Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
ten23 – Ursula Redeker, a Roche veteran, was appointed to the ten23 Board of Directors. Redeker brings experience from more than 15 years in various leadership roles at Roche, including global head of non-clinical safety & technical sciences, head technical development biologics and six years as spokesperson of the Executive Board, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Germany. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of ABB AG, Germany, the board of Smart4Diagnostics GmbH and is a member of the Academics Advisory Council of the University of Heidelberg.
Verve Therapeutics – Allison Dorval was named chief financial officer of Verve Therapeutics. Dorval joins Verve from Voyager Therapeutics, bringing an extensive track record of leading finance and accounting functions within the health care industry. Prior to Voyager, Dorval served at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Insulet Corporation, where she led financial planning, reporting and accounting. Previously, Dorval held corporate finance positions with iBasis, Inc. and Digitas Inc.
Karuna Therapeutics – Charmaine Lykins was named chief commercial officer of Karuna Therapeutics. Lykins most recently served as the Senior Vice President, Global Product Planning and Chief Marketing Officer for ACADIA, where she oversaw their health care professional and consumer marketing, marketing operations and new product planning functions. Prior to ACADIA, she led commercialization and planning efforts for Lundbeck’s portfolio of schizophrenia treatments.
Immunovia AB – Switzerland’s Immunovia tapped Tobias Bülow as senior director of investor relations and corporate communications. He will assume his new role Jan. 15, 2022. Bülow joins Immunovia from Mycronic AB, where he most recently held the position of director of investor relations. Previous experience includes director financial communications at the radiation therapy company Elekta AB.
Bright Peak Therapeutics – Jacob Chacko has been named chairman of the board of directors at Bright Peak. Chacko currently serves as president, chief executive officer and member of the Board of Directors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to ORIC, Chacko was most recently CFO of Ignyta, a precision oncology company acquired by Roche for $1.9 billion in February 2018. Prior to Ignyta, Chacko was an investor at TPG Capital. Prior to that, he was a consultant serving healthcare clients at McKinsey & Company. Chacko currently serves on the board of directors of 4D Molecular Therapeutics and chairs the Western Regional Selection Committee for the Marshall Scholarship.
Seer, Inc. – Meeta Gulyani was appointed to the board of directors at Seer. Gulyani is currently executive vice president, head of strategy, business development and transformation for the life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Gulyani was previously executive vice president and head of strategy and global franchises for the biopharma business of Merck KGaA. Prior to that, she served as General Manager for Roche South Asia, and Vice President, Head of Global Portfolio Management at Roche. Prior to Roche, Gulyani held several marketing and sales leadership positions within Sanofi. She also served as a strategy consultant with the Monitor Consulting Group based in Hong Kong and the United States.
Metrion Biosciences – Rory Curtis was named vice president of U.S. Commercial Operations at Metrion. He will be responsible for Metrion’s business development operations throughout the United States, including supporting and expanding the company’s existing client base and leading the development of new business opportunities in the ion channel field. He spent 25 years in the management of drug discovery projects with increasing levels of responsibility at Regeneron, Millennium, Elixir and Cubist Pharmaceuticals.
FORMA Therapeutics – Ifeyinwa (Ify) Osunkwo has been named chief patient officer and senior vice president. Osunkwo is the Founder & Director of the Sickle Cell Disease Enterprise at Levine Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Atrium Health. Previously, she was the medical director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta @ Egleston and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University. She will join Forma in the first quarter of 2022.
Recursion – The company made a number of key hires to support its neuroscience vision. Tim Ahfeldt, will serve as Fellow, Neuroscience; Irit Rappley, will serve as Vice President, Neuroscience and Translational Research; and Glenn Morrison, will serve as Vice President, Clinical Development. Ahfeldt joins Recursion from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Rappley previously served as the Scientific Director of Discovery and Translational Research, Neuroscience at Bristol Myers Squibb. She began her career at Celgene focusing on novel targets and therapeutics in oncology. Morrison spent six years at Genentech and Roche. Subsequently, he was vice president of Global Clinical Development at Zogenix.
Pardes Biosciences – Philippe Tinmouth was named chief business and strategy officer. He previously served as Vice President and Head of Business Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Vertex, Tinmouth worked at Bain & Company. He also serves on SCYNEXIS’ Board of Directors and is a mentor and advisor to biotech start-ups through the Harvard Innovation Lab and the Canadian Technology Accelerator.
