With the appointment of new CEOs, CMOs and CSOs, biopharma and life sciences organizations shuffled their leadership positions as Q3 comes to a close.
With the appointment of new CEOs, CMOs and CSOs, biopharma and life sciences organizations shuffled their leadership position as Q3 comes to a close.
Maravai Life Sciences
Carl Hull has been reinstated as chief executive officer of San Diego-based Maravai Life Sciences on an interim basis after William “Trey” Martin, III, who was appointed CEO of Maravai earlier this month, became the subject of a lawsuit. Companies where Martin III previously served alleged he was in breach of a noncompetition agreement.
On Oct 18, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a temporary restraining order against Martin, prohibiting him from working for Maravai pending a preliminary injunction hearing. That hearing is expected to be held later this year.
Martin has been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of this matter, Maravai announced.
Predictive Oncology
Raymond F. Vennare will assume the role of CEO and chairman of the Minnesota-based Predictive Oncology’s board of directors on Nov 1. He has served on the company’s board of directors since 2021.
Since 2015, Vennare has served as CEO and Chairman of Cvergenx, Inc., a genomic informatics company. Vennare’s earlier experience includes co-founding ThermalTherapeutic Systems, Inc., where he served as president and CEO. He also served as president and CEO of ImmunoSite, Inc.
Alzheimer’s Association
Joanne Pike, who currently serves as president, will take over as CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association. Pike will succeed Harry Johns, who has served as the association’s CEO since 2005.
Since joining the Alzheimer’s Association in 2016, Pike has held numerous responsibilities. She previously served as chief strategy officer of the association and chief program officer.
Exagen Inc.
John Aballi will succeed Ron Rocca as president and CEO of San Diego-based Exagen.
Aballi has 15 years of diagnostic industry experience. Most recently, he served as senior vice president and general manager of urology and CLIA chief operations officer at Veracyte, Inc. Before that, Aballi was COO at Decipher Biosciences.
Genuv, Inv.
Korea’s Genuv named Jenny Choih as president of its newly-launched U.S. subsidiary. Choih, based in the Kendall Square section of Cambridge, will lead business development of GNUV205, the company’s newly unveiled multi-specific immuno-oncology drug candidate.
TransCelerate Biopharma Inc.
Janice Chang was promoted from chief operating officer to CEO. She will assume the new role on Jan. 1, 2023.
Chang joined TransCelerate in 2014. She will succeed founding CEO Dalvir Gill, who announced his retirement after a career in drug development that spans over 30 years.
Ashvattha Therapeutics
Steve Maricich joined California-based Asvattha as chief medical officer.
Maricich joins Ashvattha from Calibr and Scripps BioVentures, where he served as the CMO. His previous experience includes the CMO role at Allievex, a rare disease start-up company that he helped spin out of BioMarin Pharmaceuticals.
Caris Life Sciences
George W. Sledge Jr. was named CMO of Texas-based Caris Life Sciences. Sledge will have oversight for medical affairs, research, and medical education.
Before joining Caris, Sledge was a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he served as a member of the oncology division. He was most recently co-director of the Stanford Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapeutics Program and served as chief of the division of oncology.
Sledge is the former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and, until recently, served as both the chief scientific advisor for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and member of the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation scientific advisory board.
Versanis Bio
Kenneth Attie was named CMO of New York-based Versanis.
Attie most recently was CMO at Imara Inc. Prior to his role at Imara, Attie served as vice president of medical research at Acceleron Pharma for more than a decade. He also held leadership roles at Altus Pharmaceuticals and Insmed and spent more than a decade at Genentech.
Additionally, the company named Aditya Venugopal as SVP of corporate development and strategic planning. Most recently, Venugopal served as vice president of business development at VectivBio. Before joining VectivBio, he was head of strategic planning at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he spent seven years in strategic life science consulting, first at Easton Associates and then at Navigant Consulting.
Rewind Therapeutics
Irene Kneusel was named chief scientific officer at Rewind Therapeutics. She is a founder of Scienza Consulting GmbH, an independent science consultancy company.
She spent six years at Hoffmann-La Roche, most recently holding the position of head of the neuroimmunology and neurodegeneration section.
Before F. Hoffman-La Roche, she held numerous academic positions in neurobiology at the University of Zurich, the California Institute of Technology and the Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.
Alexion
Scott Weintraub was named SVO and head of U.S. commercial operations for Alexion, the rare disease business unit of AstraZeneca.
Weintraub first joined Alexion in 2019. For the past two years, Weintraub has been the head of global commercial strategy. Prior to that, he led the neurology and ophthalmology therapeutic areas.
Before Alexion, Weintraub held roles at Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc., FORUM Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca.
ImmuneID
Jessica Atkinson was named chief business officer.
Atkinson joins ImmuneID from Glympse Bio., Inc., where she was the SVP of business development. Prior to Glympse, she managed an oncology therapeutics market-based business development strategy at Foundation Medicine, Inc.
Foresite Labs
Mary Helen Black was named head of genomics.
Before joining Foresite Labs, Black was the head of population analytics and computational sciences at Janssen Pharmaceutical. Black was also previously a director and research scientist for Ambry Genetics and Kaiser Permanente.
Evozyne
Zach Serber was appointed chief operating officer of Chicago-based Evozyne. Serber was formerly the CSO and co-founder of Zymergen and director of biology at Amyris.
