Daniel is our Founder and has served as our Chief Executive Officer since our incorporation in 2012 and is an executive director of our Board. Daniel is a serial entrepreneur and passionate advocate for rare disease patients. After one of his children was diagnosed with a rare disease, he started ProQR to develop RNA therapies for rare diseases. Before founding ProQR, Daniel was founder and Chief Executive Officer of several technology companies.
Gerard is our co-founder and has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since 2022, following his tenure as our Chief Innovation Officer from 2014 to 2022, and joined our board as an executive director in May 2024. Gerard has an extensive background in RNA modulation and orphan drug discovery and development and is currently in charge of our R&D. Gerard has more than 25 years of senior managerial experience in growing biotech companies. Prior to joining our company, Gerard worked at Isa Pharmaceuticals B.V. as its Chief Executive Officer. Gerard co-founded Prosensa Holding N.V., growing it to become a well-known clinical stage RNA modulation company, and held various positions during his tenure including as its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Development Officer. Gerard also worked at Pharming B.V. Gerard is a passionate and driven pioneer of early-stage technologies. Gerard has a master’s degree in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from Leiden University in 1987 and pursued a Ph.D. work at Leiden University.
René rejoined ProQR in 2022 having previously served as our Chief Corporate Development Officer and General Counsel from 2013 to 2018 and is an executive director of our Board. Rene is a seasoned M&A and equity capital markets executive and an experienced corporate lawyer. From 2019 until June 2022, René held the positions of Chief Corporate Development Officer and General Counsel at Frame Therapeutics, a neoantigen immune-oncology biotechnology company. He was instrumental in financing Frame Therapeutics and selling it to CureVac, a Nasdaq Listed biotechnology company. From 2021 to 2024 René was a board member of Fibriant BV, a biotechnology company focused on the development of technology and products based on recombinant human fibrinogen and thrombin. Prior to his initial tenure at the Company, he served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Crucell for twelve years, following his positions as Senior Legal Counsel at GE Capital / TIP Europe and Legal Counsel at TNT Express Worldwide. René was also a venture partner of Aescap Venture, a life sciences venture capital firm from 2011 to 2012 and is co-founder of myTomorrows, a Dutch life sciences company. He is a founder of Tzu Cancer Therapeutics B.V., a biotechnology company focused on developing advanced solutions to combat cancer. He holds a post-doctoral degree in corporate law from the University of Nijmegen in co-operation with the Dutch Association of In-house Counsel (‘Nederlands Genootschap van Bedrijfsjuristen’) and a master's degree in Dutch law from the University of Amsterdam.
Jurriaan joined ProQR in 2022 as Chief Financial Officer where he leads the finance function. He brings to the role more than 20 years of experience in finance, management and leadership roles in biopharma and healthcare companies, as well as in audit and consulting services. Prior to joining ProQR he most recently served as CFO of AstraZeneca in the Netherlands and CEO of Acerta Pharma (part of the AstraZeneca Group). Previously Jurriaan held various global and European finance roles at amongst others DaVita Medical Group, a US-listed international healthcare provider, and started his career at PwC. He is a Supervisory Board member at ‘Stichting Kinderpostzegels’ in the Netherlands. Jurriaan holds a MSc. in Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2001) and is a Certified Public Auditor (Register Accountant, RA) graduate from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (2004).
Sheila became Chief People and Operations Officer in 2023. In this role she leads Human Resources, Recruitment, Information Technology, Facilities, and the Project Management Office. Sheila joined ProQR in 2020 as VP of Human Resources and was then promoted to VP, Head of People and Operations in 2022. She has more than 15 years of experience in human resources, recruitment, and operations across varied industries, including information technology and biopharma. Prior to joining ProQR, she most recently led Human Resources at MyTomorrows in the Netherlands. She studied human resource management at the University of Applied Science (BSc) and completed leadership programs at IMD Business School for Management and Leadership.
