Biopharma and life sciences companies bolster their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers.
Metrion – Metrion Biosciences Limited named Anca Harlambie as its head of Business Development. Harlambie will represent the U.K.-based company across Europe and the United Kingdom. Additionally, Mari Kennedy will support Metrion in the mid-west and east coast of the United States. In Japan, Metrion will be represented by On Target Drug Discovery Service and Supply, Ltd. based in Tokyo.
Agios Pharmaceuticals – Jonathan Biller was named chief financial officer of Agios Pharmaceuticals. Biller will replace Andrew Hirsch who has served as the company’s CFO since 2016. Hirsch will depart the company this month to pursue another opportunity and will remain a strategic advisor to Agios through October 2020. Biller joined Agios in November 2019 as chief legal officer. Previously, Biller served as executive vice president, general counsel at Celgene from July 2018 to November 2019 where he was responsible for Celgene’s global legal function. Prior to Celgene, Biller was general counsel, chief tax officer and secretary from 2008 to 2011 at Bunge Limited.
Black Diamond Therapeutics – Rachel Humphrey was named chief medical officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Black Diamond Therapeutics. Karsten Witt, who has been senior vice president of Clinical Development and acting CMO since May 2019, will continue to serve the company as head of Non-Clinical Development. Humphrey joins Black Diamond from CytomX Therapeutics, Inc., where she served as CMO and as a member of its Board of Directors. Previously, she held numerous senior leadership roles in cancer drug development, including head of Immuno-Oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, and head of Immuno-Oncology at AstraZeneca, CMO at Mirati Therapeutics, and head of Clinical Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Starton Therapeutics – Kenneth Anderson and Asher Chanan-Khan were named to the board of directors of Starton Therapeutics, Inc. Anderson is Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as Director of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chanan-Khan is a Professor of Medicine and Co-Chairman of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Jacksonville. Starton’s hematology portfolio will be led by Mohamad Hussein, a current member of Starton’s Board and former Corporate Vice President Global Lead, Multiple Myeloma at Celgene Corporation.
Sherlock Biosciences – Martin Madaus joined Sherlock as chief operations officer. He will lead Sherlock’s business operations functions while supporting the company to scale to a fully functional commercial organization. Most recently, Madaus served as Interim CEO and executive Chairman at Ultivue Inc. and Emulate Bio. He also served as chairman and CEO of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics from 2014 to 2019. Previously, he was president, chairman and CEO of Millipore Corporation, which was acquired by Merck KGaA, and CEO of Roche Diagnostics North America.
C4 Therapeutics -- Andrew Hirsch was tapped as C4’s incoming CEO. Hirsch comes to C4T from Agios Pharmaceuticals where he was CFO and head of corporate development. Marc Cohen, co-founder, interim chief executive officer, and executive chairman will remain as executive chairman of the company. Prior to his time at Agios, Hirsch served as president and CEO of BIND Therapeutics and CFO at Avila Therapeutics, until its acquisition by Celgene. Prior to that, he held roles of increasing responsibility during his nearly 10-year tenure at Biogen, including vice president of Corporate Strategy and M&A and Program Executive for the Tecfidera development team. He currently serves on the board of directors at Editas Medicine.
WellDoc – Keith Reynolds was named COO, David Driscoll was named chief revenue officer and Linda Piazza was named senior vice president of sales for digital health company Welldoc. The additions will support the company’s ongoing strategic partnerships and commercialization efforts for its digital health products for chronic conditions, including its award-winning product for diabetes, BlueStar. Prior to joining Welldoc, Reynolds spent 17 years at CVS Health. Driscoll was most recently CRO at Streamline Health. Piazza spent more than eight years at Kaiser Permanente as National Sales Executive.
Medly Pharmacy – Rob Horowitz was tapped as CFO and Prasad Pola was named chief technology officer of Medly Pharmacy. The expansion of the executive team coincides with Medly’s plan to expand its platform nationally, following its Series B funding round. Horowitz previously served as the vice president of Finance at quip. He has also served in financial leadership roles at Gerson Lehrman Group, Four Springs Capital, Spencer Trask Ventures and Merrill Lynch & Co. Pola previously served as the CTO at Plated. He formerly held product and technology leadership roles at companies such as Quidsi and Amazon.
