BioSpace Movers & Shakers, April 15: Spruce, Nautilus, Alto, Ikena Oncology
This week, companies and organizations from across the globe add new C-Suite members to their leadership teams, from CEOs to CFOs to Chief People Officers.
Spruce Biosciences: Libbie Mansell was named chief regulatory and quality officer at Spruce. She joins Spruce from Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, where she served as senior vice president of Regulatory Affairs. Prior to AskBio, Mansell was managing director and founder of White Oak BioPharma Solutions, a global regulatory strategy and operations consulting firm. Before consulting, she held positions of increasing responsibility in regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, quality affairs and chemistry, manufacturing and controls with several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Curis, Sigma-Tau Research, Genzyme, CombinatoRx, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
Nautilus Biotechnology: Gwen Weld was named chief people officer, and Sheri Wilcox was named vice president of affinity reagent development at Seattle-based Nautilus. Prior to Nautilus, Weld served as interim CPO at Amperity. Previously, she held the positions of vice president of Global People and Infrastructure at Isilon Systems and general manager of Human Resources at Microsoft Corporation for nearly 20 years. Wilcox joins Nautilus from SomaLogic, where she served as senior director of Global Scientific Engagement. Before joining SomaLogic, she applied mass spectrometric methods to understand antibiotic resistance as a postdoctoral fellow at Pharmacia before its merger with Pfizer Inc.
Alto Neuroscience: Mikael Eliasson was named chief operating officer. Prior to joining Alto, Eliasson led global teams at Genentech/Roche responsible for piloting and scaling technology capabilities into drug development. Before that, Eliasson served as global head of new products at Novartis and has also held roles at The Medicines Company, Monitor Group, and G.E. Healthcare.
Ikena Oncology: Jotin Marango was named CFO and head of Corporate Development. Marango joins Ikena from Aptose Biosciences, where he served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Prior to joining Aptose, Marango worked as an equity research analyst covering small and mid-cap biotechnology companies focused on hematology, oncology, and rare diseases.
TScan Therapeutics: Leiden Dworak was named vice president of finance at TScan. Prior to TScan, Dworak was the vice president, head of Financial Planning and Analysis and Business Operations at AVROBIO, Inc. Before AVROBIO, Dworak was a director at Moderna, Inc., where he was a key strategic business partner across multiple therapeutic areas and the finance lead for global vaccines business development. Before that, Mr. Dworak held positions of increasing responsibility for various biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc., SeraCare Life Sciences Inc. and Boston Scientific Corporation.
22nd Century Group: Calvin Treat was named chief scientific officer of 22nd Century. Treat will assume the role on May 23. Treat previously served as senior vice president and head of crop technology for corn, soybean, and cotton at Bayer. Previously, he was the technology lead for Monsanto's global corn and soy crops.
MBX Biosciences, Inc.: Richard B. Bartram was named chief financial officer of MBX. Most recently, Bartram served as CFO at Esperion Therapeutics Inc. Prior to his tenure at Esperion, Bartram served as an assurance manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP from 2005 to 2013.
Prilenia Therapeutics: Houman Ashrafian, managing partner at S.V. Health Investors, co-lead of S.V.'s Biotech franchise, joined the company's board of directors. Ashrafian has founded six companies; Sitryx, Enara Bio, TRexBio, Alchemab, Catamaran Bio and Mestag.
Vedere Bio II: Gina Consylman was named CFO of Vedere. Before joining Vedere, Consylman served as CFO of bluebird bio, Inc., where she oversaw financial activities during the company's transition into two independent entities. Before bluebird bio, she spent more than seven years at Ironwood Pharmaceutics, Inc., in roles of increasing responsibilities, culminating in the role of CFO. Consylman was also vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer at Analogic Corporation.
Cellectar Biosciences : Matthew Hagan was named vice president of Marketing and Strategic Alliances, and David Lasecki was named executive director of Strategic Alliances. Matthew Hagan joins Cellectar from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was executive director, hematology portfolio marketing. Hagan brings over 25 years of marketing, market access and sales experience with leading biopharma companies, including Pfizer, AMAG, Celgene, and BMS. For the past 15 years, his career has focused predominantly on commercializing new novel hematology oncology cancer therapies. Lasecki joins Cellectar from Heron Therapeutics, where he served as senior director, oncology sales and was responsible for sales management and oversight of key customer relationships. Lasecki brings over 20 years of national account and strategic alliance experience with organizations such as ION, GenomOncology and Companion Dx Labs.
