Frans van Houten

Former CEO at Royal Philips, Non-Executive Director Novartis, board member, start-up investor and advisor

Amstelveen, North Holland, Netherlands

About

I am passionate about accelerating innovation and driving transformation, to make a positive impact in the world. I support public and private companies as board member, advisor and investor. This builds on my 12 years of experience as CEO of Royal Philips, where we transformed the conglomerate into a leading health technology company, delivering innovative solutions to healthcare providers. Prior to this, I led the spin out of NXP semiconductors and repositioned the company to higher value focus. In career I have lived and worked in USA, Asia and several countries in Europe. I have done many transformations of companies, including portfolio refocusing through divestitures and acquisitions, changing the operating model, shift from hardware to software & services, and changing the business model to recurring revenues. On the non-profit side my activities include(d) member of the steering committee of the European Round Table of Industrialists; chairman of the supervisory board of Erasmus Trust Foundation; Co-chair Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy, co-founder of NL2025 social acceleration platform, co-founder of the Graduate Entrepreneur Venture Fund which supports start ups of the Erasmus universities of Rotterdam and Technical University Delft.

Experience

  • Member of The Supervisory Board at Affidea
    Jan 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 6 mos

    Affidea Group is the leading pan-European provider of integrated healthcare including advanced diagnostics, out-of-hospital services and specialty care

  • co-founder and chairman at Graduate Ventures
    Jan 2020 - Present · 6 yrs 6 mos

    Initiated by Alumni of Erasmus University and TU Delft, Graduate Ventures partners with start-up founders from the Netherlands from day zero. We combine early-stage capital with hands-on support and a powerful alumni network to accelerate their journey. Started in 2020 Graduate has already invested in over 75 startups and is expanding accross Netherlands.

  • Member Board of Directors at Novartis
    Feb 2017 - Present · 9 yrs 5 mos

    member of the Science & Technology Committee member of the Audit Committee Member governance & Nomination cie Novartis' purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. Novartis use innovative science and technology to address some of society's most challenging healthcare issues, and works to discover and develop breakthrough treatments and find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible.

  • Chairman of the Board at Absci
    Jun 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 1 mo

    Absci stands at the forefront of AI-enabled drug creation, a field that is accelerating right before our eyes.

  • Chairperson of the Board at Castor
    May 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 2 mos

    Castor's Electronic Data Capture platform (EDC) with patient reported outcome measurement and e-consent to enable effective decentralized clinical trials for Pharma, Biotech and Medtech. Build and deploy clinical trials that leverage data from any source on Castor's self-service cloud platform.