Agendia's Executive Management Team

Dr. Bernhard Sixt, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder

Dr. Sixt has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry. Before joining Agendia, he was Director of Global Strategic Marketing, Oncology at Amersham Health (now part of GE Healthcare), a world leader in the medical diagnostics market. Dr. Sixt has also held several senior international positions, within product management and global marketing, in Germany, Norway and the UK.

Kurt Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Mr. Schmidt, CPA, MBA, joined Agendia in 2008, bringing with him close to 25 years of financial, operational and entrepreneurial management experience primarily in the high tech and healthcare industries in the U.S. and Europe. Most recently Mr. Schmidt was a principal at Veresis Consulting, a firm he founded in 2002, capitalizing on the need of companies for high level financial interim management and M&A services. Prior to that he was Operations Director at B2eMarkets, a supply chain management company; and Director of Finance & Operations at LA Gear Europe. Mr. Schmidt started his career at Cardinal Health, Inc in Corporate Finance, before transferring toMaxicare Health Plans as head of financial reporting. Mr. Schmidt, is a CPA (State of Ohio), and holds an MBA (Pepperdine).

Dr. Richard Bender, Chief Medical Officer (CMO)

Dr. Bender joined Agendia in 2008, bringing more than 20 years of professional experience in the development of clinical oncology programs and participation in national clinical trials through CALGB, NSABP and pharmaceutical companies while at Kaiser Permanente. More recently, he has pursued his interest in oncology drug development at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Quest Diagnostics and Johnson and Johnson. He continues to teach at the UC, Irvine School of Medicine, co-edits the journal Anti-Cancer Drugs and serves as an expert reviewer in oncology for the Medical Board of California. He has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and numerous book chapters on topics including malignant lymphoma, pancreatic cancer and the clinical pharmacology of Vinca alkaloids.

Dr. René Bernards, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and co-founder

Prof. Dr. Bernards has a 25-year track record in oncology research with more than 100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals. He has initiated and developed numerous fruitful collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry. As CSO, Prof. Dr. Bernards' responsibility is to explore and implement new technologies as well as developing collaborations with industrial partners. He is head of the division of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), which he joined in 1992 after a six-year assistant professorship at Harvard University. He is also a part-time professor of Molecular Carcinogenesis at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Dr. Laura van 't Veer, Chief Research Officer (CRO) and co-founder

Dr. van 't Veer has a 20-year track record in molecular oncology research with more than 80 papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Within Agendia, Dr. van 't Veer developed the MammaPrint gene expression profiling service and is responsible for the running of the company's central laboratory, for clinical research, and the establishment of new expression profiles. She was head of the Family Cancer Clinic at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) for 10 years and is currently head of the clinic's DNA-diagnostic laboratory and a staff member in the Department of Molecular Pathology.

Daniel Forche, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for North America

Mr. Forche brings over 18 years of sales, marketing and commercial leadership experience in the diagnostics arena. As Vice President of Sales & Marketing over US Operations, he is responsible for developing and executing Agendia’s key sales and marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Agendia, Mr. Forche served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Insight Health Corporation, a leading national provider of diagnostic imaging services with annual revenues exceeding $285 MM; as Vice President of Marketing at US LABS, an industry leader in cancer diagnostic and genomic testing services; and sales and marketing management roles at Ventana Medical Systems and Abbott Laboratories.

Bastiaan van der Baan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Europe and Rest of World

Mr. van der Baan joined Agendia shortly after its founding in 2003 and is responsible for Agendia’s Sales and Marketing efforts as well as Commerce agreements for Europe and global markets. With a master’s degree in Molecular Sciences from the Wageningen University and over 13 years of commercial experience in various leadership positions at Unilever/Unichema, and other pharmaceutical and biotech companies, Mr. van der Baan is an integral member of Agendia’s management team.

Alan Carter, Vice President of Business Development

Mr. Carter has over 20 years of professional experience in DNA platform technologies and genomics. His management roles include business development, sales and marketing with companies such as Perkin Elmer, Applied Biosystems, Celera and Biotrove where he successfully built and led teams to close strategic commercial and institutional research deals.