Since its inception, Katleen is managing partner of HERAN Partners, which she co-founded with Annie Vereecken and Herman Verrelst. HERAN Partners. HERAN Partners is a European investment fund founded in 2020 with a specific focus on Enabling Technologies in Life Sciences and Healthcare, invested in companies as Ugentec, PharmaFluidics, Thirona, Hypervision Surgical and Icometrix. She holds a PhD in Chemistry and started her career heading one of the R&D and QA labs of Umicore. She later joined McKinsey, focusing on strategy and M&A. As investment manager and head of the Health&Care department at institutional investor LRM, for 7 years, she got to know the world of startups and scale ups in the life science sector inside out. At HERAN, Katleen is responsible for the general management and the long-term strategy of HERAN, fundraising activities, part of the final investment decisions, and involved with several portfolio companies.