Biotalys appoints Wim Ottevaere as Chief Financial Officer in preparation for global growth

GHENT, Belgium and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biotalys NV, a transformative food and crop protection company, today announced the appointment of Wim Ottevaere as Chief Financial Officer. Wim joins the Executive Management Team and will be based in Ghent. He will provide strategic financial leadership and will be focused on supporting the organization towards its next financing event.

Wim brings more than 40 years of experience in strategic financial roles, raising close to €1billion for multiple biotech companies across various markets. He successfully brought private companies to public markets in Europe (Euronext) and the U.S.A. (Nasdaq) and has a broad and global network of investors and financial institutions.

In addition to his new role at Biotalys, Wim will continue to act as non-executive director for several biotech companies. Prior to joining Biotalys, until September 2018, he was Chief Financial Officer of Ablynx, a leading Belgian biotech company that was listed on Euronext Brussels and Nasdaq until its acquisition by Sanofi in June 2018 for €3.9 billion. Before that, he was Chief Financial Officer of Innogenetics (now Fujirebio Europe), a biotech company listed on Euronext Brussels at that time. Wim has held various positions in finance and administration prior to joining Innogenetics. Wim holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

“As we prepare to bring our first biofungicide to market in 2022, Wim Ottevaere completes our executive team and provides the financial expertise Biotalys needs to support our growth. I am looking forward to his strategic input as we build the future of Biotalys to protect crops and food around the globe,” commented Patrice Sellès, CEO of Biotalys.

Wim Ottevaere, CFO of Biotalys, added, “Biotalys has a promising technology platform and a broad product pipeline across the entire crop disease and protection spectrum. Joining Biotalys at this exciting time in its corporate growth journey, I look forward to working with the rest of the executive team to help Biotalys navigate the journey to its next phase as an international commercial player.”

About Biotalys
Biotalys is a rapidly growing and transformative food and crop protection company developing a new generation of protein-based biocontrol solutions, shaping the future of sustainable and safe food supply.

Based on its groundbreaking technology platform, Biotalys has developed a broad pipeline of effective and safe products that address key crop pests and diseases across the whole value chain, from soil to plate. Combining the high-performance characteristics and consistency of chemicals with the clean safety profile of biologicals, Biotalys provides ideal crop protection agents for both pre- and post-harvest applications. Biotalys’ lead biofungicide, BioFun-1, has demonstrated consistent, high efficacy against major pests, such as Botrytis cinerea and powdery mildew, in a global fruit and vegetables field trial. The Company is on track to submit the registration dossiers later in 2020 and expects to launch BioFun-1 in the U.S. in 2022, followed by global market introductions.

Biotalys was founded in 2013 as a spin-off from the VIB (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology) and has raised €61 million ($66 million) to date from specialist international investors. The Company is based in the biotech cluster in Ghent, Belgium. More information can be found on www.biotalys.com.

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For further information, please contact Marieke Vermeersch Biotalys Corporate Communications Consultant T: +32 (0)479 490 603 E: marieke.vermeersch@biotalys.com Erica Camilo Connexa Communications for Biotalys T: +1 (610) 639 5644 E: erica@connexacommunications.com