Pharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
OLIGOMERIX – Privately-held Oligomerix tapped Pfizer veteran Robert Foerster as its new chief financial officer. Foerster joins Oligomerix after spending 28 years at Pfizer where he held multiple roles. Those roles include Senior Director Commercial Development for Emerging Markets, Senior Director Business Development in Japan, Director/Team Leader of Neuroscience for New Product Development and Director of Financial Operations for the Africa Middle East region where he was responsible for financial analysis, reporting and compliance.
Deinove – France-based DEINOVE named Alexis Rideau as its new chief executive officer. Prior to taking over the top spot, Rideau was in charge of developing industrial relations and coordinating the strategic partnership team at a tech company specializing in innovations in the field of microbiology to accelerate the development of medical and nutritional industrial solutions for animal and human health. Previously, Rideau held various positions in companies operating in the technology and healthcare fields, including support to entrepreneurs, sector analysis and fundraising and directly in the field, in the conquest of new industrial markets.
Horama – France’s Horama named GlaxoSmithKline veteran Ian Catchpole as its chief scientific officer. Ian spent more than 25 years at GSK and its legacy companies, where managed scientific, business and strategic operations of many programs, through partnerships with academic institutions and biotech collaborators. He has extensive knowledge in a wide range of areas, including ophthalmology, cell and gene therapy, vaccination and immuno-oncology.
Imara – Stephen M. Migausky was named General Counsel at Boston-based Imara. In this new role, Migausky will lead the company’s legal organization, including corporate governance and compliance functions. Prior to joining Imara, Migausky served as General Counsel at ArQule, Inc., which was recently acquired by Merck.
Schrödinger -- Jeffrey A. Chodakewitz and Gary Ginsberg were named to the Schrodinger Board of Directors. Chodakewitz is a veteran in the biopharmaceutical industry who previously held leadership roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co., and Ginsberg is an experienced global communications strategist who has managed communications for Time Warner and Softbank Group Corp. Chodakewitz served as head of clinical medicine and external innovation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that role, he held the positions of CMO at Vertex. Ginsberg is Global Head of Communications at SoftBank Group Corp. and previously served as head of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Time Warner.
ALX Oncology – California-based ALX Oncology Holdings Inc. named Rekha Hemrajani to its Board of Directors. Hemrajani currently serves as chair of the Audit Committee at Adverum Biotechnologies. She most recently served as president and CEO at Aravive. She has served as chief operating officer and CFO at Arcus Biosciences, COO at FLX Bio, CFO at 3-V Biosciences (now Sagimet Biosciences and more.
Kiyatec – Bruce Nash was named to the board of directors of Kiyatec, Inc. Currently, he serves as Chief Physician at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Nash has held executive leadership positions in both managed care and healthcare organizations.
Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics – Florida-based Jupiter is strengthening its Scientific Advisory Board with the addition of Charbel Moussa, and created a new advisory position in patient advocacy by the appointment of Mark Dant. Moussa is a director of the Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism at the National Parkinson’s Foundation Center. Dant is the current chairman of the Board of EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases, a science-based advocacy organization dedicated to accelerating biotech innovations for rare disease treatments through science-driven public policy.
Antibe Therapeutics – Toronto-based Antibe Therapeutics Inc. named Joseph Stauffer as its new CMO. An anesthesiologist, Stauffer was a medical review officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before joining Abbott Laboratories as its Global Medical Director. Stauffer then led clinical operations, regulatory and medical affairs teams at Alpharma and Ikaria.
Spruce Biosciences – San Francisco-based Spruce Biosciences strengthened its team with the appointment of Samir Gharib as CFO and Dasharatha Reddy as head of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing. Gharib was CFO of Stemedica Cell Technologies, and prior to Stemedica, held executive finance roles at Revance Therapeutics and Talon Therapeutics. Reddy is a chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) professional who was most recently Head of CMC at Landos Biopharma. Prior to Landos, Reddy held positions in product and pharmaceutical development and manufacturing at Reviva Pharmaceuticals, Teikoku Pharma USA, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Relypsa Inc.
Celyad – Maria Koehler and Dominic Piscitelli have been appointed as independent members of Belgium-based Celyad’s board of directors. Koehler serves as CMO at Repare Therapeutics. Prior to that, she was CMO of Bicycle Therapeutics. Before that, she spent time with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. Piscitelli serves as CFO of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, and before that, held the same role at AnaptysBio. He also held roles at Medivation, Pfizer and Astellas Pharma.
OneOncology – Jeff Patton was named CEO of Tennessee-based OneOncology. Patton has been Acting CEO and president of Physician Services since February.
Cardiff Oncology – Mark Erlander was named CEO of Cardiff Oncology, Inc., which was recently branded as Trovagene, Inc. Erlander has served as CSO since 2013 and has been an integral part in its evolution in drug development and biomarker technology. Thomas Adams, CEO since June of 2018, will transition to Executive Chairman, and continue to provide his strategic guidance and drug development expertise to the company.
Akcea Therapeutics – Carla Poulson joined the subsidiary of Ionis Pharmaceuticals as chief human resources officer. She will develop and drive initiatives to continue to build company culture and to support the company’s business strategy. Before joining Akcea, Poulson was with Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she served as senior human resources business partner. Prior to Vertex, Poulson worked at Ahold Corporation, Pepsi Bottling Group and ExxonMobil Corporation in human resources.
Agendia -- René Bernards, the CSO and co-founder of Agendia, Inc., has been elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences. Bernards is one of 26 distinguished scientists selected from all fields of science. Bernards is the head of the section of molecular carcinogenesis at the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
