It’s a new month and a new chapter for several life sciences executives. Here’s a look at some notable Movers & Shakers beginning April with new companies.
It’s a new month and a new chapter for several life sciences executives. Here’s a look at some notable Movers & Shakers beginning April with new companies.
Bluejay Diagnostics – Edwin E. Rule was named vice president of regulatory, quality and compliance at Bluejay Diagnostics. Rule most recently served as a director of regulatory affairs for Fresenius Medical Care’s Renal Therapies Group. Prior to that, he provided medical device/pharmaceutical quality assurance and regulatory affairs consulting services to an international medical device manufacturer. Before that, Rule held various leadership roles in quality/quality assurance at ProTom International Holding Corporation, Optos Inc., and Spire Biomedical Corporation.
Immunovia -- Jeff Borcherding has been named chief executive officer of Immunovia’s U.S. subsidiary, Immunovia, Inc. He joins the company from Myriad Genetics, a diagnostics company where he served as chief marketing officer. Prior to that, Borcherding was the general manager of Myriad’s mental health business unit. He is a former Procter & Gamble brand manager, where he successfully grew multiple healthcare brands. He also held several commercial leadership roles at health care and software companies.
BrainsWay – Joachim Seidel was appointed to the newly-created position of vice president of corporate development and strategy. Seidel has more than 20 years of experience in the medical device industry and has held positions in business development, corporate strategy, program management, and research and development. He will be responsible for pursuing strategic opportunities for Brainsway and overseeing its global corporate development initiatives. Before BrainsWay, Seidel led a business consulting firm. Prior to that, he held corporate development and strategy roles at Covidien, Medtronic and PAREXEL.
Oryzon Genomics, SA – Spain-based ORYZON tapped Douglas Faller as chief medical officer. Faller has over 30 years of clinical hematology/oncology expertise and broad drug development experience. He joins Oryzon from Takeda, where he was executive medical director and global clinical leader for more than five years. He was professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he founded and served as first director of Boston University Cancer Center. Faller has founded several biotech companies and previously served as the CMO and chief scientific officer of Viracta Therapeutics, Inc.
Renovacor, Inc. – Fred Driscoll was named chief financial officer of Philadelphia-based Renovacor. Driscoll joins Renovacor with over 25 years of executive experience in the biotech industry. He most recently served as the CFO of Flexion Therapeutics. Prior to Flexion, Driscoll was the CFO of Novavax, Inc. He previously served as CFO and CEO of Genelabs Technologies, Inc. Prior to Genelabs, Driscoll served as CFO and subsequently president and CEO of OXiGENE, Inc., senior vice president of finance and operations at Collagenesis Corp., and vice president of finance, Americas, for Instrumentation Laboratory.
Healios AG – Switzerland’s Healios tapped Meg Heim for the company board of directors. She was most recently at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals as vice president, global head of Scientific Engagement Strategy, Operations and Program Management. She was responsible for management oversight of Global Business Unit Strategic Scientific Stakeholder Engagement, R&D, Medical CRM, and companywide Event and Congress multinational strategy. Prior to Sanofi, Heim was at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she held U.S. and global leadership roles in medical affairs, advocacy and policy across multiple therapeutic areas.
Nkarta, Inc. – Angela M. Thedinga was appointed to the board of directors of Nkara, Inc. Thedinga most recently served as chief technology officer of Adverum Biotechnologies, where she led the process development, manufacturing and supply chain functions. Before Adverum, she held executive roles in manufacturing and supply chain management and strategy at AveXis, now Novartis Gene Therapies. Her earlier industry experience includes manufacturing strategy roles in bioprocess engineering at Abbott Laboratories and vaccine development at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.
M2GEN – Eric Anderson was named CFO. He succeeds Joseph R. Smith, who is retiring. Prior to joining M2GEN Anderson was CFO at Evidera. Previously, he held a variety of senior finance leadership positions at Walmart Inc., including CFO of SamsClub.com, global leader of FP&A for Sam’s Club Stores, and financial leader of digital acceleration for Walmart Inc. Anderson has also served in financial and operational leadership roles at Michael’s Stores Inc., FedEx, and IBM.
TFF Pharmaceuticals – Anthony Hickey was named CSO. He replaces Brian Windsor, who is stepping down. Hickey is Professor Emeritus in Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brandi Roberts, the former CFO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics and REVA Medical was appointed to the TFF Board of Directors. John Koleng was named vice president of Product Development and Manufacturing. Koleng was an executive with three drug development companies, Oticara, Via Therapeutics, and CloXero Therapeutics, and he also co-founded AlphaVektor, LLC and Axxis Innovations, Inc. Greg J. Davenport was named vice president of Government and Strategic Initiatives. Davenport brings is a founding partner of Dport Federal Group, LLC, a consulting firm that assists various clients in the life science and pharmaceutical industries seeking to conduct business with the federal government. Paul Manley was named head of Regulatory Affairs. He has held roles at Johnson & Johnson, Genta Incorporated and more.
Shorla Oncology – Ireland’s Shorla tapped Dennis Purcell as board chairman. Purcell is the original founder of Aisling Capital LLC, a leading life sciences investment firm. Prior to Aisling Capital, Purcell served as managing director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q. Purcell has also served as director on a number of biotechnology company boards including Aton Pharma, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Cengent Therapeutics, Dynova Laboratories, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Valentis and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals.
Alector, Inc. – Gary Romana was named CMO and will lead the company’s clinical development strategy. Dr. Romano served as the CMO of Passage Bio. Prior to Passage Bio, Romano oversaw clinical development of the neurodegenerative disease portfolio for more than five years at Janssen. He previously held other leadership positions at Janssen, including Head of Neuroscience Biomarkers and Head of Early Clinical Development. Earlier in his career, Romano served as the Alzheimer’s Disease Therapeutic Area Group Co-Leader and Leader, Neuroscience Experimental Medicine at Merck.
Coya Therapeutics – David S. Snyder was named CFO and chief operating officer. Prior to joining Coya, Snyder served as the CFO of DisperSol Technologies. Before joining DisperSol, Snyder was the CFO of Exicure, CFO of Cellular Dynamics, Senior Vice President of Finance, Site Vice President and CFO of Roche NimbleGen, and also the CFO of other real estate, software, and manufacturing companies.
Avenge Bio – Claudio Dansky Ullman was named CMO. Dansky Ullmann was the CMO of MaxCyte CARMA Cell Therapies, where he oversaw clinical development, operations, regulatory and translational medicine functions. He previously served as head of Clinical Development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Infinity, Dansky Ullmann was Senior Medical Director, Global Clinical Lead, of Oncology Clinical Research at Takeda. Before Takeda, he worked at the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute.
Nuvalent, Inc. – Anna Protopapas, president and CEO of Mersana Therapeutics, was named chairman of the board of directors. Prior to Mersana, Protopapas was president of Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She also served as executive vice president of Global Business Development at Takeda, was a member of the company’s executive committee, and served as a corporate officer.
Omega Therapeutics – Kevin McManus was named chief human resources officer and Ling Zeng was named chief legal and administrative officer. McManus most recently served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Acceleron Pharma. Before Acceleron, McManus held a variety of human resources roles of increasing responsibility at Bayer, most recently serving as vice president and Human Resources Business Partner, Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, McManus held senior human resources roles at Mylan Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and GTE Corporation. Zeng most recently served as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals. Earlier, Zeng served as Deputy Head Legal, Group Mergers and Acquisitions, at Novartis AG. Prior to this, she served in various legal executive roles of increasing responsibility at Bausch Health Companies, Inc., Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. and Barr Laboratories, Inc.
