The Maastricht UMC+ Executive Board focuses on strategic issues and responding to the changing environment of the Maastricht UMC+. The duties and responsibilities of the Executive Board are outlined in the Board regulations. The Executive Board consists of the following members:
President of Executive Board Helen Mertens MD
Helen Mertens MD is President and CEO of the Executive Board of the Executive Board of the University Hospital Maastricht [azM] and a member of the Executive Board of Maastricht UMC+.
Helen Mertens received her MD from Maastricht University and completed specialty trainings in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She conducted research into gynaecological cancer and also obtained her PhD on this subject (in 2002). Helen Mertens' career is characterized by a combination of direct patient care, training of medical staff, and executive and management positions in care organizations. She was, for instance, medical director of Orbis MC, a forerunner of the present Zuyderland. The focus of her professional activities has gradually shifted from 'individual care' to 'collective care'.
Vice-President of Executive Board Prof. Annemie Schols
Prof. Annemie Schols is Dean of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML) and Vice-President of the Executive Board of Maastricht UMC+.
Prof. Schols is professor of Nutrition and Metabolism in Chronic Diseases. She studied in Wageningen, and also in Maastricht and Gothenburg, specialising in clinical nutrition. She then obtained a fellowship to do scientific research in Canada. She obtained her PhD from Maastricht University in 1991 with her thesis on nutrition and metabolism in COPD. To accelerate the translation of basic research into clinical practice, she established the postgraduate teaching institute MINT in 1998. Since 2004 she has been professor of Nutrition and Metabolism in Chronic Diseases and from 2006 to 2020, she was director of the research school NUTRIM.
Her team's line of research is metabolic disruptions in COPD and lung cancer, with a particular focus on damage to the skeletal muscles and on the cachexia syndrome. Their findings form the basis for the development and clinical evaluation of new interventions aimed at having a positive impact on the course of the disease. To date she has supervised 43 doctoral students within this line of research. She has more than 350 scientific publications in international journals to her name, as well as more than 50 book contributions. Her work is frequently cited. In teaching, Annemie Schols has helped to establish successful new interdisciplinary education programmes at Maastricht University.
She has extensive management experience in a variety of roles on national scientific committees and boards, and on international advisory councils and in scientific associations. Focus areas in her portfolio as a member of the Executive Board are overall responsibility for FHML (research and teaching) and internationalisation. Further key areas are cooperation between schools and between faculties, as well as integrating the FHML schools with the care centres of Maastricht UMC+.
Member of Executive Board Prof. Stef Kremers
Stef Kremers is professor of Health Promotion, vice-dean of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, and a member of the Executive Board of Maastricht UMC+.
Stef Kremers studied Health Sciences at Maastricht University in the 1990s and obtained his PhD in 2002 with research on smoking prevention. In 2013, he was appointed professor of the Prevention of Obesity. He has been divisional leader within the Maastricht research school NUTRIM since 2017. In 2018, he was appointed chair of the Department of Health Promotion and professor of Health Promotion. Prof. Kremers is also an adviser to the MVV Academy and a member of the Advisory Board of the Maastricht Sports Agreement (Sportakkoord Maastricht).
Member of Executive Board Gabriël Zwart MAC
Gabriël Zwart is a member of the Executive Board of the University Hospital Maastricht [azM] and a member of of the Executive Board of the Maastricht UMC+ with responsibility for finance.
Gabriël Zwart was a member of the Management Board of the Philadelphia Zorg foundation, where his responsibilities included finance. Before that he performed and held various roles and positions in the healthcare sector on the basis of his financial background.
Member of Executive Board Ale Houtsma
Ale Houtsma is an interim member of the Board of Directors.
Ale Houtsma has worked in the healthcare sector all his life. For the past four years he has served as Chairman of the Board at the top clinical Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital (CWZ), with a major change assignment. Key themes were work happiness, regional cooperation, emergency care, digital care, organizational development, and sustainability. He was also a board member of Santeon with the digital care portfolio, among other things, and a board member of the Dutch Association of Hospitals NVZ. Previously, he also worked as an interim member of the Board of Directors at the Spaarne Gasthuis in Haarlem/Hoofddorp where he focused on improving the regional emergency care chain and site profiling. Before that, he worked at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden; there his work included the transformation to value-based healthcare (VBHC) and patient participation.
