March 6, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Cambridge, Mass.-based Editas Medicine said on Friday that its chief operating officer, Alexandra Glucksmann, is leaving the company on March 31. Her duties will be spread out to other members of Editas’ management team.
This appears to be yet another round of high-profile changes in the company’s executive team. In October 2016, Editas announced that Gerald Cox was joining as chief medical officer. Prior to joining Editas, Cox was the vice president of Rare Disease Clinical Development at Sanofi Genzyme .
Editas also announced that Kenneth LeClair would join as vice president, Technical Development and Manufacturing. Prior to that he was executive director, Technical Research and Development of the Cell and Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Semiramis Trotto also joined as vice president, Human Resources. Before Editas, Trotto was the vice president of Human Resources, Oncology, for Baxalta .
And earlier, on August 22, 2016, Editas announced that Charles Albright was hired as chief scientific officer. Before that, he was vice president of Genetically Defined Diseases and Genomics at Bristol-Myers Squibb .
Alexandra “Sandra” Glucksmann, joined Editas in 2013 as the company’s first employee and chief operating officer. Editas is a genome editing company.
“On behalf of the entire Editas team, I sincerely thank Sandra for her countless contributions since the company’s inception,” said Katrine Bosley, president and chief executive officer of Editas, in a statement. “As one of our founding employees, Sandra has been instrumental in helping launch our company and organize us around our mission of harnessing the potential of CRISPR genome editing to develop transformative medicines for patients. We wish Sandra the best in her future endeavors and will miss her leadership and dedication.”
According to the 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Glucksmann is entitled to severance benefits consisting of 12 months base salary and reimbursement of contributions to the cost of health care continuation under COBRA for 12 months. The company also agreed to accelerate the vesting of an aggregate of 33,969 shares of company common stock, and to extend the exercise period under the option from three months to one year.
“Over the last three years, I have had the distinct privilege of working alongside some of the brightest and most thoughtful people in the industry,” Glucksmann said in a statement. “While stepping away was not an easy decision, I do so with great confidence in Katrine and the entire team at Editas Medicine, as well as the future success of the company. I thank everyone for making my time here so special, and look forward to following the organization’s continued success in the future.”
Neither the company or Glucksmann’s LinkedIn page indicate future plans. Prior to joining Editas, Glucksmann was senior vice president of Research and Business Operations at Cerulean Pharma, formerly Tempo Pharmaceuticals. Before Cerulean, she spent 13 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which she joined in 1993 as one of its first scientists. A member of the Advisory Council of the Harvard Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD with honors from the University of Chicago.
