Pharma and life science companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards of directors with this week’s appointments.
Axcella Health – Laurent Chardonnet has been named chief financial officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Axcella Health. Also, the company promoted Heidy King-Jones to the position of general counsel. King-Jones most recently served as vice president of legal for the company. Chardonnet joins the company following a 15-year tenure at Incyte Corporation where he served as treasurer and principal accounting officer as well as the head of finance and administration for the company’s European division. Most recently, he served as Incyte’s vice president of alliances. Prior to Incyte, Chardonnet served as controller and acting CFO of DrugAbuse Sciences, a privately held biotechnology company. King-Jones joined Axcella as vice president of legal and corporate secretary in January 2018. Prior to this, she was lead commercial counsel at Sarepta Therapeutics.
Aligos Therapeutics – Kathleen Sereda Glaub has been named to the board of directors of South San Francisco-based Aligos Therapeutics, a company focused on the development of targeted therapies for hepatologic diseases and viral infections. Glaub has a successful track record of financings, partnerships and company sales. She currently serves as executive chair of the board of directors at CuraSen Therapeutics, which she also co-founded. Glaub is also a board director of Escient Pharmaceuticals and IO Biotech. Past board affiliations include Afferent Pharmaceuticals and Codexis, Inc. Previously, Glaub was the chief executive officer of Afferent Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Afferent, Glaub served as president of Plexxikon, Inc., for 12 years, where she led business and financing strategies and led the sale of the company to Daiichi Sankyo for nearly $1 billion in 2011.
H.E.L. Group – U.K.-based H.E.L, a manufacturer of innovative laboratory tools, added two to its leadership team. Paul Orange joined the company as chief marketing officer and Paul Sturgeon was named CFO. The news follows the appointment of CEO Louise Madden. Orange joins H.E.L. Group from GE Healthcare Life Sciences, where he led regional marketing teams around the world and drove a major e-commerce project for the multinational company. Sturgeon started his career as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse, and since then has held CFO positions at organizations ranging from pre-revenue start-ups to established, multinational private equity-backed businesses.
LabCorp – Jeffrey A. Davis has been named to the board of directors of N.C.-based LabCorp. Davis is the current CFO of Qurate Retail Group and former CFO of J. C. Penney Company Inc. He will take his seat on the board starting Dec. 1 and will serve on the board’s audit committee and quality and compliance committee. In addition to his those roles, Davis has served in CFO roles at Darden Restaurants Inc. and Walmart U.S., among others. Davis’ appointment fills the vacancy created when Robert E. Mittelstaedt Jr. retired from the board at the conclusion of his term on May 9.
Sangamo Therapeutics – James R. Meyers was named to the board of directors of California-based Sangamo. Meyers has over 30 years of commercial leadership experience in the biotechnology industry and worked at Gilead from 1996 until his retirement in February 2018. Most recently, he served as Gilead’s executive vice president of Worldwide Commercial Operations, where he was responsible for global commercial activities, including pricing and market access in North America, Europe, Middle East, Australia and Japan. Prior to Gilead, Meyers held positions of increasing responsibility with Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and Astra USA. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of two public companies, Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and CytomX Therapeutics.
NervGen – Paul Brennan has been tapped to serve as president and CEO of NervGen Pharma Corp. Brennan replaced Ernest Wong, who will continue to serve the Vancouver-based company as a consultant. Brennan has held a number of executive positions within biotech, including at Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc., Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc., Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, Altair Therapeutics Inc., Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp and AnorMED Inc. Brennan has also served in senior business development and regulatory affairs roles with AstraZeneca plc, working in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada. The company also announced the appointment of Lloyd Mackenzie in the newly created position of COO. He was recently COO and VP of R&D at Aquinox Pharmaceuticals where he helped oversee clinical and non-clinical operations, including quality assurance, and chemistry, manufacturing and controls. Mackenzie held positions with QLT Inc. as Research Scientist for Pharmaceutical Development and at Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals Inc.as Scientist.
Intersect ENT – Richard A. “Randy” Meier was named CFO of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Intersect ENT. Meier previously served as CFO and senior executive of Owens & Minor, Inc., a global healthcare services company. Prior to Owens and Minor, Meier served as CFO at Teleflex, Inc., a global medical device company, from 2010 to 2012. He served as president and COO of Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. Meier serves on the board of BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he is lead independent director.
CTT Pharmaceutical – Ontario-based CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings made several appointments to its board of directors and leadership team. Robert Allen has been appointed CFO, Dana Buschmann has been appointed director and Marc Lakmaaker has been named strategic advisor to the company.
Acorda Therapeutics – John Kelley has been named a non-executive board chairman. Kelley has been a board member at Acorda since 2008. From 2013 until 2017, Kelley was the CEO of Tenax Therapeutics, Inc. He was also a member of its board of directors. Previously he was the president, CEO and a director of Phyxius Pharma. From 2004 to 2009, Kelley was the president and COO of The Medicines Company.
