Jiri Keirsse

Heading UCB’s Innovation Strategy & Public–Private Partnerships team within the R&D organisation, Jiri is responsible for informing, shaping, and articulating UCB’s Research and Early Development strategy. The team’s overarching mission is to maximise value and impact by effectively combining established internal scientific strengths with complementary external innovation opportunities.

Convinced of the advantages offered by strong external connectivity, his team leads and coordinates UCB’s engagement with, and contributions to, national and regional consortia; strategic relationships with public partners (including universities, hospitals, and research centres); as well as public funding applications.

Jiri holds a PhD in bioengineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) – Vlaams Instituut Biotechnologie (VIB) in Belgium, with a focus on onco-immunology. Before joining UCB, he gained several years of management consulting experience at McKinsey & Company, largely supporting biotech and biopharma organisations on a wide range of strategic topics across the value chain.