Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Locanabio – John P. Leonard was named chief scientific officer and Edward R. Conner was named chief medical officer of San Diego-based Locanabio. Leonard joins Locanabio after serving as head of hematology and in vivo research and translation at CRISPR Therapeutics where he advanced gene editing programs. Before CRISPR Therapeutics, he held various roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme (now Sanofi Genzyme), most recently head of metabolic and neuromuscular research in the rare disease unit. Conner joins Locanabio from Audentes Therapeutics (now Astellas Gene Therapies) where he served as CMO and senior vice president. He managed an investigational new drug (IND) filing for Pompe disease and led the clinical development for myotonic dystrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy programs. Prior to Audentes, Conner served as CMO and senior vice president at Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, he served as vice president of global clinical development at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. Before that, he was senior medical director at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. and previously medical director at Genentech.
Amolyt Pharma -- Biotechnology veteran Louis J. Arcudi III has been tapped as chief financial officer of France-based Amolyt. Arcudi joins Amolyt from Millendo Therapeutics, where he served as chief executive officer since February 2021, and CFO prior to that. Before Millendo, Arcudi served as senior vice president of operations and CFO of Idera Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he served as vice president of finance and administration for Peptimmune, Inc. Arcudi served as senior director of finance and administration at Genzyme Molecular Oncology Corporation, after serving as director of international finance and commercial operations at Genzyme Corporation. Earlier in his career, he held finance positions with increasing levels of responsibility at Cognex Corporation, Millipore Corporation and General Motors Corporation.
Amolyt also made two appointments to its board of directors. Elisabeth Svanberg and James Hindman were tapped for the role. Hindman served for more than three decades in financial roles of increasing responsibility at Allergan. During his 30-plus year tenure at Allergan, Hindman held various senior leadership positions, including executive vice president of finance and business development and CFO, as well as senior vice president, finance and controller. Svanberg currently serves as chief development officer at Ixaltis SA, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to Ixaltis, she served as vice president, head of established products at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and as development leader for a first-in-class novel diabetes medicine and subsequently as head of medical affairs for the intercontinental region at Bristol Myers Squibb. Earlier in her career, Dr. Svanberg worked for Serono International in roles of increasing responsibility.
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals -- Preethi Sundaram was named chief product development officer at Catalyst Pharmaceuticals. Since 2005, Sundaram held various positions at Sanofi, S.A. spanning R&D and Medical Affairs, including as Global Clinical Research Director, International Development, Global Project Head, Multiple Therapeutic Area Programs, and more recently as Global Head Medical Operations, General Medicines Business Unit. Prior to joining Sanofi, Sundaram held leadership positions at Abbott Labs and Covance.
Transine Therapeutics – Jan Thirkettle was named CEO of U.K.-based Transine Therapeutics, which has been backed by Takeda. Thirkettle joins Transine from Freeline Therapeutics Holdings where he was start-up CEO and more recently CDO. Prior to Freeline Therapeutics, he spent 18 years at GSK in multiple leadership roles spanning from Discovery to Manufacturing, including overseeing the establishment of GSK’s Cell & Gene Therapy platform unit.
ITM AG – Sabine Daugelat was named chief operating officer of radiopharmaceutical biotech ITM AG. Daugelat has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and was most recently Executive Director and Head of Project Leadership at Pieris Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, Daugelat served as Senior Global Program Team Director at Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals. Before her tenure at Sandoz, Daugelat had various positions at Novartis Pharma Clinical Operations.
AM-Pharma BV – Mark Altmeyer has been appointed chairman of the Supervisory Board of Netherlands-based AM-Pharma. Prior to joining AM-Pharma’s Supervisory Board, Altmeyer was founder, president and CEO at Arvelle Therapeutics. Before Arvelle, Altmeyer served as president and CCO at Axovant Sciences. Earlier in his career, Altmeyer served as president and CEO at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical. He also held senior commercial and business development positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cetus Corporation and Bristol Labs in the United States.
NEUWAY Pharma – Germany-based NEUWAY Pharma formed a scientific advisory board that includes Hans Grünhagen, Olaf Ritzeler, and Georg Terstappen. Grünhagen currently serves as consultant for startup biotech companies and industry VCs. He held management positions at Evotec. Ritzeler currently serves as Business Development and Licensing Director, External Innovation at Sanofi. Terstappen is the Executive Vice President of Drug Discovery at Cambrian Biopharma. He has nearly 30 years of experience in big pharma and biotech, holding R&D leadership positions at Bayer, Abbott/AbbVie, and most recently as Head of Preclinical CNS Drug Development at GSK.
Lifesum – Drs. Alona Pulde and Matthew Lederman have joined the health advisory board of Lifesum. The company has a goal of reversing disease using nutrition and lifestyle medicine. Both Pulde and Lederman are known for their appearance in the Forks Over Knives documentary and their best-selling book, The Forks Over Knives Plan.
Medicines360 – Tina Raine-Bennett was named CEO of Medicines360. Prior to joining Medicines360, she served as senior staff physician and the Research Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute in the Division of Research at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. She was previously a professor and clinical faculty in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at The University of California-San Francisco at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Sema4 – Jason Ryan, who most recently served as Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Magenta Therapeutics, was appointed to the Sema4 Board of Directors. Prior to Magenta, he was CFO of Foundation Medicine. Prior to that, Ryan led the finance and strategic planning functions of several other high growth life science companies.
Q32 Bio – Adam Cutler was named CFO of Q32. Prior to joining Q32 Bio, Cutler served as CFO of Molecular Templates. Before that, he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Arbutus Biopharma. He was also a Managing Director for The Trout Group and Trout Capital.
Premier Inc. – Jessica Daley was named Group Vice President, Supply Chain. Daley will lead Premier’s pharmacy strategy and serve as the Chief Pharmacy Officer. For the past year, Daley has served as Premier’s Vice President of Pharmacy Supplier Engagement.
Allay Therapeutics – David Hewitt was named CMO of California-based Allay Therapeutics. He joins Allay from Nura Bio, where he served as senior vice president of clinical development. Prior to his role at Nura Bio, Hewitt was senior vice president of clinical development at Karuna Therapeutics. He previously served as CMO at Syneos Health and before that, held roles of increasing responsibility in the neurology group at Merck, working in pain, migraine and neurodegenerative diseases.
Surface Oncology – Johnson & Johnson veteran Denice Torres will join the company’s board of directors. At J&J, Torres held several executive leadership positions, including president of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and president of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, CNS. She also served as chief strategy and transformation officer for the Medical Device division. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, she had a successful 14-year career at Eli Lilly where she led a number of US and global businesses. Torres was named Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Woman of the Year in 2015. Torres has served on multiple boards and is currently a director of bluebird bio (BLUE), Karuna Therapeutics, Glaukos Corporation and Resilience.
ONWARD – Veteran marketing executive Andy Dolan was named vice president of Marketing at ONWARD, a medtech company. Dolan comes to ONWARD from ReWalk Robotics where, most recently, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Reimbursement. His experience also includes a tenure at Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, where he held commercial and product management roles with a focus on educating providers and increasing patient access to treatments.
