Rick van der Vegte

Rick van der Vegte serves as the leader for the Life Sciences Core Operations practice and is known for his ability to solve highly complex operational challenges across the people, process and technology domains, while bringing deep international experience.

Mr. van der Vegte has been an active member of C-level advisory teams during major events for organizations, including new product launches, restructuring and bankruptcy, governmental regulatory intervention and mergers, integrations and carve-outs.

Mr. Van der Vegte has worked in many chemistry, manufacturing and controls (“CMC”) and Good x Practice (“GxP”) environments to create nimble and cost-focused operations. He is deeply experienced in operational assessments from planning and manufacturing to quality and distribution operations. His pragmatic approach has brought him to the front-line of many global operations which gives him strong credibility as a strategic advisor. He possesses engineering-level knowledge and the ability to translate that to leadership decision-making.

Mr. Van der Vegte worked in many of the operational nuances that make life sciences operations unique, such as GxP compliance, cold chain management, vaccine manufacturing operations, solid dose manufacturing, personalized medicine including CAR-T and gene therapy, contract development and manufacturing organization (“CDMO”) management, generics profitability management and beyond.

Mr. Van der Vegte holds an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Supply Chain and Operations Management and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Mr. Van der Vegte is APICS CPIM certified and holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Prior to working in the United States, Mr. Van der Vegte spent close to 10 years of his career working with operations based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Relevant Experience:

• Led the transformation program for an mRNA platform organization to mature operational processes that drive end-to-end manufacturing, planning and inventory management
• Supported the global commercialization of a first-of-a-kind gene therapy by designing, rolling-out and validating cross functional operations
• Advised a C-level committee in enzyme manufacturing to establish ESG reporting capabilities
• Defined the technology architecture and functional design for a small molecule pharma global control tower, enabling more proactive exception management