BioSpace Movers & Shakers, Oct. 1

Biopharma companies and life sciences organizations strengthen their leadership teams and boards with these Movers & Shakers. 

Panakès Partners – Rob Woodman joined Italian venture capital firm Panakès. He will lead the firm’s newly created biotech investment team. Woodman comes to Panakès Partners after serving as a Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures and also Head of Genesis Labs, Takeda R&D's internal incubator.  Prior to Takeda, he was a Partner in the Healthcare Investment team at Touchstone Innovations (formerly Imperial Innovations) in London (UK).  He started his venture career at Sofinnova Partners in Paris where he became Principal in the life science team. The appointment of Woodman follows the recent first closing at €150 million ($175 million) of Panakès’ second fund, which is focused on both Biotech and Medtech.

Denali Therapeutics – Katie Peng was appointed to the newly created role of chief commercial officer at Denali Therapeutics. Peng most recently served as the Senior Vice President, Head of the OMNI Business Unit at Genentech where she was responsible for the neurology, ophthalmology, immunology, respiratory, and rare diseases portfolio. During her 20 year career at Genentech, Peng held multiple leadership positions. Prior to Genentech, Peng held several commercial roles at Amgen and began her career as a research scientist at Allergan.

Perineologic – Evan Brasington was named CCO at Perineologic, a subsidiary of Corbin Clinical Resources, Inc. Before joining Perineologic, Brasington was with Boston Scientific Corporation from 1997-2021 where he held senior level positions in sales, marketing and international market development, most recently serving as division vice president, global market development, acquired technologies, urology and pelvic health. Earlier in his career, Brasington held progressive senior sales management positions at Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, Inc.

Ono Pharma – David Trexler was named CCO of Ono Pharma USA (OPOS). Most recently, he served as President and Member of the Board of Directors of MorphoSys US Inc., a business of MorphoSys AG. Prior to MorphoSys, he worked for EMD Serono, a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. He previously held leadership roles at Eisai Inc., Mylan Bertek Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

Cartesian Therapeutics -- Miloš Miljković was named chief medical officer of Maryland-based Cartesian. Miljković will oversee the strategy and execution of the company’s growing clinical pipeline of RNA cell therapies. Prior to joining Cartesian, Miljković was a Staff Clinician at the National Cancer Institute for over seven years. Also, Cartesian appointed co-founder Metin Kurtoglu as the company’s first Chief Operating Officer.

Cleerly – Heart disease-focused Cleerly named Brandon Atkinson chief operating officer and tapped Nick Nieslanik as chief technology officer. Most recently, Atkinson was the CEO of 46 Summits Consulting, which helped venture-backed companies identify and unlock their internal rate limiters for growth. Prior to that, he was the COO at Monetate, which was acquired by a Vista Equity Partners company, Kibo Commerce. He joined Roivant Sciences shortly after they closed a $1.1 billion round from Softbank to help scale their operations. Atkinson was also an early employee at AppNexus and Opsware. Before Cleerly, Nieslanik served as vice president of engineering at Teladoc Health. Prior to that role, he was a senior director of engineering at Livongo. He joined the Livongo team after he was head of engineering at myStrength, a behavioral health startup.

Isarna Therapeutics – Claus Schalper was named chief executive officer of Germany-based Isarna. Schalper joins Isarna from Pieris Pharmaceuticals, a company that he co-founded in 2001 and where he held the position of chief financial officer among other roles. Mr. Schalper began his career with Arthur Andersen and subsequently served as CEO for several companies in the technology industry.

Genenta Science – Barbara Regonini was named to the newly-created post of financial director at Italy-based Genenta. Before joining Genenta, she was CFO at the financial brokerage OAM, responsible for administrative and internal control and compliance, and an advisor on financial risk management to Milan-listed renewable energy company, KREnergy S.p.A. Genenta also announces that Gaurav Shah, Brad Loncar and Alec Ross will act as strategic advisors. Shah is currently co-founder and CEO at gene therapy company Rocket Pharma. Before that he was a Global Program Head in the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis. Loncar is CEO of Loncar Investments, and a prominent biotechnology industry investor and analyst. Ross is Distinguished Visiting Professor at The University of Bologna Business School, and a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm.

HiberCell – Jonathan Lanfear was named COO of HiberCell. Lanfear is an accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of strategic, operational, and transactional experience within the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining HiberCell, Lanfear held numerous senior leadership positions in business development and strategy within the Center for External Innovation and Global Business Development organizations at Takeda Pharmaceuticals as well as in Worldwide Business Development & Strategy while at Pfizer.

Nurix Therapeutics – Judith A. Reinsdorf and Paul M. Silva were appointed to the board of directors of Nurix Therapeutics. Reinsdorf is the former executive vice president and general counsel of Johnson Controls International, and Silva is the former senior vice president, chief accounting officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.