BioSpace Movers and Shakers, Jan. 31

Decibel Therapeutics – Industry veteran Laurence Reid has been tapped to serve as Boston-based Decibel’s acting chief executive officer. Current CEO Steven Holtzman is retiring and will become a strategic business advisor to the company. Reid is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Third Rock Ventures and has held numerous leadership positions in the biotech industry. Most recently, he served as the CEO of Warp Drive Bio, a drug discovery company advancing novel oncology and anti-infective medicines, and where he ultimately negotiated the successful merger of the company with Revolution Medicines in 2018. In his previous role as chief business officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, he led business development, finance and legal functions.

Passage Bio – Bruce Goldsmith was named CEO of Passage Bio. He succeeds Stephen Squinto, who co-founded Passage Bio and served as interim chief executive officer since 2018. Goldsmith joins Passage Bio from Deerfield Management where he was a venture partner responsible for early-stage investments and served as interim chief executive officer of Civetta Therapeutics. Previously, Goldsmith was chief operating officer at Lycera, a company developing first-in-class small molecules for immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease. Goldsmith also held senior positions at Allos Therapeutics and GPC Biotech as well as various strategic marketing and business development roles at Johnson & Johnson focused on oncology and virology.

Century Therapeutics -- Former Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez joined the board of directors of Century Therapeutics. Jimenez joins Century’s board with more than 20 years of experience as a senior leadership executive in the pharmaceutical and consumer products industries. He retired in 2018 as the CEO of Novartis. Also, the company tapped Celgene veteran Greg Russotti as its chief technology officer. Russotti brings more than 25 years of industrial experience in bioprocess development and implementation, including extensive knowledge in cell therapy technical operations. Most recently, he was vice president of cell therapy technical development at Celgene, where he guided CMC efforts for five different cell therapy products to IND and clinical-stage development. Before Celgene, Russotti spent 12 years at Merck Research Laboratories with roles in cell culture development, downstream purification, pilot plant operations, and manufacturing facility startup.

H.E.L. Group -- H.E.L Group announced the appointment of three new members to its senior team, who will focus primarily on strengthening production and service support for its scientific instrumentation and software. The company appointed Roy Eggleston to the newly created role of Global Quality Manager, while Tony Heywood from AB Turnkey Solutions takes over Roy’s previous position as Production Manager. John Forbes, formerly a senior manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, joins as Global Service Manager.

ImageOne Medical – Former U.S. Olympian Tuesday Middaugh Slomovitz was named COO of Florida-based ImageOne Medical.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals – Pennsylvania-based Verrica named two new vice presidents in its commercial operations group. Gerard DiGirolamo joins as head of sales and Sheila Kennedy has been appointed head of marketing. Prior to Verrica, DiGirolamo spent over 16 years with Stiefel, currently a GSK company, in roles of increasing and varying responsibilities, spanning multiple brands within the dermatology space. Kennedy joins Verrica with over 20 years of success as a biopharmaceutical marketing strategist. In her most recent role, Kennedy directed global and U.S. marketing for the dermatology medication Rhofade. In a prior role, Kennedy served as head of marketing for Onset Dermatologics.

TELA Bio – Peter Murphy was named to the newly created role of chief commercial officer. In this position, Murphy will be responsible for the company’s continued strategic expansion of its commercial operations. Murphy joins TELA with more than 20 years of commercial sales and marketing. Most recently, he was head of sales at Pacira Pharmaceuticals, where he led the development, management, expansion and execution of a product sales team in the U.S.

NuHope -- Jeff Dunkel assumes the role of NuHope CEO following his position as head of strategy at TITAN SPINE. NuHope is a San Antonio-based outpatient opioid and pain treatment center focused on taper effectiveness, which specifically reduces controlled substance use in those dependent on opioids.

ValueHealth, LLC – William J. Hozack was named medical director. In this new role, Hozack will oversee ValueHealth’s clinical protocols, quality outcome measures, patient care pathways, and bundled payments with warranty programs. He will also serve as a liaison to ValueHealth’s Advisory Board and provide strategic guidance to the company.

Enzychem Lifesciences – Liver disease specialist Michael Charlton joined the company’s scientific advisory board. Charlton is currently director of the Center for Liver Diseases at University of Chicago School of Medicine. He has served as president of the International Liver Transplant Society.

Disc Medicine – John Quisel was named president and CEO of Disc Medicine. Quisel joins Disc Medicine after more than a decade at Acceleron Pharma where he most recently was CBO. In this planned transition, co-founder and interim CEO Brian MacDonald, will continue to serve as a senior advisor and director of the company.

NeoImmuneTech -- Gene Namgoong was named COO of Maryland-based NeoImmuneTech, a T cell-focused immunotherapeutics company. As COO, Namgoong will play a key role in advancing its business operations and shaping its corporate culture. Namgoong joined NeoImmuneTech in 2014 as a legal advisor, later assuming the critical role of general counsel in 2016.

SutroVax – Jim Wassil was named COO of California-based SutroVax, Inc. Wassil will lead clinical development, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, quality assurance and program management activities. He spent the past three decades in positions of increasing responsibility in the vaccine divisions of Merck, Novartis, and Pfizer. Most recently, he was responsible for market access, policy, pricing, tender negotiations, epidemiology and health outcomes as the business unit lead for Pfizer Vaccines.

Insmed Incorporated -- Sara Bonstein was named CFO of New Jersey-based Insmed. Bonstein will assume responsibility for leading the company’s global financial operations. She most recently served as CFO and COO of OncoSec Medical Incorporated. Prior to joining OncoSec, Bonstein served as the CFO at Advaxis, Inc.