgrounds, experience, expertise and skills.
Thomas Lingelbach was CEO of Intercell and founding President and CEO of Valneva.
He is an established vaccine industry leader with breadth of experience including senior and executive management roles with Intercell, Novartis and Chiron.
During his more than 30 years in vaccines, he held a variety of positions from product development to commercialization with a strong emphasis on technical development and operations.
In different capacities, he contributed to the successful development and licensure of more than ten vaccines.
Thomas holds an engineering degree, specialized in bioprocess engineering and complemented his education with a business administration program.
He is a German national.
Peter Bühler joined Valneva in January 2022.
He has over 20 years of experience in the strategic and financial leadership of life science and technology companies.
Prior to Valneva, he served as CFO of Nasdaq-listed Swiss diagnostics company Quotient. He also served as Group CFO of Zaluvida AG and as Group CFO of Stallergenes Greer Plc. In this capacity, he led a complex merger project between a French and a U.S. company.
Prior to this, Peter held senior roles with Eli Lilly, Merck Serono and Logitech.
He is a Swiss Certified Accountant and holds an MBA.
Peter is a Swiss national.
Vincent Dequenne joined Valneva in July 2021.
He previously served as Managing Director at Eurogentec, a CDMO Biotech company.
He has an extensive track record of over 20 years, holding leadership roles of increasing responsibility in operations at Eli Lilly, GSK Vaccines and Pierre Fabre.
His considerable experience covers vaccines and drugs manufacturing operations, contract development and manufacturing organizations, engineering services and validation expertise.
Vincent holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering.
He is a Belgian national.
Franck Grimaud was co-founder, President and CEO of Vivalis and co-led its merger with Intercell to create Valneva.
He has a long-standing and proven track record in corporate and business development as well as strategic management with more than 20 years in the biotech industry.
Prior to creating and successfully building Vivalis as a French public biotech company, he was responsible for the creation of the Asian subsidiaries of Groupe Grimaud, a leader in animal genetic selection and currently Valneva's largest shareholder.
Franck holds an MBA.
He is a French national.
Juan Carlos Jaramillo, MD joined Valneva in October 2020.
He is an experienced Research and Development leader with a broad expertise in medical affairs, clinical development, as well as market access and pricing.
During his more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry and prior to joining Valneva, he held senior management roles with Daiichi Sankyo, Grünenthal and GSK.
Due to his broad exposure to diverse pharma and vaccine roles, he has an in-depth business understanding and a strong track record across a wide range of prophylactic and therapeutic areas and geographies.
Juan Carlos is a Medical Doctor.
He has dual citizenship (Colombian and U.S.).
Dipal Patel joined Valneva in November 2022.
She is an established commercial leader, who joined Valneva from GSK where she held, for more than 20 years, roles of increasing responsibilities across multiple countries including U.S., Australia, Belgium, Singapore, Thailand, and the European and emerging markets.
Her considerable experience covers commercial strategy, execution, market access and lifecycle management.
Dipal served as Global Commercial Head of GSK’s shingles vaccine (Shingrix®), leading a global cross-functional team establishing it as a global brand with significant worldwide expansion.
Dipal holds an MBA.
She is an Australian national.
Petra Pesendorfer joined Valneva in January 2024.
She has more than 15 years’ experience in HR, leading large teams across different countries and regions in rapidly growing business environments.
During her career, she has held a variety of positions with increasing international responsibilities at ams OSRAM AG, Rentokil Initial and the Soravia Group.
Over the past years, Petra has had global responsibilities for employer attractiveness, cultural change, restructurings, and the implementation of a new benefit structure.
Petra holds an International Master of Business Administration.
Petra is an Austrian national.
Hanneke Schuitemaker joined Valneva in June 2024.
She brings more than two decades of experience in vaccine discovery and development.
She formerly served as Global Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine at Johnson and Johnson, with responsibility for the strategy and execution of vaccine programs on COVID-19, HIV, RSV, Ebola, and multiple other viral disease targets for almost 14 years.
Prior to that, she worked at Sanquin, The Netherlands’ Blood Supply Foundation, and at Amsterdam University Medical Center, where she conducted research on the pathogenesis of HIV.
She has a unique scientific background, which is notably reflected in more than 350 scientific publications.
Hanneke is a Dutch national.
Kendra Wergin joined Valneva in 2020 and became General Counsel in August 2024.
Kendra is a US-qualified lawyer with expertise in corporate and international law. She previously practiced corporate law in the London and Paris offices of a major international law firm and the in-house legal team of a Fortune 500 company in California.
Prior to studying law, she worked in public education and as a consultant. Kendra earned law degrees in France and the United States and is admitted to practice law in several US jurisdictions.
She is an American national.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors participates actively in reviewing the Company’s strategic options and setting direction, together with the Executive Committee.
Chair of Valneva’s Board of Directors, Vice Chair of Nanobiotix’s Supervisory Board, member of the Sartorius Stedim Biotech Board of Directors and member of Vetoquinol S.A Board of Directors.
Member of the Board of Directors, Experienced non-executive director with a focus on Biotech/Medtech, Member of the Board of DBV Technologies
Member of the Board of Directors, Director of Large Venture Investments at Bpifrance, Former Investment Director at the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement.
Member of the Board of Directors, Former Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccine Research and Development (VRD) at Pfizer Inc. and member of Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical leadership team.
Scientific Advisory Board
Valneva announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) as part of the evolution of its governance structure in July 2019.
Member of Board of Trustees International Vaccine Institute IVI, member GHIT scientific selection committee, Advisor Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, former Head/Senior Vice President Vaccine Development at GSK, Novartis and Takeda
President and CEO of Biologics Consulting, Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization; Former Director of the US FDA Office of Vaccines Research and Review; Former FDA Liaison to the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
Professor of Immunobiology at the Max Perutz Labs of the University of Vienna; President of the European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society (EMDS), Member of editorial boards for the scientific journals Molecular Cell Biology and Journal of Biochemistry.
Co-founder of Intercell and member of Valneva’s SAB. He is also holding an observer seat on Valneva’s Supervisory Board. Furthermore, he is serving in the SAB of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Frankfurt and in the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria. He is Vice-President off duty at the Karolinska Intitutet, Stockholm.