RhoVac AB – Sweden-based RhoVac boosted its Scientific Advisory Board with the appointment of pediatric immunologist Georg Holländer. Holländer is also director of the Botnar Research Center for Child Health (BRCCH) in Basel, Switzerland.
Carbios – France’s Carbios named Kader Hidra as its CFO. Prior to joining Carbios, he was the CEO of Citégestion, a digital start-up specialized in asset management and software development for Smart Cities. Before that, he was Investor and Markets Director at the EDF Group, a French electricity company which is a global leader in low-carbon energies. Previously, Hidra worked in London-based investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Berenberg Bank.
Diffusion Pharmaceuticals – Virginia-based Diffusion tapped Robert J. Cobuzzi Jr. as president and CEO. He will succeed David G. Kalergis, who will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors. Cobuzzi currently serves as a Venture Partner and chairman of the Business Development Board of Sunstone Life Sciences Ventures.
Spruce Biosciences – Rosh Dias was named CMO and Dan Spiegelman was named to the board of directors of Spruce Biosciences. The appointments coincide with progress into Phase IIb clinical trials of tildacerfont in adult classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Dias will oversee global clinical strategy and development for the company. He joins Spruce most recently from Indivior, where he was the CMO for the past year. Prior to Indivior, Dias has had long tenures at both Amgen and Novartis. Spiegelman previously served as Executive Vice President and CFO of BioMarin. Prior to BioMarin, he served as a consultant to provide strategic financial management support to a portfolio of public and private life science companies.
GW Pharmaceuticals -- David Gryska was named to the GW Pharmaceuticals Board of Directors. Gryska will also serve as a member of the Audit Committee. He has years of experience as CFO of Incyte Corporation, Celgene Corporation, Scios, Inc., and Cardiac Pathways Corporation and is currently on the boards of Seattle Genetics, Inc., PDL BioPharma, Inc., and Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Olema Oncology – Olema Oncology boosted its leadership team with the appointment of Shane Kovacs as COO/CFO, Kinney Horn as CBO and John B. Moriarty as chief legal officer. Additionally, Pamela Klein will serve as CMO and David Myles was named chief development officer. Before joining Olema, Kovacs was CBO and CFO of BlueRock Therapeutics. Before that, he serves as CFO and head of Corporate Development at PTC Therapeutics. Horn spent 16 years at Genentech and also served as Entrepreneur in Residence at EcoR1 Capital. Moriarty most recently served as general counsel for Portola Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Portola, Moriarty was general counsel of Alexion. Klein served as CMO for multiple biotech companies including Intellikine (acquired by Takeda) and Syndax Pharmaceuticals. From 2001 to 2008, she held increasing positions of responsibility at Genentech, most recently as Vice President, Development. Prior to that, she was Research Director for the National Cancer Institute. Myles has led Olema’s discovery chemistry, CMC and IND-enabling efforts. Prior to joining Olema, he served as executive director at Kosan Biosciences. Earlier, he was Associate Director of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry at Chiron Corporation.
Rezolute – Philippe Fauchet was named to the board of directors of Rezolute, Inc. He has spent more than 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including most recently as the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline Japan where he joined as president & representative director in 2010. Previously, he served as senior vice president, corporate business development, head of Sanofi-Aventis Group and as a member of the Management Committee. He is currently a director and senior advisor to several biotech companies, as well as a venture partner in an investment firm.
Lumen Bioscience – Mike Spigarelli was named CMO of Seattle-based Lumen. Spigarelli most recently served as Vice President, Medical Affairs for Immucor, Inc. Prior to Immucor, Spigarelli previously served in academics.
Aegis Life – Hong Jiang was named COO of Aegis Life, Inc. As COO of Aegis Life, Jiang will be responsible overseeing its business operations, including raising capital, business development and manufacturing scale-up. Jiang is a serial entrepreneur and a biotech investor. She has previously co-founded three companies in the mobile and wireless space, including Roundbox, Tatara Systems and Flarion Technologies.
