Sebastien Bals

Sébastien Bals is the Vice President Global Procurement and CPO of UCB, a biopharma company headquartered in Belgium and serving people globally. Being “Inspired by Patients. Driven by Science”, UCB’s ambition is to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases with a focus on neurology and immunology disorders. 

Sébastien was appointed in his role as CPO in June 2017 after having joined UCB at the end of 2011. Since his appointment he has been driving a sustainable procurement agenda and transforming his team to deliver solutions beyond traditional sourcing.

As a spend entrepreneur, he has worked in different corporates and start-ups globally and across various industries. Prior to joining UCB, he co-founded a procurement start-up focused on tail spend management and consultancy. Before that, he held multiple positions within Anheuser-Busch InBev and led the IT/IS procurement stream for the post-merger integration of Anheuser-Busch and InBev.

His passion for procurement was sparked at the start of his career in the contracting department at Thomas Cook, after achieving an MBA from the Crummer Garduate School of Business. Besides an MBA, Sebastien also holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from KdG and has graduated from the General Management Program at Harvard Business School in Boston.

For the past years, he has been an advisory Board member of Procurement Leaders, Guest Lecturer and Keynote Speaker. In 2017 he was awarded the Procurement Ambassador Award from Pascion to recognize him for his efforts to elevate Procurement as a true strategic partner.