Biotech Leadership Transformations: Week of June 11th
Biotech companies continue to make moves to strengthen senior leadership teams and drive growth. Below is a roundup of some noted movers and shakers for the week of June 11 - 15.
Aimmune Therapeutics – Brisbane, Calif.-based Aimmune Therapeutics tapped Jayson Dallas as its new president and chief executive officer. Dallas, who joins the company on June 19, replaces Stephen Dilly at the helm of the company. Dilly has retired from the company, but will serve as a special advisor to Aimmune through the end of 2018, as the company prepares to seek regulatory approval of AR101, its investigational biologic oral immunotherapy for desensitization of patients with peanut allergy. Aimmune plans to submit a Biologics License Application for AR101 to the FDA by the end of 2018.
Prior to Aimmune, Dallas served as the chief commercial officer of Ultragenyx. At that company, he oversaw the commercial launch of Mepsevii, a treatment for the rare genetic enzyme disorder mucopolysaccharidosis type VII, also known as Sly syndrome. Before Ultragenyx, Dallas spent five years at Roche as general manager of its United Kingdom business and as head of global commercial strategy groups at Genentech, focused on oncology, immunology and ophthalmology.
Arcus Biosciences, Inc. – Jennifer Jarrett was promoted to chief operating officer at Hayward, Calif.-based Arcus Biosciences. Before the promotion, Jarrett held the positions of chief business officer. She will maintain her position as chief financial officer at the company. In her new role, Jarrett will be responsible for key areas that include finance, investor relations, corporate communications, business and corporate development, strategic planning and human resources. Jarrett joined Arcus in 2017 with more than 20 years of experience in biotech. Prior to Arcus, Jarrett was the chief financial officer of Medivation. She served through that company’s acquisition by Pfizer. Prior to Medivation, Jarrett spent 18 years in investment banking, most recently as a Managing Director in Citigroup’s Health Care Investment Banking Group. Jarrett also serves on the Board of Directors of Arena Pharmaceuticals and Audentes Therapeutics.
Finch Therapeutics Group, Inc. – Somerville, Mass.-based Finch Therapeutics saw two appointments this week. Ulrich Thienel was named chief medical officer. He will helm the company’s clinical development of the Full-Spectrum Microbiota and Rationally-Selected Microbiota platforms. Gregory Perry was named chief financial officer. He will provide strategic financial and operational leadership at Finch, the company said.
Thienel has more than 20 years of experience successfully leading drug development programs for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including RRD International, Takeda, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson. Over the course of his career, Thienel has engaged in 10 investigational new drug applications, two new drug applications and three biologics license applications.
During Perry’s two decades in the industry, he has overseen the acquisition of three companies and raised more than $1 billion in capital. Prior to Finch, Perry held various senior financial leadership roles at several biotech companies including Novelion Therapeutics, Eleven Biotherapeutics, ImmunoGen, Domantis, and Transkaryotic Therapies.
Allergan -- Thomas Freyman, formerly of Abbott Laboratories, has been named to the board of directors at Allergan. Freyman’s appointment was part of the company’s ongoing board refreshment process. Freyman will bring more than 40 years of experience to the Ireland-based company. At Abbott Freyman was executive vice president of finance and administration. He also served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of finance at the company. Freyman retired from Abbott in 2017.
Simplify Medical –Brian Polonet and Kim Norton joined Simplify Medical as the head of sales and marketing and vice president of reimbursements, respectively. In addition, two existing key members of the Simplify leadership team have been promoted. Beth Neil was elevated to head of Clinical Affairs and Mark Alvis was named vice president of Quality Assurance & Operations.
BIOASIS Technologies Inc. – British Colombia-based biOasis strengthened its scientific advisory board this week with three appointments. Mario Saltarelli, senior vice president of early development and neurology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Jack Hoppin, co-founder and chief executive officer at Invicro, and Sue O’Connor, vice president of neuroscience research at Bionomics, were all named to the company’s scientific advisory board (SAB).
BlackThorn Therapeutics -- George S. Golumbeski, a venture partner at ARCH Venture Partners, was named to the BlackThorn Therapeutics Board of Directors. Golumbeski most recently served as executive vice president of business development at Celgene Corporation. He currently serves on the boards of Carrick Therapeutics, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, KSQ Therapeutics and MorphoSys. He is also a member of the board of directors of the National Audubon Society.
Science Exchange – There were two appointments this week at Palo Alto-based Science Exchange. Rob Mihalko was appointed vice president of marketing. Alex Slater was named vice president of business management and general managers of the company’s Europe office. The two biotech veterans are expected to help lead the company through its next phase of growth.
Prior to Science Exchange, Mihalko was global vice president of solution & customer marketing for SAP Ariba. Most recently slater was the vice president of global business development at Eurofins Pharma Discovery Services.