BioSpace Movers & Shakers, Feb. 25

A number of pharmaceutical companies have recently revealed changes to their CEO roles, but other leadership team members have also been announced. BioSpce takes a look at this week's Movers & Shakers.

Ribon Therapeutics – Prakesh Raman was named president and chief executive officer, succeeding Victoria Richon in these roles. Prior to joining Ribon, Raman served as senior partner, chief business development officer at Flagship Pioneering. Before that, he spent 14 years at Novartis, most recently as vice president, global head of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) Business Development and Licensing. 

Prior to Novartis, Raman spent six years as a senior scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and two years as a post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute. Richon will remain involved with the company as an advisor to the board of directors and chair of the scientific advisory board.

Black Diamond Therapeutics – Elizabeth Montgomery was named the first chief people officer at Black Diamond. Most recently, she was CPO at ClearView Healthcare Partners. Before that, she held several positions of increasing responsibility at IQVIA Consulting Services. Earlier in her career, Montgomery was a senior manager at Boston Scientific Corporation.

Athenex, Inc. – Joe Annoni was named chief financial officer of Athenex. Prior to Athenex, Annoni served as Managing Director with GFW Partners and was a founding member of NHA Capital. Before co-founding NHA, he was a vice president at investment banking firm Roth Capital.

Oncorus, Inc. – John Goldberg was promoted to chief medical officer. Goldberg joined Oncorus in 2018 as senior vice president of clinical development. Prior to joining Oncorus, Goldberg served as senior medical director of H3 Biomedicine. He held clinical roles in cancer drug development, leading the pediatric oncology Phase 1 program at the University of Miami and working as Medical Director for Agenus. In addition to his current role at Oncorus, Goldberg is a medical advisory board member for the Sarcoma Foundation of America and a member of the advisory group at MassBio.

Poseida Therapeutics – Brent Warner joined the company as president of its gene therapy operations. Warner most recently served as vice president of gene therapy and rare disease at Novartis. Prior roles included serving as a U.S. commercial leader in Hemophilia A at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. and a variety of strategic, operational roles at Biogen. Before that, he held commercial launch roles in blood disorders at Baxalta.

Acer Therapeutics – Adrian Quartel was named CMO of Acer. Quartel joins Acer from Adamas Pharmaceuticals, serving as CMO since 2020. Before Adamas, he served as the group vice president of global medical affairs at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to BioMarin, Quartel held senior medical leadership roles at Astellas, Chiltern, and ICON Clinical Research. Earlier in his career, Quartel worked as a clinical research fellow at UCLA Cedar Sinai and as a resident in cardiothoracic surgery at Erasmus University Medical Center.

Antheia – Heidi Pucel was named CPO of California-based Antheia. Pucel most recently served as CPO for Countsy.

Avenge Bio, Inc. – Douglas Carlson was named chief operating and financial officer of Massachusetts-based Avenge. Most recently, he was the COO, CFO and chief compliance officer of Ikena Oncology, Inc. Carlson previously worked at Collegium Pharmaceutical and held numerous roles from 2013 to 2019. Prior to Collegium, Carlson was senior director of business development at BTG International, Inc. Before BTG, Carlson was head of U.S. business development for Lundbeck A/S.

4D Molecular Therapeutics – David Schaffer has resigned as a director of 4D Molecular Therapeutics. Schaffer was recently appointed director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at U.C. Berkeley and deputy director of the Bakar Labs at the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub.

Sigilon Therapeutics – Sarah Yuan was named chief technical operations officer. Prior to joining Sigilon Therapeutics, Yuan served as vice president of Process and Analytical Development at 2seventy bio, the oncology spinoff of bluebird bio. Previously, Yuan led the External Manufacturing Organization for the Rare Blood Disorders Franchise at Sanofi. Before its acquisition by Sanofi, she also served as the Head of Technical Development and Manufacturing Sciences at Bioverativ.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals – Joe Shulman was named CTO and Patrick Kleyn was promoted to senior vice president and head of translational research and development. Also, Elisabeth Crönert-Bendell was named head of strategy. Shulman joined Rhythm in 2020 as head of Technical Operations and previously served as senior vice president of technical operations at Ra Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was head of Global Technical Operations at Novelion Therapeutics. Kleyn joined Rhythm's Translational Research and Development team in 2018 and has recently been serving as its interim head. 

