Well into the new year, biopharma and life sciences companies bolster their executive leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Well into the new year, biopharma and life sciences companies bolster their executive leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Vivacitis Oncology – Privately-held Vivacitis tapped Volker W. Stieber as a new member of its Neuro-Oncology Advisory Board. Stiebler is board certified in Radiation Oncology and is a member of the Novant Health Cancer Institute in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Cambridge Isotope Laboratories – Ashley Schultz was named a new Regional Sales Manager for CIL. Schultz spent five years at Microtek, where she worked in Sales and Business Development. During this time. Previous experience includes combined bench chemistry experience at Daychem, Dupont and Sigma-Aldrich / Isotec.
Denali Therapeutics – Erik Harris joined the board of directors of Bay Area-based Denali. Harris currently serves as the Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. Earlier in his career, he held positions in the commercial organizations at Crescendo Bioscience, Intermune, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Genentech, Inc., and Bristol Myers Squibb.
OneOncology – Tennessee-based OneOncology named Davey Daniel as Chief Medical Officer. Daniel is currently the Vice Chair of OneCouncil, the platform’s all-physician advisory board for clinical and strategic initiatives. Daniel succeeds Lee Schwartzberg, who served as the founding member of the platform’s clinical office and will remain a senior advisor to the company.
Coherus BioSciences – Lee N. Newcomer, was appointed to the board of directors of Coherus. Newcomer spent most of his career with UnitedHealthcare, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Oncology and Genetics. Earlier in his career, Newcomer served as Medical Director for CIGNA Health Care of Kansas City.
Nemysis Ltd. – Antonio Santoro was named an Adviser for Scientific Affairs to the Nemysis executive team. Santoro is a chemist with over 30 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs. Currently, he serves as a board member of Sifi S.p.A, Glycemicon AG and Difass International S.r.l.
Achilles Therapeutics – Alena Gros and Ben Creelan joined the Scientific Advisory Board of London-based Achilles Therapeutics. Gros serves as Principal Investigator of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona. Gros also leads translational research for the VHIO-BBVA Foundation’s Comprehensive Program of Cancer Immunotherapy & Immunology. Creelan is a medical oncologist and clinical and translational research physician at Moffitt Cancer Center. Creelan serves as Principal Investigator for numerous clinical trials.
Kriya Therapeutics – Ma’an Muhsin was named president and Chief Medical Officer of Kriya Oncology, the company’s oncology therapeutic area division. Muhsin previously served as CMO at Medicenna Therapeutics. Prior to joining Medicenna, he served as Medical Lead, Oncology Clinical Development for Nektar Therapeutics. Muhsin has held roles of increasing responsibility at HUYA Bioscience International and Halozyme Therapeutics.
Olema Pharmaceuticals – Naseem Zojwalla was named CMO of Olema. Zojwalla previously led clinical development and strategy at biopharmaceutical companies, including Turning Point Therapeutics and Peloton Therapeutics. Zojwalla also led clinical roles at multiple oncology-focused companies, including Onyx Pharmaceuticals, ImClone Systems, and Eisai Inc.
Curie Therapeutics – Bernard Lambert was named Chief Technology Officer of Curie Therapeutics. Lambert most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Telix Pharmaceuticals’ U.S. subsidiary. Before Telix, Lambert was vice president, CMC and Radiopharmaceutical Development at Zevacor Pharma, Zevacor Molecular, and IBA Molecular.
Calyxt, Inc. – Gerry Nuovo joined Calyxt as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Nuovo most recently served as Vice President of Commercialization & Global Business Development at C16 Biosciences. Prior, he served as Sales Director, Americas, Personal Care at Cargill, Inc. and as Vice President, Global Market Development, Consumer Products at Rivertop Renewables. Previously, Nuovo held senior business development and sales roles at Segetis, Codexis, Inc. and Firmenich, Inc.
Adverum Biotechnologies – Richard Beckman was named CMO of Adverum. Most recently, Beckman served as the CMO at ReNeuron, Inc. Prior to ReNeuron, Beckman served as CMO at several companies, including Clearside Biomedical, Inc., Unilife, Inc., Ophthotech, and Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Previously, Beckman had roles of increasing responsibility at Alcon Research, Ltd., Lux BioSciences, Danube Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Becton-Dickinson, Inc. and Allergan, Inc.
CytomX Therapeutics – Amy C. Peterson was promoted to president and chief operating officer. Peterson has served as the company’s executive vice president and chief development officer since October 2019. Prior to joining CytomX, Peterson was CMO of immuno-oncology at BeiGene, Ltd... Before that role, Peterson was vice president of clinical development at Medivation. Peterson also served as associate group medical director at Genentech.
BOOST Pharma – Evert Kueppers was named chief executive officer of Denmark-based BOOST. Current founding CEO Lilian Walther Jallow is the newly appointed Chief Development Officer.
Enterprise Therapeutics – Niyati Prasad was named CMO of U.K.-based Enterprise. Prasad most recently served as Senior Director of Clinical Development at GSK. Prior to this, she held various leadership roles at leading biopharmaceutical organizations, including Galapagos, Vertex, Takeda and Novartis.