Vizgen – Vizgen established a Scientific and Technical Advisory Board. New members include Susan Tousi, who oversees global sales, commercial operations and commercial strategy at Illumina. Other members of the SAB include: Xiaowei Zhuang, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and David B. Arnold Professor of Science at Harvard University; Jeffery Moffitt, Assistant Professor in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston’s Children Hospital and the Department of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School; and David Walt, Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Wyss Institute.
Komodo Health – Edd Flemming was named to the board of directors at Komodo. In his role at McKinsey, he serves as the global leader of its R&D Practice, advising Life Sciences companies on ways to accelerate innovation and optimize product portfolios to address unmet medical needs across the healthcare ecosystem. He also serves on the Board of Directors of CRISPR Therapeutics, as well as the Board of Visitors for Vanderbilt’s School of Basic Sciences.
PacBio – Jason Kang was named Vice President and General Manager for the company’s Asia-Pacific region. Prior to PacBio, Kang led Illumina’s Korean commercial operations for six years before launching Helixrus. Prior to Helixrus and Illumina, Kang held various sales, marketing, and product development leadership roles at Life Technologies, Macrogen, and Spectral Genomics.
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals – Sravan K. Emany was named CFO of Ironwood. Before joining Ironwood, Emany served as corporate vice president, commercial excellence and chief strategy officer of Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation. Prior to this, Emany led numerous mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector and served in various investment banking roles for a total of 18 years at firms including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
AVEO Oncology – Jeb Ledell was named chief operating officer. He will be responsible for overseeing operational functions key to maximizing the company’s organizational efficiency and advancing its pipeline of products. Ledell joins AVEO from Enzyvant Therapeutics, where he served as chief operating officer. Prior to Enzyvant, Ledell served as the COO at Compass Therapeutics and Horizon Discovery Group. Prior to Horizon, he held multiple technology, operations and development roles at Zalicus Inc.
Parthenon Therapeutics – Tamas Oravecz was named chief scientific officer of Parthenon. Oravecz joins Parthenon from Janssen Biotherapeutics, where most recently he served as Vice President, Head of Cell Therapy Platform and Discovery. Previously, Oravecz was Executive Director of Biology and Pharmacology at Celgene. Oravecz’s earlier career included Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Vice President of Immunology and Oncology; Novartis Cell and Gene Therapy, where he served as Program Head, HIV Therapy; The National Institutes of Health/U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and The Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Caption Health – Joseph DeVivo, president of Hospitals and Health Systems at Teladoc Health, was appointed to the Caption board of directors. DeVivo was CEO of InTouch Health until its acquisition by Teladoc Health in 2020. Prior to InTouch, he served as President, CEO, and Director at AngioDynamics. Other leadership roles include global President of Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics, CEO of RITA Medical, and Vice President and General Manager at U.S. Surgical, a division of Tyco Healthcare.
Monte Rosa Therapeutics – Julian Jones was appointed chief business officer. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development at the company. Prior to joining Monte Rosa, Jones served as Senior Director of Oncology Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company. Before Eli Lilly, Jones served in several leadership roles at Boehringer Ingelheim. Jones began her life sciences business development career at Columbia Technology Ventures.
Journey Medical – Arizona-based Journey Medical Corporation expanded its board of directors with four new members, Jeffrey Paley, Justin Smith, Miranda Toledano and Neil Herskowitz. Paley has been an active clinician and consultant in the healthcare industry for the past 25 years. Smith is a founding partner at Skinbetter Science, where he currently serves as President. Toledano has served as COO, CFO and Director of TRIGR Therapeutics. Since 1998, Herskowitz has served as the managing member of the ReGen Group of companies.
Gedea Biotech – Ton Berkien has been named chairman of the Board of Directors of Gedea Biotech. He replaces Olov Sterner, one of the founders of Gedea who continues as a board member. Since starting as head of competitive intelligence at Ferring Pharmaceuticals in 2003, he has held a number of senior positions in leading life science companies including Nycomed/Takeda, Neuvolution and Amgen, primarily in business development. Currently he serves as CBO for Norwegian biotech Ultimovacs.
Better Therapeutics – Deepti Sodhi Jaggi was named chief strategy officer of Bay Area-based Better Therapeutics. Prior to
