Bert Coessens has a background in molecular biology and a PhD in advanced statistical analysis of ‘omics’ data. He was one of the founders of Cartagenia, a joint spin-off from the KU Leuven Dept. Electrotechniek (ESAT) and UZ Leuven Center for Human Genetics incorporated in 2008. At Cartagenia he led the quickly growing bioinformatics and software development teams, while in parallel successfully introducing both an ISO13485 certified Quality Management System, as well as an ISO27001 certified Information Security Management System into the organization. In May 2015 Cartagenia was acquired by Agilent, where Bert served as a Software R&D Manager, and later became Software R&D Director in the Agilent Genomics business unit.
At the end of 2018, Bert started his own consulting firm Perifora. Perifora specialises in ‘as-a-service’ business models that leverage the power and scalability of today’s world-wide cloud infrastructure to bring products to the market in a secure and compliant way. At Perifora he built up considerable expertise in medical device, IVD and privacy, and data protection legislation in key markets to be able to support worry-free roll-out of (software) products and services in those markets. Since founding Perifora he has provided strategic consulting to several biotech/MedTech companies in Flanders, as well as performed a number of technology due diligence of start-ups as a service to investors.