Companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards of directors with this week’s slate of Movers & Shakers.
Adverum Biotechnologies – Peter Soparkar was named chief legal officer of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Adverum Biotechnologies. Most recently, Soparkar served as chief legal officer and head of human resources at Counsyl, Inc., prior to the company’s sale to Myriad Genetics. He was instrumental in negotiating and executing that action last year. He also spent 10 years at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, most recently as their vice president and associate general counsel. Prior to Jazz, Soparkar worked at Latham & Watkins in London and San Francisco, with a practice spanning international and domestic markets, as well as private and public transactions.
LabTwin GmbH – Germany-based LabTwin announced Chief Executive Officer Magdalena Paluch is now a member of the Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class technology executives. Magdalena was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of her experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.
Passage Bio – Richard Morris was tapped as chief financial officer of Passage Bio, a genetics medicines company. Morris joins Passage Bio from Context Therapeutics, where he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to that role, he was chief financial officer of Vitae Pharmaceuticals, where he was instrumental in transforming the company from a private, preclinical company to a commercial company, which was acquired by Allergan in 2016. He also held a leadership role at ViroPharma Inc. before that company was acquired by Shire.
Citra Health Solutions – North Carolina-based Citra named Tim Kelly its new chief technology and information officer. He has served in various roles at Verizon, Navex, SageNet and McKesson with responsibility for customer support, software development, Intelligent Automation, business intelligence, analytics and infrastructure.
Ibex Medical Analytics – Stuart Shand joins Israel-based Ibex as chief commercial officer. Shand is a former commercial director at Philips Digital Pathology Solutions, where he led both sales and customer success. As CCO, Shand will lead the company’s global commercial activities, focusing on revenue growth and development of customer pipeline.
Dialyze Direct -- Former Fresenius Chairman Robert Ehrlich has joined the Strategic Advisory Board of New York-based Dialyze Direct, a kidney care innovation company. Having served for a decade as chairman and CEO of Fresenius, the world’s largest dialysis company, Ehrlich brings a rich knowledge of the dialysis industry to the company. His career has spanned a variety of other sectors, including time spent as CFO of Mattel, CEO at Arotech and, most recently as CEO of Red Lion Ltd. Ehrlich’s appointment comes on the heels of a bevy of company news including the launch of a dedicated innovations group, as well as the naming of former Time Warner and HBO CEO Gerald “Jerry” Levin to the position of Chief Mission Officer.
Therapy Brands – Vickie Westmark was named chief operating officer of Alabama-based Therapy Brands. Prior to joining Therapy Brands, Westmark worked for Kronos in human capital management, holding various leadership roles in operations, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, services and engineering. She began her career at Lockheed Martin and Systems & Electronics, Inc.
Varian, Inc. – Anshul Maheshwari, vice president and treasurer of Varian, will take on an expanded role of head of investor relations as of Dec. 1. Prior to joining Varian in July 2018, Maheshwari was the assistant treasurer of Bechtel Corporation, where he had global responsibility for cash operations, investments, capital structure and bank relationships. He spent nine years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as a coverage officer in the Corporate & Investment Bank where he focused on advising global corporations on treasury management, debt and equity capital raising.
Chartis Group – Roger Ray is the new physician consulting director at The Chartis Group, a provider of comprehensive advisory services and analytics. Ray most recently served as chief physician executive at Atrium Health (formerly Carolinas Healthcare System), where he was responsible for operational oversight of all system physicians. Prior to joining Atrium Health, Ray served in various senior capacities at BayCare Health System, Morton Plant Mease Health Care, and AnMed Health System.
Tempus – Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb joined the board of directors of Chicago-based precision medicine company Tempus. Gottlieb will serve as an advisor to Tempus and its leadership team, leveraging his experience as a medical policy expert and public health advocate to support Tempus as it harnesses the power and promise of big data and artificial intelligence to personalize patient care. In addition to his role on Tempus’ board, Gottlieb is a Special Partner of New Enterprise Associations, Inc.’s healthcare investment team, a Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, and a member of Pfizer’s board of directors.
Marinus Pharmaceuticals – Joe Hulihan was named chief medical officer of Pennsylvania-based Marinus Pharmaceuticals. Hulihan will succeed outgoing CMO, Lorianne Masuoka, who is retiring from the position. Hulihan brings close to 30 years of experience in clinical drug development, medical affairs and research in numerous conditions in neurology and psychiatry including epilepsy, ADHD, schizophrenia and mood disorders. Most recently, he was principal at Paradigm Neuroscience, where he provided consulting services including clinical and strategic support for neurotherapeutics in all phases of development. Prior to that, Hulihan spent 15 years at Johnson & Johnson in roles of increasing responsibility with a primary focus on neurology and psychiatry.
Astia -- nVision Medical founder and CEO Surbhi Sarna was named to the Astia Board of Directors. Sarna also sits on the board of Penumbra (PEN) as well as Draper University. nVision Medical was the first investment made by Astia Angels when the group was founded in 2013 and is one of six companies that have exited the portfolio, and one of four returning above-market returns for Astia Angels investors. Sarna founded the medical device company dedicated to women’s health innovation in 2011. The company was acquired by Boston Scientific in 2018.
EarlySign – Jeremy Orr was named CEO of Israel’s EearlySign, a leader in machine learning-based solutions to aid in the early detection and prevention of high-burden diseases. Orr, who becomes CEO after serving as EarlySign’s CMO for the past year, succeeds company co-founder Ori Geva, who will remain with EarlySign as president and director of Commercial Strategy.
CV Sciences – Beth Altman was named to the board of directors of San Diego-based CV Sciences. Altman has worked at KPMG since 1993, most recently as an office Managing Partner. Altman also served as a board member of the Corporate Directors Forum.
IVERIC bio – Abraham Scaria was named CSO. He will lead the company’s research and pre-clinical gene therapy activities. Scaria held leadership positions at Genzyme, Sanofi and most recently at Casebia Therapeutics.
Boundless Bio – Christian Hassig was named CSO of Boundless Bio. He will oversee the company’s drug discovery efforts, grow the company’s research team, and guide the company in building out a pipeline of ecDNA-targeting therapeutics. Prior to joining Boundless Bio, Hassig served as CSO of Sierra Oncology. He previously served in a series of roles of increasing responsibility at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, including head of drug discovery. Hassig also held several positions within the Biology and Lead Discovery departments at Kalypsys, Inc.
Bicycle Therapeutics – Nigel Crockett was named chief business officer of England’s Bicycle Therapeutics. Crockett was most recently a founding partner at Tukan Partners, Ltd., a business consultancy specializing in biotechnology. Prior to Tukan, he held commercial and business development roles within the life sciences sector, including as head of business development at Astex Therapeutics, a company focused on drug discovery and development for oncology and central nervous system disorders.
Arcus Biosciences – Antoni Ribas joined the board of directors at Arcus Biosciences. Ribas is Professor of Medicine, Surgery, and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles, director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at UCLA.
Mirum Pharmaceuticals – Ed Tucker was named CMO of Mirum Pharmaceuticals. Tucker most recently served as chief operating officer at Acerta Pharma where he was responsible for business and operational activities across the heme-oncology pipeline. During his tenure at Acerta, Prior to Acerta, Tucker held leadership positions in clinical development, medical safety and medical affairs at Bayer AG, Janssen Pharmaceutical and Genentech.
