Biopharma companies strengthen their leadership and boards with these appointments.
Boehringer Ingelheim – Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim shook up its leadership with a change in its board of managing directors. Allan Hillgrove, who was responsible for the company’s pharma and biopharma business, announced plans to step down from his role at the end of this year. Hillgrove has served Boehringer Ingelheim for the past 37 years, with the last 19 spent in Germany. In 2013, shareholders entrusted Hillgrove with the leadership of the human pharma business, adding responsibility for the biopharma business in 2018. Carine Brouillon will take Hillgrove’s place on the Board of Managing Directors, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Brouillon has been leading the Therapeutic Areas for prescription medicines. Also at the end of this year, Joachim Hasenmaier will retire and step down as a member of the board and from his responsibility for the animal health business. Jean Scheftsik de Szolnok will take over this role on Jan. 1. Also leaving the board and company is Andreas Neumann, who will resign at the end of September. Neumann was the company’s former general counsel before taking a seat on the board and took over human resources.
Orchestra BioMed – Dennis Donohoe was named chief medical officer of Pennsylvania-based Orchestra BioMed, Inc. Donohoe is a leading clinical development expert, who led Cordis Corporation’s CYPHER sirolimus-eluting stent through regulatory approval. Donohoe previously served as a part-time chief medical officer for Orchestra BioMed’s Focal Therapies group and its predecessor, Caliber Therapeutics, under a consulting agreement. For the last four years, Donohoe has been the owner of Donohoe Clinical Consultants, LLC. He has held various clinical leadership roles within Johnson & Johnson, including an 11-year stint at Cordis.
Vaccitech Limited -- T-cell immunotherapy-focused company Vaccitech named Bill Enright as its new chief executive officer. Enright succeeds Tom Evans at the U.K.-based company. Evans will transition to the role of chief scientific officer. Enright joins Vaccitech after spending 11 years at the helm of Altimmune Inc. Enright’s prior experience includes executive and management roles at GenVec (now Intrexon), Biotech Venture Management and Life Technologies Corporation (now ThermoFisher).
Orbis International – Danusia Dzierzbinski was named chief financial officer of N.Y.-based Orbis International. Dzierzbinski joins Orbis from the International Rescue Committee, where she most recently served as deputy CFO and oversaw the financial management operations for a $750 million annual budget. Previously, she was the associate director for financial planning & analysis and acting internal audit director at Save the Children US. She began her career at KPMG LLP in audit services, focusing on consumer goods and not-for-profit organizations. Dzierzbinski will assume the responsibilities of Thomas J. Hill, who retires at the end of August. Dzierzbinski’s appointment is effective Sept. 16.
Cook Medical – Rose Kelly-Falls joined Cook Medical Incorporated as head of procurement and supply chain. Kelly-Falls and her team members are responsible for standardizing, coordinating, and providing guidance for managing Cook’s suppliers, supplier agreements, and supply chain for Cook Medical globally. Kelly-Falls has more than 25 years of experience in procurement and supply chain with Ford Motor Group, Rolls-Royce North America, Zimmer Biomet, and others.
Cardinal Analytx Solutions – Ryan Tarzy joined California-based Cardinal as chief commercial officer. Tarzy will be responsible for all commercial activities, including sales, customer success, implementation and marketing. Prior to joining Cardinal Analytx, Tarzy was with CoverMyMeds as head of strategy and business. Most recently, he served as vice president of sales and customer success at CoverMyMeds. Previously, he served as senior vice president of business development for PokitDok and Healthline Networks. In 2003, Tarzy co-founded MediKeeper, one of the early pioneers in digital health.
BioMatrix Specialty Pharmacy – Nick Karalis was named CEO of Florida-based BioMatrix. Karalis currently serves as the company’s COO. Karalis was a founding principal and CEO of Elwyn Pharmacy Group, which became part of BioMatrix in 2017. He also was a co-founder and president at Community Specialty Pharmacy Network.
GB Sciences – Darin Carpenter was named head of operations and general manager of Las Vegas-based GB Sciences, Inc. In his role, Mr. Carpenter will design and implement business strategies, marketing, manage the company’s cultivation and manufacturing operations, create and maintain tight budgets, and take the lead in monitoring and improving company performance and capital, the company said. Most recently, Carpenter served as COO Officer for Flora, a cannabis company in Monterey County, Calif.
Seven Bridges – Brian Castagna was named chief information officer at Boston-based Seven Bridges, a bioinformatics solution provider. He will take over the leadership of continued development, implementation, and execution of information security and compliance certification programs. Castagna joins Seven Bridges from Oracle, where he led security strategy and market intelligence for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Prior to Oracle, he held roles of increasing responsibility focused on incident response, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, compliance, and security architecture and engineering at Dyn, Acquia, Jumptap and EMC.
Harmonic Bionics – Christopher Prentice was named CEO of Austin, Texas-based Harmonic Bionics, Inc. Prentice succeeds Youngmok Yun, who is a co-founder of the company and who will remain in the role of Chief Technology Officer and COO. Prentice has more than 20 years of medical device experience in both large strategic healthcare companies and in successful startup companies. Most recently he was head of commercial integration at Medtronic. Prior to his position at Medtronic, he was CEO and COO of Mazor Robotics, Inc. Prior to joining Mazor Robotics in 2010, he worked in finance at Tampa General Hospital and held sales positions at Intuitive Surgical.
Reata Pharmaceuticals – Irving, Texas-based Reata named Manmeet S. Soni its new CFO. He will provide strategic leadership in the overall financial management of Reata. Jason D. Wilson, who has been with Reata since 2006 and served as CFO, will assume a new role as head of operations. Soni brings more than 20 years of finance industry experience with seven years in financial leadership roles within the biopharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Soni served as the CFO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Alnylam, Soni served as the CFO at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and also served as CFO at Pharmacyclics. Soni is currently a board member at Pulse Biosciences and Arena Pharmaceuticals.