Peter was appointed as ProQR's Chief ADAR Scientist in December 2024. Peter is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Davis and Director of the NIH-funded UC Davis Chemical Biology Graduate Program. For over 25 years, work in the Beal laboratory has advanced understanding of the structures and mechanism of action for the ADAR enzymes responsible for adenosine to inosine RNA editing in humans. In addition, his group has led in the development of structure-guided methods for optimizing chemically modified oligonucleotides for recruitment of RNA-binding proteins including ADARs. Beal teaches organic chemistry at the undergraduate level and several classes in nucleic acids chemistry and chemical biology at the graduate level. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the field of RNA chemical biology and mentored over 50 Ph.D. and M.S. degree students.
Sarah is Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs and has 20 years of healthcare-related and communications experience. She joined ProQR in 2019 as Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Communications from ImmunoGen, Inc. where she was Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Prior to ImmunoGen, Sarah developed marketing strategies and managed communications at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. There she was responsible for internal and external communications related to the hematologic oncology treatment center and stem cell transplant programs, spanning referring physician outreach, donor communications, community outreach, and patient education. Earlier in her career Sarah also spent a number of years working with an agency that focused on pharmaceutical sales training. Sarah received an MBA from Boston University and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Boston College.
Dr. Shannon has served on our board since June 2016 and has been Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board since 2020 and was elected Chair of our board in May 2024. Dr. Shannon has had an extensive career in drug development and pharma. From 2012 until his retirement in 2015, he was Chief Medical Officer at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to that he was Global Head of Pharma Development at Novartis and Senior Vice-President, Clinical Development at Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals. He previously held board positions at several companies including Biotie, Circassia, Crucell, Endocyte and Cerimon Pharmaceuticals. More recently Dr. Shannon also served on the boards of Immodulon Therapeutics Limited and Horizon Therapeutics. Dr. Shannon currently serves as chairman of the boards at MannKind Corp., a public biopharmaceutical company, and Kyowa Kirin NA, a private biopharmaceutical company and subsidiary of Kyowa Kirin, and and holds board positions at myTomorrows, Xilio Therapeutics, a public clinical-stage biotechnology company, and Leyden Labaratories. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Queen’s University of Belfast and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians.
Dr. Valerio is one of our founders and joined our board in 2014. Dr. Valerio chaired our board since its inception until May 2024. As a scientist and an experienced biotech entrepreneur Dr. Valerio is founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Crucell N.V., and one of the founders of its spinout, Galapagos Genomics. He was the founder and former general partner of Aescap Venture, a life sciences venture capital firm and co-founder and current board member of Leyden Laboratories. In 1992 Dr. Valerio was appointed professor of gene therapy at the University of Leiden, where he also received his Ph.D. with honors. Dr. Valerio was a visiting scientific specialist at Genentech, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute.
Alison F. Lawton (non-executive director) has served on our board since 2014. Ms. Lawton is an executive leader with more than 35 years of experience in biopharma. Most recently, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaleido Biosciences, Inc. from 2018 to 2020, and prior to that, as its President and Chief Operating Officer from 2017 to 2018. Ms. Lawton previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Aura Biosciences, from 2015 until 2017, and prior to that, as its consultant. Before that, Ms. Lawton served as Chief Operating Officer at OvaScience and as a biotech consultant for various companies, including as a part-time Chief Operating Officer consultant at X4 Pharmaceuticals from 2014 to 2016. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lawton worked at various positions of increasing responsibility at Genzyme, and subsequently at Sanofi-Aventis, including as head of Genzyme Biosurgery and Global Market Access. Ms. Lawton currently serves on the boards of directors of public pharmaceutical companies including X4 Pharmaceuticals and Dianthus Therapeutics, and on the board of directors of BlueRock Therapeutics, a private biotech company. She previously served on the boards of directors of Spyre Therapeutics, Verastem, CoLucid until its acquisition by Merck & Co. She is past President and Chair of the board of Regulatory Affairs Professional Society and is a member of the FDA's Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee. She earned her BSc in Pharmacoogy, with honors, from King's College London.
Theresa Heggie was reappointed to our board in 2023. Previously, Ms. Heggie served as our Chief Operating Officer, after originally joining the Management Team in 2021 as our Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to joining us, she served as Chief Executive Officer of Freeline Therapeutics from 2020 to 2021. Previously, she held senior commercial and operating roles at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as Senior Vice President, Head of CEMEA from 2017 to 2020. Before that, Ms. Heggie had roles at Bupa Group until 2016 and at Shire plc, where she built the EMEA rare disease business. Earlier in her career, Ms. Heggie held increasingly senior positions in the commercial organizations at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Baxter Healthcare. She previously served as a member of the boards of directors at SOBI (Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB) and Freeline Therapeutics, and currently serves on the board of BioCryst Pharamceuticals, a public pharmaceutical company. Ms. Heggie previously served on our board from 2019 to 2021. She earned her BSc from Cornell University.
