Royal Philips Electronics N.V. Spin-out Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation BV Taps Jan Keltjens as President and CEO
Sapiens appoints Jan Keltjens as President and CEO
Munich, Germany, and Eindhoven, the Netherlands, October 21, 2013 - Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation (Sapiens), a medical device company pioneering brain stimulation products incorporating steerable stimulation, today announced that the Advisory Board has appointed Jan C. M. Keltjens as the new President and CEO of the Company, effective October 21, 2013.
Jan Keltjens has a strong track record in the medical device sector and over 30 years of management experience. Recently, he was Chairman, President and CEO of Endosense SA, Geneva, Switzerland, which was acquired by St. Jude Medical in August 2013. Prior to this, he worked as CEO and/or Chairman in a number of medical device companies worldwide, including CryoCath Technologies Inc., Montreal, Canada (acquired in 2008 by Medtronic), AngioDynamics Inc., Albany, New York, USA, and Surpass Medical Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel/Sunrise, Florida, USA (acquired in 2012 by Stryker). From 1995 to 2007 he was Vice President and later Worldwide General Manager Neurovascular at Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company, in the Netherlands, Belgium and Florida, USA. Jan Keltjens graduated with a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Eindhoven and subsequently started his career at the Unilever Research Laboratory in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands.
Hans Barella, Chairman of the Advisory Board, commented: "We are very happy to have appointed Jan Keltjens as the President and CEO for Sapiens. With his excellent skills and expertise in combination with his international experience in commercializing breakthrough products, he is ideally suited to lead the Company towards launching its first products and subsequent commercial successes. I would like to thank Sjaak Deckers for his past three years of leadership and shaping the Company for a successful future. Sjaak was not only the co-founder of Sapiens, but also successfully raised the initial financing for Sapiens and reached positive results with 'FAME', the world's first intra-operative clinical study demonstrating steerable brain stimulation."
Jan Keltjens, President and CEO, added: "Sapiens is a very exciting company that I know well from my position on the Advisory Board since February 2012. I am looking forward to working with the co-founders, our Advisory Board and the strong Sapiens team, including Sjaak who will continue to serve in a senior leadership role. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a rapidly growing therapy to treat neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and dystonia. The innovations being developed by Sapiens will allow more patients to benefit from DBS while minimizing the side-effects and reducing time and resources for the complex procedure. We look forward to bringing this technology to patients who suffer from such potentially debilitating diseases."
About Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation
Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation is an emerging medical device company with a mission to bring the innovative concept of Steering Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to more patients who can benefit from this advanced treatment for degenerative or functional brain disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, dystonia and other currently emerging indications.
Sapiens' ambition is to improve the therapeutic efficacy of DBS, to shorten and simplify the clinical procedure, and to improve patient comfort. Sapiens' high-resolution probe enables the reduction of stimulation-induced side-effects by precisely shaping the stimulation field to the intended target area. The SureSuite® products, SurePlan®, SurePlace® and SureTune®, provide an integrated, image-based solution for planning and programming an optimal DBS treatment. SureStim-1®, the Sapiens implant, is MRI-conditionally safe, and controls the steering.
With offices in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and Munich, Germany, Sapiens was founded in 2011. The Company is a spin-out of Royal Philips, and is backed by Wellington Partners, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Life Sciences Partners (LSP), the Wellcome Trust and INKEF Capital. Additionally, the Michael J Fox Foundation and the European Union Framework Program VII provide support. Sapiens' Steering Brain Stimulation probe, implant and image-guided programming are all based on patented technologies.
For more information please visit www.sapiensneuro.com.
Contact:
Jan Keltjens, CEO
Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation,
High Tech Campus 41,
5656 AE Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Tel. +31 40 8002100
info@sapiensneuro.com
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