Galapagos appoints Thad Huston as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Galapagos NV (Euronext & NASDAQ: GLPG) today announced the appointment of Thad Huston as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) as per 1 July 2023. Mr. Huston will be a member of the Executive Committee of Galapagos and will join Galapagos from Kite, a Gilead Company (NASDAQ: GILD). He brings 30 years of global finance and operational experience in healthcare with an excellent track record of driving business transformation and innovation.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and management of Galapagos, I extend a warm welcome to Thad. Thad is a widely recognized leader with a strong international network. Having spent three decades in the healthcare sector, he brings with him a wealth of experience and deep financial and operational know-how,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels (1), CEO and Chairman of Galapagos. “We are convinced that Thad’s strategic and operational expertise, including in cell therapy, is an excellent fit for our company as we continue to execute on our R&D and business development strategy in our focus areas of immunology and oncology.”
Thad Huston is currently Global Head of Finance and Corporate Operations at Kite, the global leader in cell therapy. Before Kite, Thad served as CFO of LivaNova (NASDAQ: LIVN), a publicly listed medical devices company focused on neuromodulation with presence in more than 100 countries. Prior to that role, he spent over 25 years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) (NYSE: JNJ) where he held senior financial roles at various J&J locations in the US, China, Belgium, Russia, and Hungary. During his tenure at J&J, he helped establish the R&D innovation model and played a key role in accelerating the product pipeline through focused growth strategies, investments in innovation, business development and streamlined productivity.
“I am very excited to join Galapagos and to work with Paul and the team to realize the company’s full potential,” added Thad Huston. “With its growing pipeline in oncology and immunology, a European commercial infrastructure and a robust balance sheet, I strongly believe that Galapagos has the fundamentals in place to deliver on its mission to transform the lives of patients across the globe, while creating value for its stakeholders.”
This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation).
(1) Throughout this press release, ‘Dr. Paul Stoffels’ should be read as ‘Dr. Paul Stoffels, acting via Stoffels IMC BV’