Flagship Pioneering: Michelle C. Werner was appointed to the dual role of chief executive partner of Flagship Pioneering and CEO of Alltrna. Werner most recently served as Worldwide Franchise Head, Solid Tumors at Novartis Oncology. Prior to serving at Novartis, Werner was a senior leader at AstraZeneca, where she held multiple positions during her five-year tenure. Before this role, Werner served as head of U.S. Oncology. She also served as Country President for the Nordics and Baltics. Before AstraZeneca, Werner was with Bristol-Myers Squibb for 10 years in various positions of increasing responsibility, including sales, marketing, and market access in the U.S. and U.K. She started her professional career in R&D, working hands-on with patients at the Oncology Clinical Trials Unit at Harvard Medical School before moving into the industry in clinical operations.
Eton Pharmaceuticals: James Gruber has been named CFO. He will replace retiring Wilson Troutman, who remains with the company through the end of May to ensure a smooth transition. Gruber brings more than 20 years of financial and accounting experience to Eton. Most recently, he was the U.S. Controller at Horizon Therapeutics for seven years, where he oversaw accounting activities for the company during its rapid growth. Before Horizon, Gruber spent 14 years at Abbott Laboratories where he held various financial and accounting leadership positions.
MaxCyte: Amanda Murphy resigned her position as CFO of MaxCyte to pursue other interests. The current SVP and chief accounting officer, Ron Holtz, has been named interim CFO. A search is underway for a fulltime replacement. Additionally, Sean Menarguez has been promoted to director of Investor Relations.
Vera Therapeutics: Michael Morrissey, president and CEO of Exelixis, Inc., was appointed chairman of the board of directors of Vera Therapeutics. Prior to joining Exelixis, Morrissey held positions at Berlex Biosciences and CIBA-Geigy Corporation.
In8bio: In8bio has appointed Urvashi Patel as vice president of Regulatory Affairs, and Stacey Bilinski was named vice president of Clinical Operations. Patel held positions at Precision for Medicine, Janssen, Elan Pharmaceuticals and Genentech. Bilinski was previously the executive director of Clinical Operations at Onconova. Earlier in her career, she held positions at Insmed, Amicus Therapeutics, and Covance.
Pyxis Oncology: Ronald Herbst has departed from his role as CSO. Jan Pinkas, currently SVP of preclinical research & development will take over that position. Before Pyxis Oncology, Pinkas spent 10 years at Magenta Therapeutics, where, most recently, he served as SVP, Translational Sciences. Before Magenta, Pinkas served in increasingly progressing roles at ImmunoGen, Inc. Earlier in his career, he served in scientist roles focused on oncology research at Amgen, Inc. and Genzyme Corporation.
HTG Molecular Diagnostics: Christina M. Carruthers was named Target Strategy and Early Development vice president. Carruthers was most recently with Moderna Therapeutics, serving as Scientific Director and Research Area Leader for Rare Diseases. Before that, she was a Scientific Director with Janssen Research & Development. She also served as director of Preclinical Development and Operations at Scynexis and held various scientific roles at Allergan, Inc. and Covance Laboratories.
Osivax: France's Osivax appointed Michael Watson to its board of directors. Watson is currently the Executive Chairman of VaxEquity and the CEO of MEVOX. In his prior role as president of Valera Pharmaceuticals, Moderna's infectious diseases and vaccines venture, he oversaw novel vaccine and antibody projects against viral and bacterial targets.
Evox Therapeutics: Peter Jones was named vice president of CMC. Jones has over 30 years of process development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Before joining Evox, he was previously executive director of Process Development at Autolus Therapeutics plc. Prior to that, Jones held several positions of increasing responsibility at Oxford Biomedica. Jones also served 20 years in multiple leadership roles spanning from Discovery to Manufacturing at GlaxoSmithKline and Genzyme.
CureDuchenne: Kent Mora was named chief of staff, and Nancy Young was named national director of Development. Mora is a senior-level marketing and finance expert with more than 20 years of experience, working on behalf of companies including Gwynnie Bee, Tracy Anderson, Hoover, Dirt Devil, Omaha Steaks, Gibson Brands, Breville, Vonage, and Schwan's Home Services. Young is an award-winning fundraising professional who was a development consultant with the national Australia Council for the Arts and other State and Local arts funding agencies in Australia for 13 years, a Program Officer with the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and Assistant Program Director at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.