Pharma and biotech companies bolster their executive leadership teams and boards of directors with this week’s appointments.
FibroGen, Inc. – Eli Lilly veteran Enrique Conterno was named chief executive officer of Bay Area-based FibroGen. Conterno previously worked as a senior vice president for Eli Lilly, serving as president of Lilly USA and president of Lilly Diabetes. Jim Schoeneck has served as the company’s Interim CEO since August 2019, following the unexpected passing of founder and long-term CEO, Tom Neff. With the hiring of Conterno, Schoeneck has been named chairman of the board of directors and will continue to serve the company during a transition period as Interim President.
Fulcrum Therapeutics – Katina Dorton was appointed to the board of directors of Cambridge, Mass.-based Fulcrum. Dorton most recently served as chief financial officer at Repare Therapeutics. Prior to that, served as CFO at AVROBIO, a gene therapy company focused on rare disease. Dorton spent more than 15 years as an investment banker, advising companies and their boards on capital markets, fund raising, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions.
Rhythm – Keith Gottesdiener is stepping down as president and CEO of Boston-based Rhythm. The company’s board of directors has formed a search committee to find its next chief executive. Gottesdiener plans to serve in his current role until the completion of the company’s submission of its New Drug Application for setmelanotide to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Innovative Cellular Therapeutics – Christopher Ballas has been named senior vice president of manufacturing for Maryland-based Innovative Cellular Therapeutics. Ballas previously served in senior manufacturing roles at Rocket Pharmaceuticals and WuXi AppTec, with a focus on gene and cell-based therapies. Ballas brings more than 20 years’ experience of working on cell and gene therapies. Most recently, he served as head of manufacturing for Rocket Pharmaceuticals and before that as head of process development and commercialization for WuXi AppTec. Prior to WuXi, Ballas ran autologous cell therapy clinical trials for Cook Medical. Ballas also held several roles at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he developed the initial, scalable, clinical production capabilities for lentiviral vectors at the IU Vector Production Facility.
Carisma Therapeutics – Philadelphia’s Carisma Therapeutics expanded its leadership team. Debora Barton was named chief medical officer and Tom Wilton was tapped as chief business officer. Barton most recently served as senior vice president of clinical and safety at Iovance Biotherapeutics. There, she built clinical development and drug safety teams, established an infrastructure for the orchestration of clinical studies. Barton also spent a combined 10 years at Celgene and Novartis. As CBO, Wilton joins us with more than 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience. He was previously CBO of LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to LogicBio, he was CBO for University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program.
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals – James Hassard was named to the newly created position of chief commercial officer of Arrowhead. Hassard will be responsible for driving commercial strategy and building the team and sales and marketing infrastructure necessary to support Arrowhead’s growing pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics. Hassard served as head of marketing and market access at Coherus BioSciences since 2016, where he was instrumental in building the commercial organization and commercial capabilities. Prior to his Coherus, Hassard served as head of marketing at Medivation. He held multiple increasingly senior commercial roles at Amgen, Inc. Prior to his time at Amgen, Hassard spent several years at Schering Plough Canada, in sales and marketing roles.
Vyome Therapeutics – Craig Tooman was named chief operating officer and CFO of New Jersey-based Vyome Therapeutics. He brings more than 25 years of operating, financial, and M&A experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to his position at Vyome, Tooman served as CEO of Aratana Therapeutics, a pet therapeutics company which merged with Elanco Animal Health in July, 2019. He also spent six years as the CFO and treasurer of Aratana. Prior to his that, he served as CFO at Ikaria Inc. and Enzon Pharmaceuticals.
Saniona – Rami Levin was named CEO of Saniona. He will be tasked with overseeing the company’s transition to a fully-fledged biopharmaceutical company with focus on rare diseases. Levin recently held the role of president of Sobi Inc. Prior to joining Sobi, Levin held commercial leadership roles of increasing strategic importance at Merck Serono in a number of countries, including the U.S., Sweden, Switzerland and Israel. Levin will be based in Boston. Jørgen Drejer, current CEO, will continue in the role of CSO of Saniona.
