Life sciences and pharma companies strengthen their leadership teams and board with this week’s Movers & Shakers.
Xilio Therapeutics – Martin H. Huber was named chief medical officer of Waltham, Mass.-based Xilio Therapeutics. Huber will oversee all aspects of the company’s clinical development strategy and operations and lead Xilio’s first two therapeutic candidates, XTX201 and XTX101 into clinical development in 2021 while advancing Xilio’s tumor-selective IL-12 and IL-15 cytokine pipeline programs. Huber most recently served as CMO at Tesaro, Inc. before its acquisition by GSK. Prior to that, he was head of Oncology Clinical Research at Merck Research Laboratories. Before Merck, he served in roles of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough, Hoffmann-La Roche and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, where he led teams in the areas of oncology clinical development, drug safety and pharmacovigilance.
DRG – Informa veteran Mike Ward was named Global Head of Thought Leadership at Decision Resources Group. Ward previously served as chief content officer at Informa Pharma Intelligence. In his role with DRG, Ward will oversee internal and external content initiatives across DRG’s suite of products and services. Ward has held editorial positions at leading publications including BioCentury, Nature Biotech and Scrip.
Galecto – Denmark-based Galecto named Jonathan Freve as its new chief financial officer. As CFO, he will lead financial operations, including overseeing investor relations and fundraising efforts. Freve joins Galecto from Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, where he was CFO and Treasurer. Prior to Spring Bank, he was director of Finance at Santaris Pharma, until they were acquired by Roche. Prior to Roche, Freve held corporate controller positions with other publicly traded global companies.
Anika Therapeutics– Cheryl R. Blanchard was named president and chief executive officer of Anika Therapeutics. Blanchard served as interim CEO of the company since February. Prior to joining Anika, Blanchard served as president and CEO of Microchips Biotech, Inc., a biotechnology company developing regenerative medicine and drug delivery products, from 2014 until its sale to Daré Bioscience, Inc. in November 2019. From 2000 to 2012, she served in various officer positions of Zimmer, Inc. Before joining Zimmer, Blanchard built and led the medical device and regenerative medicine practice at Southwest Research Institute.
Karuna Therapeutics -- Christopher J. Coughlin was named to the board of directors of Karuna Therapeutics. Coughlin will chair Karuna’s audit committee. Coughlin has served as a senior financial and operating executive at a number of global public companies and has served on the board of directors for many others. Most recently, he was CFO of Tyco International Ltd. Coughlin is currently the lead independent director of Allergan plc, and chairs the audit and finance committee for Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
TG Therapeutics – Sagar Lonial was named to TG Therapeutics’ board of directors. He currently serves as chair of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, as well as the CMO at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Lonial serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, is the myeloma editor for Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma, and Leukemia, and is the hematologic malignancies section editor for the journal Cancer.
Genespire – Italy’s Genespire named Julia Baretta as its new CEO. Additionally, the company named Graziano Seghezzi, Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners and Lucia Faccio, a Partner at Sofinnova Partners, to the company’s board of directors.
ViaClean Technologies – Greg Tipsord was named president and CEO of Philadelphia-based ViaClean Technologies. Tipsord will be responsible for establishing ViaClean as the lead manufacturer and marketer of antibacterial and antimicrobial solutions for commercial, institutional and consumer use. Prior to joining ViaClean Technologies, Tipsord served as CEO at Spellbinders Paper Arts.
Progenity – Troy Seelye was named chief information officer of Progenity. Seelye brings more than 25 years of progressive leadership and IT experience in multiple high-growth global organizations, including Teradata, Illumina and Amgen. Most recently, Seelye led Teradata. Prior to his tenure with Teradata, Seelye led Global Information Services for Illumina.
AiCure – Former Medidata founder Ed Ikeguchi was named CEO of AiCure. He previously served as the company’s CMO.
Goldfinch Bio – Cambridge, Mass.-based Goldfinch Bio named Kyle Kuvalanka as its CFO and Operating Officer and announced the promotion of Lori Rudolph-Owen, from senior vice president of R&D Strategy and Operations to Chief Development Officer. Most recently, Kuvalanka consulted private biopharmaceutical companies on their corporate and financial strategies and helped to build several investor syndicates. Previously, he served as COO at Syros Pharmaceuticals and chief business officer at Blueprint Medicines. Before Blueprint Medicines, Kuvalanka worked in roles of increasing responsibility over twelve years at Takeda. Rudolph-Owen joined Goldfinch Bio in 2018 as senior vice president of R&D Strategy and Operations. Prior to Goldfinch, Rudolph-Owen headed Portfolio Management and Assessment at TESARO, Inc. Before TESARO, she held positions of increasing leadership responsibility at Pfizer, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, MGI Pharma (now Eisai), Vertex and Millennium.
CrO Biosciences – Laura A. Jones was named president of California-based CrO Biosciences. Jones will focus on leading global regulatory strategic development, oversight of regulatory operations, clinical operations and R&D systems implementation strategies. Tamika Jackson will continue in her role as CEO and Chairwoman of the Board with an increased focus on business opportunities and the expansion of the firm’s leadership team. Sasha El Castro will retain her role as CFO and Vice Chairwoman of the Board and continue to oversee business operations within the company.
Mirum Pharmaceuticals – Peter Radovich has been tapped as the new chief operating officer of Mirum Pharmaceuticals. Radovich joins Mirum with nearly 20 years leading biopharmaceutical development and commercialization programs, having served most recently as executive vice president, operations for South San Francisco-based Global Blood Therapeutics.
