Alain Parthoens has more than twenty years of international experience in the food and life sciences businesses including marketing for Nestlé, business analysis for Kemira, product development and strategic planning for Monsanto and consultancy in R&D for pharmaceutical companies with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London.


Before he joined Vesalius Biocapital, Alain was an Investment Director at ING Corporate Investments in Belgium. Since 2001, he has been the lead investor for the private placement of Unibioscreen (oncology, EUR 19 m raised), MTI (stress resistant corn germplasm, EUR 14 m raised), OncoMethylome Sciences (cancer diagnostics, creation of the company, EUR 29 m raised in round A & B followed in June 2006 by a EUR 28 m IPO on Euronext), TiGenix (regenerative medicine, EUR 12 m raised, followed by EUR 16 m pre-IPO round and an IPO of EUR 40 m in March 2007) and most recently Bienca (food preservation, EUR 5 m raised). He was also actively involved in the private placement of BioAlliance (Paris, EUR 12 m private placement, followed by a successful EUR 30 m IPO on Euronext in December 2005) and participated in the refinancing of CropDesign and its trade sale to BASF.


He was the chairman of the Belgian Venture and Private Equity Association and BOD member of Unibioscreen, Oncomethylome Sciences, Apitope, Bienca and Promethera.
Alain holds an MSc in agronomy and speciality biochemistry from the Université Catholique de Louvain, an MSc in finance and computer sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a management degree from the Solvay Business School (CEPAC).