BioSpace Movers and Shakers, May 17
Beam Therapeutics –Cambridge, Mass.-based Beam Therapeutics made several appointments to its leadership team. Christine Bellon joined as senior vice president and chief legal officer; Susan O’Connor joined as chief human resources officer; and Suzanne Fleming has joined as senior vice president of finance. Additionally, the company announced that Courtney Wallace has been promoted to senior vice president and head of business development and strategy.
Prior to joining Beam, Bellon served as general counsel and corporate secretary for Forma Therapeutics, where she built and led a legal team, negotiated changes to the company’s operating structure, and played a key role in negotiations with Forma’s strategic partner. She also held roles at Relay Therapeutics and Blueprint Medicines. Prior to Beam, O’Connor launched O’Connor & Associates, a strategic human resources consulting firm. She partnered with several venture capital firms, including Third Rock Ventures and acted as the chief human resources executive for a number of biotech companies, including Celsius Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, Blueprint Medicines, Voyager Therapeutics and Fulcrum Therapeutics, among others. Courtney Wallace joined Beam in 2018 as vice president and head of business development and strategy. Prior to Beam, she was a senior director of business development at Celgene.
Veracyte – Sangeeta Bhorade was named medical director of pulmonology at South San Francisco-based Veracyte, Inc. Bhorade will lead medical affairs for Veracyte’s pulmonology products, including the Percepta Bronchial Classifier and Envisia Genomic Classifier. Prior to Veracyte, Bhorade was a professor of medicine and the medical director of the Lung Transplant Program in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Daxko – Alabama-tapped Daxko tapped Stefani Thornton as the company’s chief revenue officer for the Daxko and Zen Planner brands. Thornton will lead Daxko's revenue growth strategy in the boutique fitness and nonprofit market segments. Thornton, a 22-year technology professional most recently at Oracle, brings a strong track record to Daxko with experience in training, product demonstrations and sales, the company said.
Cedilla Therapeutics –Delphine Collin was named vice president of biomolecular sciences at Cedilla Therapeutics. Collin will advance Cedilla’s work to develop and leverage the biophysical and biochemical understanding of ligand-induced stabilization and degradation of therapeutically relevant protein targets. Collin most recently served as chief innovation officer of HarkerBIO, a contract research organization focused on the structural enablement of early discovery research. She also held roles at Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck & Co.
Glympse Bio -- Cambridge-based Glympse Bio has appointed Wendy Winckler chief scientific officer to advance technology into the clinic. Winckler joins Glympse from the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where she was the executive director of Next Generation Diagnostics. In that role, she built a department from the ground up, including creation of the strategy and the establishment of the laboratory and analytic capabilities. Previously she worked at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and before that the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Oncoceutics -- Michael Chiarella, an industry veteran with more than 20 years’ experience at a number of large and small biotech companies, joined Philadelphia-based Oncoceutics as head of clinical operations. He will be responsible for building out Oncoceutics’ clinical operations in connection with the company’s preparation for an eventual filing of a New Drug Application for Oncoceutics’ lead compound, ONC201.
The Doctors Company -- Howard Mills joined California-based The Doctors Company’s board of governors. Mills is the former global insurance regulatory leader of Deloitte. Prior to Deloitte, he served as superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department. Mills serves on the board of directors of the Insurance Federation of New York, as a trustee of the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation and as a member of the International Insurance Society.
Prevail Therapeutics – New York-based Prevail made several appointments. Yong Dai was named chief technology officer. Dai will lead the company’s process development and analytical development to establish advanced manufacturing. Prior to joining Prevail, Dai was the senior director of Process Development at uniQure, where he was responsible for process and analytical development and manufacturing sciences for early and late-stage gene therapy drug development programs. Additionally, Tim Adams, chief financial officer of ObsEva, was named to the company’s board of directors and board member Francois Nader will expand his role as non-executive chairman.
Bionure -- Lucia Septien was named chief medical officer of Spain-based Bionure. Prior to Bionure, Septien worked as a clinical doctor in neurology and psychiatry then held senior medical and regulatory roles with a focus on neuroscience at major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, GSK, Servier and Ipsen. She later moved to the biotech sector as chief medical officer at DBV Technologies.
Regulatory Compliance Associates -- Neil Pankau joined Wisconsin-based Regulatory Compliance Associates as executive vice president of Pharmaceuticals. Prior to RCA, Pankau held senior leadership positions, including chief compliance officer, in multiple organizations including Getinge AB, Baxter International and Walgreens.
BioCatch -- Bill Sytsma joined New York-based BioCatch as chief revenue officer. Before BioCatch, he served as head of Americas Sales of Financial Services at ThreatMetrix. Sytsma was head of Global Sales for the Software Group at Emulex. He also held senior sales roles at software companies including iPass, Aveksa, Lumigent Technologies and EMC.
Pulmatrix -- Robert Clarke has resigned from his role as chief executive officer. Ted Raad will transition from his current role as chief business officer to that of CEO and member of the Pulmatrix Board of Directors. Clarke will continue as an advisor to the board and company management through Aug. 14. Clarke served at Pulmatrix for 15 years and held roles including head of R&D and CSO. Raad joined Pulmatrix in 2017 as CBO to provide strategic business guidance and lead all business development efforts, which resulted in a partnership with Cipla Technologies.