Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Precigen – Rick Sterling is stepping down from his role as chief financial officer of Germantown, Maryland-based Precigen, Inc. The company has launched an executive search for a successor with the qualifications to contribute to Precigen’s accelerating growth from a clinical stage company to a commercial organization.
ENDSULIN – Two former members of the AveXis leadership team have joined the board of directors of ENDSULIN. Both Brian Kaspar and Thomas Dee, the founding chief science officer and CFO, respectively, of AveXis were added to the board of directors at ENDSULIN.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals – Boehringer Ingelheim veteran Paul Fonteyne was appointed to the board of directors of Amylyx. Fonteyne was with Boehringer Ingelheim for more than 15 years, where he served as the U.S. president and chief executive officer for seven years, and subsequently chairman until his retirement in January 2019. Fonteyne also serves on the boards of several clinical-stage biotechnology companies including Gelesis, DalCor (Chairman), Apellis and Ypsomed AG, a device company. Previously, he served on the boards of the National Pharmaceutical Council, PhRMA, ResTORbio and AMAG Pharmaceuticals.
PYC Therapeutics – Jason Haddock was named a member of the board of directors. He currently serves as board director of Codiak Biosciences and has held a variety of leadership roles at biopharma companies. Previously, he was CFO at Array Biopharma. Prior to Array, he worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of finance, strategic, commercial and business development capabilities including CFO and COO roles for business units in Asia Pacific, Europe and the U.S.
Medable Inc. – Sina Mossayeb was named chief design officer of Medable. Mossayeb brings more than 15 years of human-centered design experience to Medable and recently led Aero airline’s creative team, including customer experience and design concepts.
IONIQ Sciences – Raphael E. Pollock joined the medical advisory committee at IONIQ. Pollock is an award-winning surgical oncologist, extensively published physician-scientist, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center and currently the Director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC).
AavantiBio – Christopher Wright was named chief medical officer of gene therapy company, AavantiBio. Wright most recently served as Senior Vice President and CMO of Cyclerion Therapeutics. Previously, he led the global development organization at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, Dr. Wright spent seven years in senior medical and clinical roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Evonetix Ltd. – Michael Daniels was named Head of Product Management at Evonetix. Daniels will be focused on the development and introduction of Evonetix’s first product, a DNA desktop writer. His previous roles include Director of Marketing and Product Management at Arcis Biotechnology, Senior Manager of Marketing and Business Development at Cancer Research UK, and Director of Marketing and Product Management at Thermo Fisher Scientific, as well as leading various projects at GE Healthcare Life Sciences.
Frontier Medicines – David M. Goldstein was appointed to the board of directors of Frontier Medicines. Goldstein is the site head and chief scientific officer of Principia Biopharma, a Sanofi company. Prior to joining Principia, Goldstein held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche, including senior director of medicinal chemistry and head of inflammation chemistry. Gregory Chow was also named CFO. Chow joins the company from Aptose Biosciences Inc., where he was previously the executive vice president and chief financial officer. Most recently, Chow was the executive vice president and CFO of Aptose Biosciences Inc. Prior to joining Aptose, Chow served as managing director and director of Private Placements at Wedbush Securities.
Better Therapeutics – Andrew Aramino and Geoffrey Parker were appointed to the board at Better Therapeutics. Armanino joins the board as the recently retired managing partner and CEO at Armanino LLP, the largest CPA firm based in California. Parker currently serves as COO, CFO and executive vice president of Tricida, Inc.
BeiGene Co.,Ltd – Julia Wang was named CFO of BeiGene. Wang will succeed Howard Liang, who previously announced his intention to retire from BeiGene. He will stay on through June 30 to ensure an orderly transition. Wang joined BeiGene in 2020 as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Optimization and Deputy CFO. Prior to BeiGene, Wang served as Senior Vice President, Global Business Finance and Corporate Planning at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that she held leadership positions at Quest Diagnostics, including Vice President of U.S. Regional Finance and Enterprise Commercial, and Vice President of Finance, Value Creation. Before Quest, Wang held senior leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson as CFO of various operating businesses, including Xian-Janssen, J&J’s pharmaceutical business in China. Previously, she also led finance initiatives at PepsiCo.
Cardiol Therapeutics – Andrew Hamer was named CMO of Cardiol Therapeutics. Hamer will lead the research and development of the company’s clinical-stage products and will also guide the development of additional novel therapeutics in the company’s pipeline. Retiring CMO and co-founder of Cardiol, Eldon Smith, will continue to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors and as an advisor to the company. Most recently Hamer served as executive director of Global Development-Cardiometabolic at Amgen Inc. Prior to his five-year tenure with Amgen, Hamer served for two years as VP Medical Affairs at Capricor Therapeutics Inc.
Rentschler Biopharma SE – Martin Kessler was named CEO of Rentschler Biopharma Inc., the company’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary. At Rentschler Biopharma, he will drive the transformation throughout the company as it grows strategically into new fields and technologies. Martin Kessler held several leadership positions in the industry and in the consulting business before joining Rentschler Biopharma. In his last position, he was Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company and led the medical device operations practice in Europe.
Wesana Health -- George Steinbrenner IV joined the Board of Directors of Wesana, a psilocybin-based medicine company. Most recently, Jenkins served as Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head of Vaccines at Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. Prior to that, she held a series of executive and senior leadership roles at Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Relypsa Inc. (now a Vifor Pharma Group Company) and Actavis Inc. (now part of AbbVie), as well as MedImmune Inc. (now part of AstraZeneca) and Pfizer. Previously, Fernandes served as Senior Director of Data Compliance and Chief Privacy Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. In addition, she previously served in senior-level roles at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., The State of Massachusetts, Department of Transportation, Intel and Comcast. She also ran her own independent consulting firm for several years.
Excision BioTherapeutics – William Kennedy was named senior vice president of Clinical at CRISPR company, Excision. Prior to joining Excision, Kennedy served as Vice President, Development at Calcilytix, which is developing treatments to manage calcium homeostasis. He was Vice President, Clinical Development at Audentes Therapeutics where he was Clinical Leader in the Company’s AAV-directed gene replacement therapy for two clinical programs. Prior to that, Kennedy was Senior Director, Clinical Development at Alios BioPharma/Janssen Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for managing early clinical trials in chronic hepatitis B, including small molecules and therapeutic vaccines for functional cure. He was a Medical Director and Senior Medical Director for more than five years at Genentech.
