A General Meeting of Shareholders may also be called in special or extraordinary circumstances, whenever Company interests dictate. Moreover, the Board or the statutory Auditor(s) must call an extraordinary general meeting upon the written request of shareholders representing jointly 20% of the share capital of UCB.

Jean-Christophe Tellier joined UCB in 2011.  He became UCB’s Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2015 after having successfully led UCB’s BioBrands and Solutions division as Executive Vice President. 

He is a member of the Board of Directors of UCB, a member of the Board of WELBIO (Walloon Institute for Life Lead Sciences) and of BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization in the US) and of PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America). He is also Vice-President as well as a President-Elect of the Board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Associations (EFPIA), Chairman of the Innovation Board Sponsored Committee (EFPIA) and Deputy Chair of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Governing Board.

Jean-Christophe Tellier is an experienced global leader. He was trained as a Medical Doctor and specialized in rheumatology. He has built a distinguished 25-year career in the biopharmaceutical industry, taking on different global leadership responsibilities in different parts of the world.  

His patient-centric approach, his passion for science, combined with his strategic and operational skills, have allowed him to significantly contribute to UCB’s success in recent years. 

For Jean-Christophe “engaging the patient in our vision is the best way for our company to be successful in the long term. Having a holistic view of a patient, of his/her life in his/her environment is essential to ensure effective treatment”.  Jean-Christophe also believes that “all healthcare players - physicians, payors, carers, industry and academia -  should cooperate even more effectively and become stronger partners sharing a same goal: improving patient care”.  

As a leader, Jean-Christophe has always had a passion for developing people, which he sees as “a key force to drive company success”.  His ambition is to continue to further engage UCB teams behind the company’s vision and fully leverage UCB’s strong culture and talents.

Key positions

Prior to UCB, Jean-Christophe held the following positions:

• 2009 - Ipsen: President and General Manager of Ipsen’s North American operations
• 2008 - Macrogenics (Maryland-based public biotechnology company): Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
• 1989 - 2008 - Novartis:
  CEO of Novartis Pharma France
  CEO of Novartis Pharma Belgium – was President of the Board of the Belgian Pharma Trade association (pharma.be)

Built his career in several local and global marketing and sales positions; was a.o. Head of Novartis’ Global Business Franchise in Arthritis, Bone and Muscle Disease

Education

Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) – University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France
Post-graduate: Rheumatologist - University of Paris V, France
Executive business programs at Harvard and INSEAD

Kay Davies is the Dr. Lee's Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford.   
Her research interests lie in the molecular analysis and development of treatment for human genetic disease, particularly, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the application of genomics for the analysis of neurological disorders. She has published more than 400 papers and won numerous awards for her work.  She is co-founder of Summit Therapeutics which aims to develop a therapy for DMD and also has an interest in the ethical issues associated with genetics research. She is a founding fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003.  She is a Director of the Biotech Growth Trust, a Director of Genome England, Director of Genome Research Ltd.  She was a Governor of the Wellcome Trust 2008-17 and Deputy Chairman 2013-2017.  
Professor Davies was made Dame Commander of the British Empire for services to science in 2008. She has also been involved as independent scientific advisor on UCB’s Science Advisory Board since 2012 and is member of the UCB’s Governance, Nomination and Compensation Committee (“GNCC”) as from 2017.

A Chartered Financial Analyst from the CFA Institute, Cédric van Rijckevorsel also holds a Commercial Engineer degree from ‘ISC Saint Louis’ in Brussels.

He started his career in Bank Brussels Lambert (ING Group) followed by Generale Bank (Fortis Group). In 1996 he joined Lombard Odier & Cie, Private Bankers in Switzerland and in 2001 became Senior Portfolio Manager at 3A, a leading institutional alternative investment firm and division of Bank Syz in Switzerland.  

In 2004 he founded IDS Capital SA in Geneva of which he became Managing Director and after spending close to 10 years building and growing IDS Capital SA in Switzerland, Cédric set up IDS Capital (UK) Ltd in London of which he is a Director and the CEO. He remains a Director of IDS Capital SA Geneva. He is a Member of the Board of Barnfin SA.

Cédric is also a Board member of Financière de Tubize SA, a Euronext listed holding company, and core shareholder of UCB. and is a member of NEDon Board, a professional body for non-executive Directors and Board members in the UK.