Overview
Jean-Christophe Tellier is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee of UCB. He joined the company in June 2011 and became CEO on 1 January 2015, after leading UCB's BioBrands and Solutions division as Executive Vice President. He has been a member of the UCB Board of Directors since 2014. At the annual general meeting held in Brussels on 30 April 2026, shareholders approved the renewal of his mandate for a further four years, running to 2030. He was born in 1959 and is a French national. He trained as a medical doctor and specialised in rheumatology before spending more than three decades in the biopharmaceutical industry. UCB is headquartered in Brussels, employs more than 9,000 people across nearly 40 countries, and works in neurology and immunology. It was founded in 1928 by Emmanuel Janssen and is listed on Euronext Brussels, where it is part of the BEL 20 index. The company reported full-year 2025 revenue of EUR 7.74 billion and net sales of EUR 7.39 billion, followed by half-year 2026 revenue of EUR 4.27 billion. In June 2026 UCB completed the acquisition of Candid Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company working on T-cell engager therapies, in a deal worth up to USD 2.2 billion.
Tellier holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and completed postgraduate training in rheumatology at the University of Paris V. He later followed executive business programmes at Harvard and INSEAD. He also headed Novartis' Global Business Franchise in Arthritis, Bone and Muscle Disease. During his time leading Novartis Pharma Belgium he was President of the Board of the Belgian pharmaceutical trade association pharma.be. In 2008 he was Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at MacroGenics, a public biotechnology company based in Maryland. In 2009 he became President and General Manager of Ipsen's North American operations. He moved to UCB in June 2011. Alongside his role at UCB he is an independent member of the Board of Solvac, a member of the Biopharmaceutical CEOs Roundtable, a member of the Board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, a member of the Board of PhRMA, a member of the Supervisory Board of Servier, and a member of the Board at Brain & Mind as representative of UCB France.
Career history
In the news
- A few months ago, our UCB board member Pierre Gurdjian introduced me to Christian Madsbjerg and his book "Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World". We spent some time talking about attention, observation, reflection and understanding - and I left the room a little quieter, a little more curious. Madsbjerg's core argument is deceptively simple: true observation is a skill. Most of us don't actually see what's in front of us, or we see based on our assumptions, our habits and our shortcuts. We rush to conclusions before
- Jean-Christophe Tellier (CEO d'UCB): "Ne rien produire aux États-Unis était une anomalie"UCB a présenté ce jeudi ses résultats semestriels. Malgré une bonne performance, le titre a chuté en bourse. Mais pour Jean-Christophe Tellier, la performance se juge à bien plus long terme. Et sous cet angle, les perspectives seraient particulièrement bonnes.
L'Echo Entreprises · 1 Aug 2026
- Farmatopper Jean-Christophe Tellier: ‘De maatschappij moet betalen voor de waarde die wij creëren’19:12 Bijna honderd jaar oud en flitsender dan ooit: het Belgische farmabedrijf UCB beleeft de grootste groeispurt uit zijn geschiedenis. CEO Jean-Christophe Tellier over de farmafeesttafel, de opmars van C...
De Tijd Farma · 31 Jul 2026
- At UCB, staying connected across teams, sites and geographies is essential to how we learn, grow and move forward together. Over the years, we have created many ways for colleagues to share their experiences and engage in open dialogue. These moments matter deeply to me, especially when we reverse the usual dynamic: instead of colleagues asking questions and leadership responding, I ask the questions and colleagues reply. It’s a simple shift, but it creates a more informal space - one rooted in genuine curiosity, where everyone feels
- The best answers come from collaboration. This belief shapes how we grow and how we strengthen our scientific foundations. At UCB, our recent acquisitions are exactly this: the proof that staying externally connected is core to how we operate, how we learn and how we keep pursuing new treatment options for those people with severe diseases who still lack sufficient answers. We know our science deeply, but progress in immunology and neurology also requires building bridges with the best minds and platforms outside our labs. Some
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