Exothera, a Univercells company and viral vector contract development and manufacturing organization, named Thibault Jonckheere as CEO.
 
Thibault joined Exothera as deputy CEO following last year’s carve-out of the company from Univercells. The company has since experienced rapid growth, more than tripling its number of collaborators to over one hundred. The beginning of this year also marked the signing of Exothera’s first contracts, including a development agreement with CyanVac for its Covid-19 intranasal vaccine candidate, which will be manufactured at Exothera’s Jumet plant expected to be GMP-certified early in the second half of 2021.
 
Thibault started his career in the energy sector, holding several financial and consultancy positions. He joined the cell therapy CDMO, MaSTherCell, in 2013 as corporate and business development manager, generating revenue streams of several million Euros and driving the organization to profitability. In 2016, Thibault joined ImmunXperts, an immunology contract research organization, where he developed the company from the ground up until its sale to Nexelis at the beginning of 2020.
 
“Univercells has become an incubator for talent, of which the appointment of Thibault as the new CEO of our spinoff Exothera is another wonderful example,” said Hugues Bultot, CEO of Univercells. “The board and I are confident that Thibault’s international background in business engineering, operations, and business development will enable him to lead the continued expansion of Exothera successfully.”