Kleyn previously held leadership positions, including CSO and CEO at several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Crönert-Bendell joined Rhythm in 2021 and has been serving as head of international strategy. She has led clinical development programs, medical affairs organizations, sales and marketing teams and served as the global product lead for multiple companies, including Kyowa Kirin and Sanofi Genzyme.

Cellectar Biosciences – Chad Kolean was named CFO and Jarrod Longcor was promoted to COO. Kolean returns to Cellectar after serving as CFO to both Vivex Biologics, a regenerative medicine company and Titan Spine, a spinal implant med-tech company. Kolean also served as CFO and treasurer for Pioneer Surgical Technology. Early in his career, Kolean held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at multinational companies and those within the healthcare space, including Tomotherapy, Inc., Metavante Corporation, Snap On, Inc., Herman Miller, Inc., Kaydon Corporation, and Arthur Andersen, LLP. Longcor has been with the company for six years as both a consultant and CBO.

Amylyx Pharmaceuticals – Gina M. Mazzariello was named chief legal officer and general counsel. Before joining Amylyx, Mazzariello was with Boehringer Ingelheim for almost 15 years in roles of increasing responsibility. She most recently served as vice president of human pharma business law. Prior to BI, Mazzariello served as in-house counsel for GlaxoSmithKline and represented healthcare providers, health systems, and pharmaceutical companies in private practice.

Pharmaceutics International, Inc. – John Fowler was named president and CEO, effective March 7. He has held numerous leadership positions in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently serving as president and COO of Piramal Pharma Solutions, a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization.

PacBio – Michael Eberle was named vice president of computational biology. For the last 15 years, Eberle has been a leader in the research and development organization at Illumina, most recently as a vice president and distinguished scientist. Prior to that position, he was a research scientist at several leading academic institutions.

Translational Research Institute – Texas-based TRI for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine added Jennifer Fogarty as CSO. Fogarty most recently served as the director of applied health and performance in extreme environments for Sophic Synergistics, LLC. She previously spent over 16 years with NASA supporting medical operations and the NASA Human Research Program.

PneumoWave – Stuart Kelly was named program manager. He is a chartered engineer and bioengineer with over 25 years' experience in multi-disciplinary medical device design and development for global device manufacturers and innovative start-ups. His previous roles include senior project manager at Plexus, technical project manager at Wideblue and medical & scientific sector manager at DCA Design.

Complement Therapeutics Ltd. – Rafiq Hasan was named CEO of London's Complement Therapeutics. He most recently served as senior vice president and global head of ophthalmology at Bayer.

PAVmed Inc. – Shaun O'Neil was named COO. He has served as PAVmed's CCO and head of business development since joining the company in 2018. Prior to PAVmed, O'Neil held various sales and marketing leadership positions with AngioDynamics. Before that, he served in various sales, marketing and engineering roles at Aycan Medical Systems, Harris Interactive and Quality Solutions Group.

WAVE Life Sciences – Anne-Marie Li-Kwai-Cheung was named senior vice president of regulatory affairs, compliance and policy. Li-Kwai-Cheung was previously at Roche, where she started in global regulatory affairs, going on to hold leadership positions of increasing responsibility in global drug development and global program leadership. Prior to Roche, Li-Kwai-Cheung worked for Genzyme, leading regulatory teams in regulatory filings and a filing team for an advanced therapy during a period of significant legislative changes.

Femasys, Inc. – Dov Elefant was named CFO. Most recently, he was the vice president and CFO of Cellectar Biosciences. Before that, Elefant served as CFO of Celsus Therapeutics and was CFO at Althera Medical Ltd.