Harm-Jan Borgeld, Head of Roche Pharma Partnering Asia is responsible for the negotiations of innovative, Asia sourced, deals to transform R&D strategic wants into global research and development plans to improve Roche’s external innovation portfolio with first in-class and best in-class compounds. Harm-Jan is based in Shanghai and is a member of the Leadership Team of Roche Pharma Partnering.

Having grown up in the Netherlands, had various careers and roles in the army, academia and pharmaceutical industry. He graduated in 1993 from Wageningen University, his passion was biochemistry and business administration.

He received 6 honors and awards, including 1st prize winner in McKinsey 2001 Business Plan Competition, Netherlands, and an award for Excellent Leadership as Lieutenant in the Dutch Army.

He conducted his PhD research at the Faculty of Medicine, Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan in 1995 before finishing his Postdoctoral fellowship of Research Institute from Institute of Applied BioTechnology. His focus area was mitochondrial gene therapy, where he developed a novel approach to selectively remove mutated DNA from the mitochondria and creating a possible pathway for treatment options for patients. In 2001 he moved to the Netherlands for his MBA at Rotterdam School of Management, in 2002 to the US to study for his MBA at the Haas Business School. He graduated in 2003.

In 2003, he joined Kyorin Pharmaceuticals, in Germany, as Head BD where he negotiated 3 deals and created 2 business plans for the region Europe.

He spent most of his career at Merck Healthcare KGaA, over 15 years in various positions, he started in 2005 as Senior Licensing Manager in Business Development. In 2008 he became Global Project Team Leader, where he led the clinical development of an immune-oncology antibody. From 2010 he was the Vice President, Head Global Alliance Management. His group oversaw 110-120 global alliances in Research, Development, Commercial and 15-20 regional alliances in Latin America.