Cerevance – Aoife Brennan was named to the board of directors of Boston-based Cerevance. Brennan is currently president and CEO of Synlogic Inc. She joined Synlogic as chief medical officer in September 2016. Previously, Brennan was vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit at Biogen.
Provention Bio – Jason Hoitt was named chief commercial officer of Provention Bio. Hoitt brings 18 years of commercial experience, most recently serving as CCO at Dova Pharmaceutical, which was recently acquired by Sobi. As CCO, Hoitt will be responsible for the development and execution of Provention’s global commercial strategy for PRV-031 (teplizumab). Hoitt joined Dova Pharmaceuticals in 2018 as CCO and led all commercial efforts. Prior to Dova, Hoitt was a member of the commercial leadership team at Insmed Incorporated, serving as a head of sales. Hoitt also held sales, marketing and medical affairs leadership roles at Sarepta Therapeutics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Gilead Sciences.
Zimmer Biomet – Keri P. Mattox was tapped for the newly created position of head of investor relations and chief communications officer at Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. Mattox joins Zimmer Biomet from W2O Group, where she served as global lead of Integrated Corporate Communications and was responsible for strategically shaping and expanding the firm’s global corporate communications, investor relations, crisis communications, board engagement and corporate social responsibility/foundation capabilities and offering. Prior to W2O, Mattox was vice president of Corporate & Investor Relations at AmerisourceBergen, a. She also held executive leadership level positions at Endo International and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals and spent more than 10 years at communications agencies in leadership positions. Coleman Lannum will be retiring from his position of head of investor relations, but will work closely with Mattox during a transition period.
Avid Biosciences – Timothy Compton was named CCO at Avid Biosciences. He will be responsible for driving the continued growth of Avid’s CDMO business, including the ongoing expansion of the company’s commercial and clinical client base. Compton is replacing Tracy Kinjerski, who has left the company to pursue other opportunities. Compton most recently served as senior director of sales and business development for Cambrex Corporation. Before that, he was vice president of sales for Avista. Compton and held multiple senior level positions with AAIPharma Services Corporation.
Turnstone Biologics -- Saryah Azmat was named senior vice president of business development and corporate strategy. Azmat joins Turnstone Biologics from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she was the global lead for Oncology Search & Evaluation. Prior to BMS, she was a consultant for global biopharma clients at Putnam Associates.
Revitope Oncology – Steve Arkinstall was named CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Revitope Oncology. Most recently, Arkinstall was CEO of Elstar Therapeutics. He previously was CSO at Kymab, an antibody therapeutics and before that, spent 16 years in progressively senior research leadership roles at EMD Serono.
Kintai Therapeutics – Biotech veteran John Mendlein was named chairman of the board of directors of Kintai Therapeutics. Mendlein, who currently serves as executive partner at Flagship Pioneering, brings over 23 years of biotech industry expertise to Kintai. Mendlein replaces Jim Gilbert, who has transitioned off of the board. Prior to joining Flagship, he served as president of corporate and product strategy at Moderna Therapeutics. He has also held leadership roles at multiple biotech enterprises, including chief knowledge officer and general counsel at Aurora Biosciences, CEO of Adnexus Therapeutics, executive chairman, founder, and interim CEO of Fate Therapeutics and CEO of Affinium Pharmaceuticals.
Immuneering Corporation – Howard L. Kaufman was named head of R&D at Immuneering. Kaufman has more than 25 years of experience in oncology, tumor immunology, academic medicine and drug development. Prior to joining Immuneering, Kaufman was CMO at Replimune Group, Inc., where he oversaw the strategic development of the company’s pipeline. He has held leadership positions at various universities and academic medical centers.
Ironshore Pharmaceuticals – N.C.-based Ironshore named Dave Lemus as its new CFO and promoted Peter Lammers as CCO. Lemus has held multiple positions over the course of his two-decade career, including CEO, COO and CFO. Lammers previously served as head of commercial operations. Prior to joining Ironshore in 2019, he was a vice president at IQVIA and was at GlaxoSmithKline for over 25 years where he served in multiple sales, marketing and R&D roles of increasing leadership responsibilities.
