Biopharma and life sciences companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Talaris Therapeutics – Boston-based Talaris bolstered its executive leadership team with three new appointments. Michael Zdanowski was named chief technology officer, Farah Natoli was named head of Portfolio and Program Management and Mary West was named vice president of Clinical Operations. The appointments follow a Series B financing that will be used to advance the company’s “pipeline in a product.” Zdanowski most recently served as senior vice president of BioPharmaceutical Operations for Medeor Therapeutics. Before that, he was head of GMP Operations for the New York Stem Cell Foundation and vice president of Manufacturing for Mesoblast. Natoli served most recently as vice president of Program Management at Imara. Before that, Natoli served as the executive director of Program and Alliance Leadership at Bioverativ, a Sanofi company. West led all clinical operations at Boston-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals for their lead product, Onpattro. West previously served in clinical operations leadership roles at Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Acambis Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. Until recently, she was head of Clinical Operations at BlueRock Therapeutics.
Magenta Therapeutics – Steve Mahoney was named chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Magenta. Mahoney will oversee all aspects of financial planning and analysis, as well as investor community engagement, including investor relations and other external stakeholder communications, in addition to R&D capital allocation strategy and operations and facilities management. Most recently, Mahoney served as president and COO of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. Prior to Kiniksa, Mahoney served as chief commercial officer, among other executive titles of increasing responsibilities, at Synageva Biopharma.
Inozyme Pharma – Kevin Johnson was named senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Boston-based Inozyme. Johnson will be responsible for leading Inozyme’s global regulatory strategy. Johnson joins Inozyme from Magenta Therapeutics, where he served as the head of regulatory and quality, and led global strategy for a portfolio of biologics. Prior to that, he served as head of regulatory affairs, quality and pharmacovigilance at IMARA Inc. Before IMARA, Johnson led global regulatory strategies at Vtesse.
Kurma Partners – Benjamin Belot was named partner and Hadrien Bouchez and Amine Marouf were promoted to principals of France’s Kurma Partners, a European venture capital company.
NeuroCytonix – Robert Gallo joined the scientific board of Maryland-based NeuroCytonix Inc. Gallo is best known for his discovery of HIV, the cause of AIDS, and is an internationally recognized expert on biomedical research. Gallo is the director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Early in his career, Gallo was a researcher at the National Cancer Institute.
FundamentalVR – Rafael Grossmann joined the Global Medical Panel for London’s FundamentalVR. He is a surgeon, the first doctor to use Google Glass during a procedure.
Shorla Pharma Limited – Ireland’s Shorla Pharma added two new non-executive board members, John Moloney, chairman of DCC plc, and Tracy Woody, executive vice president of Corporate Strategy at Protagonist Therapeutics. Moloney was CEO of Agribusiness and CEO of Food Ingredients in Glanbia. He is also a Board member and Chairman designate of ABP Food Group, a leading privately held food processor. Woody previously served as chief commercial officer of Versartis, Inc. and KemPharm, Inc.
Apnimed – Michael Rogers was named chief financial officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Apnimed. Rogers was CFO at Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has served as CFO for numerous companies including Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., BG Medicine, Inc., Indevus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Advanced Health Corporation, and Autoimmune Inc. Additionally, Jay Galeota joined the company’s board of directors. Galeota was president and CEO of Inheris Biopharma, Inc. Prior to Inheris, he was president of G&W Laboratories, Inc. He was also the president of Merck’s Hospital and Specialty Care business line.
Novavax – Gregory F. Covino was named CFO. He replaces John Trizzino who will become chief commercial officer. Trizzino will continue his role as CBO. Prior to joining Novavax, Covino was Group CFO at GlaxoSmithKline’s TESARO Oncology Division. He previously served as chief accounting officer at Biogen Inc. He held earlier positions as vice president of Corporate Internal Audit and International Finance for Boston Scientific. Earlier in his career, Covino spent 10 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Additionally, Chief Medical Officer Filip Dubovsky was promoted to executive vice president. Biegie Lee was promoted to senior vice president and Chief Information Officer.
Silverback Therapeutics –Jonathan Piazza was named CFO for Seattle-based Silverback. He joins Silverback from Goldman Sachs & Co., where he served as a managing director of Healthcare Investment Banking. Silverback also expanded its board of directors appointing Andrew Powell. Powell is a member of the board of directors of Landec Inc. and Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. and served on the board of Synthorx Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Medivation, Inc.
Korro Bio – Ram Aiyar was named chief executive officer. Most recently, he was a co-founder, CFO and CBO at Corvidia Therapeutics, a private Boston-based cardio-renal company. Prior to Corvidia, Aiyar was an entrepreneur-in-residence at BioHealth. Aiyar has also held leadership roles in corporate development, finance and strategy at FlowMetric Inc., Sofinnova Partners, and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Elicio Therapeutics – Daphne Karydas, CFO at Syndax Pharmaceuticals and Carol Ashe, CBO at New York Genome Center were named to the board of directors at Elicio Therapeutics. Karydas has served as CFO of Syndax since 2020. Prior to Syndax, Karydas served as senior vice president of Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis and Strategy at Allergan plc. Prior to Allergan, she served as senior healthcare analyst at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Ashe previously worked at GlaxoSmithKline where her senior roles included partner at SR One Ltd, GSK’s venture capital business, head of GSK’s US Corporate Legal department supporting US-based mergers, acquisitions and equity investments, and head of GSK’s global Business Development Transactions legal team.
Foghorn Therapeutics –Michael LaCascia was named chief legal officer for Foghorn Therapeutics. Prior to joining Foghorn, LaCascia served as CLO of Q-State Biosciences, Inc. He previously served as General Counsel and Secretary for Vertex Pharmaceuticals. LaCascia also spent more than two decades at the legal firm WilmerHale LLP.
Apaxen SA – Privately-held Apaxen appointed Bart Wuurman as its new CEO. Wuurman was CEO of De Novo Pharmaceuticals, AM-Pharma, Lanthio Pharma and Lyramid Limited. He is also director of Hercules Pharmaceuticals.
Talis Biomedical – Rob Kelley was named the first chief commercial officer of Talis Biomedical Corporation and Douglas Lieu was named head of Operations. Prior to joining Talis, Kelley was vice president of Sales and Commercial Development at Genalyte. Prior to that, he served as vice president of Marketing at the diagnostics company Trovagene. Kelley joined Trovagene from Illumina. Prior to joining Talis, Liu served as senior vice president of Global Operations at QIAGEN. Prior to QIAGEN, Liu had positions of increasing responsibility at Bayer Healthcare, Chiron and Abbott Labs. He also was chair of BioHealth Innovation, a regional innovation intermediary focused on developing the life science industry in Maryland.
NPC – Michael L. Ryan, head of Worldwide Value, Access, Pricing and Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Bristol Myers Squibb, was named chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Council’s board of directors. Ryan previously served in several leadership roles at NPC, including vice chair and treasurer. Prior to joining BMS, Ryan spent 16 years at Amgen, where he served in several roles, including General Manager for U.S. Reimbursement, Value and Access. Additional members of the board of directors include Steven J. Romano, CMO of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals; Christine G. Marsh, head of Market Access for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals; Chris Leibman, head of Value and Access at Biogen; and Blasine Penkowski, chief strategic customer officer at Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems.