Bart Filius has served on our board since 2019. He is the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Galapagos, a position he held from 2021 to 2023. He joined Galapagos in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer and added the role of Chief Operating Officer in 2017. Prior to joining Galapagos, Mr. Filius held a variety of executive positions at Sanofi, where he was Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Europe, Country manager for The Netherlands and Vice President for Mergers & Acquisitions. Prior to joining Sanofi, Mr. Filius was a strategy consultant at Arthur D. Little. Mr. Filius currently holds a board position at Idorsia Ltd.. Mr. Filius has an MBA degree from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree in Business from Nyenrode University.
Begoña Carreño, PhD, joined our board in 2023. Dr. Carreño is currently the Chief Business Development Officer at Aspeya Switzerland SA (formerly known as Vectura Fertin Pharma). Prior to this, she spent 18 years at Novartis Pharma AG in its Business Development and Licensing (“BD&L”) group, her last role being World Wide BD&L Head in the Ophthalmology Franchise, based in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Carreño has over 20 years Pharmaceutical Development experience. She is a seasoned and energetic BD&L professional that has led the BD&L efforts at Novartis across five different therapeutic franchises in the last 15 years. She has a proven track record in licensing deals, M&A as well as developing collaborations within cross functional, multi-cultural, matrix environment at global, regional and country level. Before joining Novartis, she was the Head of External Pharmaceutical projects at Almirall (Barcelona, Spain). Dr. Carreño holds a Ph.D. in Drug Delivery from the London School of Pharmacy (UK) and a BSc in Biochemistry from Keele University (UK).
Martin Maier, PhD, joined our board in 2024. Dr. Maier currently serves as Senior Vice President, Oncology at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Maier joined Alnylam in 2006 and has contributed to the development of lipid nanoparticles and GalNAc conjugates, two clinically validated platforms for siRNA delivery, and the advancement of multiple therapeutic programs to development, which has resulted in the approval of five RNAi therapeutic to date. After receiving his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1997 at the University of Tübingen, Germany, Dr. Maier moved to the U.S. for his postdoctoral research at Ionis Pharmaceuticals (“Ionis”), where he assumed a permanent position working on novel chemistries and delivery systems for antisense oligonucleotides (“AONs”). Dr. Maier currently serves on various additional boards including the board of directors of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Gene and RNA Therapy Center Tübingen, Germany. During his 25 years of experience in the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics in both, ASO and RNAi platforms, Dr. Maier authored more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific publications, reviews and book chapters and is the inventor on more than 40 issued patents.
Founding CEO
Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder
Chief Corporate Development Officer and General Counsel
Henri was our co-founder and vice chairman of our Board of Directors until he passed away in 2017. Henri served as chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer of Genzyme Corporation until the acquisition by Sanofi. Prior to Genzyme, Henri worked for Baxter International Laboratories. He was a member of the board for each of Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners HealthCare, fellows of Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Biotechnology Industry Organization. He was chairman emeritus of the New England Healthcare Institute. Henri further served as board member of Abiomed, Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Verastem, Moderna Therapeutics, Medical Simulation and Allergan. He was appointed to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Council of Economic Advisors and was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s board of directors. Henri studied economics at the Economische Hogeschool at the Erasmus University and earned an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
Henri was a visionary rare disease leader that pioneered rare disease drug development. In 2017 Henri unexpectedly passed away. ProQR will continue to honor his legacy through completing the mission we set out together. Learn more on termeertribute.org
Dr. Shannon has served on our board since June 2016 and has been Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board since 2020 and was elected Chair of our board in May 2024. Dr. Shannon has had an extensive career in drug development and pharma. From 2012 until his retirement in 2015, he was Chief Medical Officer at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to that he was Global Head of Pharma Development at Novartis and Senior Vice-President, Clinical Development at Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals. He previously held board positions at several companies including Biotie, Circassia, Crucell, Endocyte and Cerimon Pharmaceuticals. More recently Dr. Shannon also served on the boards of Immodulon Therapeutics Limited and Horizon Therapeutics. Dr. Shannon currently serves as chairman of the boards at MannKind Corp., a public biopharmaceutical company, and Kyowa Kirin NA, a private biopharmaceutical company and subsidiary of Kyowa Kirin, and and holds board positions at myTomorrows, Xilio Therapeutics, a public clinical-stage biotechnology company, and Leyden Labaratories. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Queen’s University of Belfast and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians.