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals – Machelle Sanders, the N.C. Secretary of Commerce and Biogen executive has been appointed to the board of directors of BioCryst. At Biogen, she was vice president of manufacturing and general manager for Biogen’s 1,200 employee Research Triangle Park facility. Prior to being appointed as Secretary of Commerce in February 2021, Sanders served as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Administration from January 2017 until February 2021. Sanders currently serves on the boards of directors of Radius Health and Novan.
Oculis SA – Bastian Dehmel was named global Chief Development Officer. He joins Oculis from OxThera, a Swedish biopharma company, where he was CMO. Prior to this, he spent more than 10 years at Amgen, where he held roles of increasing responsibility. Dehmel has also held medical advisory positions at Novo Nordisk in Denmark and GlaxoSmithKline in Germany.
Rain Therapeutics – Rain Therapeutics made multiple appointments to its executive team, including Nora Ku, who was named Vice President of Clinical Development. Ku joined from Eli Lilly’s Loxo Oncology subsidiary. Buenaflor (Flor) Nicolas was named Vice President and Head of Global Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance. Nicolas joined the company from Gilead Sciences, Inc. Tina Kim-Hafken, was named Vice President and Head of Global Regulatory Affairs, joining from Seagen Inc. Steve Flint was named Vice President of People & Culture, after spending time at AltruBio Inc. Additionally, Rain announced that John Maraganore, former founding CEO of Alnylam, has served as a Special Advisor to Rain’s leadership team since March 2021.
Strand Therapeutics – Prashant Nambiar was named head of Research and Translational Development. Before joining Strand, Nambiar led multiple groups at bluebird bio and 2seventyBio as Vice President, Preclinical and Translational Development. Prior to that, Nambiar spent 10 years at Pfizer where he held several leadership roles, most recently as Senior Director, Strategy and Operations.
Seres Therapeutics – Paula Cloghessy was named Chief People Officer. She most recently served as Chief People Officer at Translate Bio, Inc. Prior to Translate, she served as vice president of human resources at Joule Unlimited Technologies, Inc. She has also held human resources positions at Interleukin Genetics, Inc. and NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Diaccurate – French biotech Diaccurate named Laurence Riot Lamotte as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Diaccurate, she was CFO of IntegraGen for 11 years.
ONL Therapeutics – Sushanta Mallick was appointed to the newly-created position of CDO. Prior to joining ONL, Mallick was the Vice President and Head of Clinical Development at Nicox Ophthalmics. Previously, Mallick spent time at Alcon Research Ltd., where he held positions of increasing responsibilities.
Halozyme Therapeutics – Nicole LaBrosse was named CFO. LaBrosse joined Halozyme in 2015 and has since held roles of growing responsibility within the Company. Most recently, LaBrosse served as Halozyme’s vice president of finance and accounting. Previously, LaBrosse held the role of executive director and controller. Prior to joining Halozyme, LaBrosse was with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals – Alan Bash was named CEO, succeeding Alan Fuhrman, who served as interim CEO since October 2021. Bash joins Checkmate from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he served as Senior Vice President, Commercial Model Innovation, and prior to that, Senior Vice President, Commercial for Immunology and Fibrosis.
ARS Pharmaceuticals – Harris Kaplan was named executive vice president, commercial strategy and Daniel Relovsky was named senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Atea Pharmaceuticals – Nancy Gail Berry Agrawal was named Executive Vice President of Preclinical Development. Agrawal previously served as Vice President of Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Drug Metabolism at Merck.
Generation Bio – Antoinette Paone was promoted to chief operating officer. Paone has served as senior vice president and head of regulatory affairs and quality at Generation Bio since 2018. Before joining Generation Bio, Paone provided regulatory leadership at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she was vice president and head of North American regulatory affairs strategy and led the global regulatory affairs CMC department.
Indapta Therapeutics – Mark W. Frohlich was named CEO. Frohlich previously served as executive vice president of portfolio strategy at Juno Therapeutics. Before Juno, Frohlich was CMO and executive vice president at Dendreon Corporation. Before joining Dendreon, Frohlich served as vice president and medical director at Xcyte Therapies.
Attralus, Inc. – James Testa was named vice president of Finance. Most recently, Testa served as the Vice President of Finance at BioReference Laboratories, Inc. Prior to that, Testa served as the Vice President of Finance and Internal Controls at The Medicines Company.
Finch Therapeutics – Finch Therapeutics made multiple appointments to its leadership team. Bryan Gillis was named Chief Technology Officer, Alka Batycky was named CDO, and Howard Franklin was named Senior Vice President, Late-Stage Development and Gastrointestinal Therapeutic Area Lead. Gillis most recently served as Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply at Rubius Therapeutics and held manufacturing and company leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Alexion, Sanofi, Lonza and Amgen. Batycky most recently served as CDO at Ohana Biosciences. Previously, she held leadership roles at Akashi Therapeutics, Warp Drive Bio, and AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Alkermes and GSK. Franklin most recently served as CMO at Salix Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he held leadership roles within early-stage biotechnology companies as well as large pharmaceutical companies, including Icon Bioscience, Oceana Therapeutics, The Medicines Company, and Esprit Pharma.
Socially Determined – Healthcare analytics company Socially Determined added two new C-level hires. Paul Matsui was named Chief Strategy Officer, and Mike Considine was named Chief Product Officer.