Phillip is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Gretchen Stone Cook Chair of Biomedical Sciences, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and Chair of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also a co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Voyager Therapeutics. Dr. Zamore and his coworkers have played a role in nearly all of the major breakthroughs in the study of RNA silencing.
Peter is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Davis and Director of the NIH-funded UC Davis Chemical Biology Graduate Program. For over 25 years, work in the Beal laboratory has advanced understanding of the structures and mechanism of action for the ADAR enzymes responsible for adenosine to inosine RNA editing in humans. In addition, his group has led in the development of structure-guided methods for optimizing chemically modified oligonucleotides for recruitment of RNA-binding proteins including ADARs. Beal teaches organic chemistry at the undergraduate level and several classes in nucleic acids chemistry and chemical biology at the graduate level. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the field of RNA chemical biology and mentored over 50 Ph.D. and M.S. degree students.
Yi-Tao is a Dean’s Professor at the Center for RNA Biology and in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He has been working on pre-mRNA splicing and RNA modification for more than 20 years. One of the projects currently being carried out in his lab focuses on nonsense suppression. Specifically, his lab is developing a novel approach, namely targeted RNA pseudouridylation, to precisely modify the pre-mature translation termination codons (PTCs, resulting from nonsense mutations) present in mRNAs, thus suppressing nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) and promoting PTC read-through to restore full-length proteins. His work has made significant contributions to this field of research.
Martin Maier, PhD, joined our board in 2024. Dr. Maier currently serves as Senior Vice President, Oncology at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Maier joined Alnylam in 2006 and has contributed to the development of lipid nanoparticles and GalNAc conjugates, two clinically validated platforms for siRNA delivery, and the advancement of multiple therapeutic programs to development, which has resulted in the approval of five RNAi therapeutic to date. After receiving his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1997 at the University of Tübingen, Germany, Dr. Maier moved to the U.S. for his postdoctoral research at Ionis Pharmaceuticals (“Ionis”), where he assumed a permanent position working on novel chemistries and delivery systems for antisense oligonucleotides (“AONs”). Dr. Maier currently serves on various additional boards including the board of directors of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Gene and RNA Therapy Center Tübingen, Germany. During his 25 years of experience in the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics in both, ASO and RNAi platforms, Dr. Maier authored more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific publications, reviews and book chapters and is the inventor on more than 40 issued patents.
John Maraganore, PhD, joined as a strategic advisor to our Board in March 2022. He served as the founding Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Alnylam from 2002 to 2021, where he built the company from early platform research on RNA interference through global approval and commercialization of the first four RNAi therapeutic medicines, ONPATTRO®, GIVLAARI®, OXLUMO®, and Leqvio®. At Alnylam, he also led the company’s value creation strategy, building $ 25.0 billion in market capitalization, and forming over 20 major pharmaceutical alliances. He continues to serve on the Alnylam Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to Alnylam, he served as an officer and a member of the management team for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, in addition to leadership of M&A, strategy, and biotherapeutics functions. Before Millennium, he served as Director of Molecular Biology and Director of Market and Business Development at Biogen, Inc. where he invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX® (bivalirudin) for injection. Previously, he was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc. and the Upjohn Company. Mr. Maraganore received his M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. He is currently a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners, a Venture Advisor at Atlas Ventures, and an Executive Partner at RTW Investments. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors of Hemab Therapeutics and a member of the Board of Directors of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, where he was Chair from 2017-2019. In addition, he serves on the Board of the Termeer Foundation, as Chair of the n-Lorem Foundation Advisory Council, on the Advisory Board of Ariadne Labs, and as a strategic advisor to several innovative companies.
