Movers & Shakers: Adaptive Phage, Atossa, Nimbus and more
As October comes to a close, new Movers & Shakers took over the roles of chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief medical officer and more at companies such as Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Atossa Therapeutics and Nimbus Therapeutics.
Chief Executive Officer
George Zamanakos will assume the role of president and chief executive officer of California-based Intuity Medical. Zamanakos has served on the board of directors at Intuity for the past 18 months.
He was previously divisional vice president of global strategic marketing with Abbott Diabetes. Before that, he was general manager of SweetSpot, a division of Dexcom, and director of strategic marketing for LifeScan, formerly a division of Johnson & Johnson. He began his career with McKinsey & Company.
Zamanakos succeeds Emory Anderson, who led the company over the past 14 years. Anderson will continue to support Intuity in an advisory role.
Chief Medical and Scientific Officers
Scenic Biotech
Netherlands-based Scenic Biotech appointed Jens Würthner, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer.
With more than 20 years experience, Würthner most recently served as vice president, head of global clinical development at ADC Therapeutics. Würthner has also led clinical development programs at large pharmaceutical companies, namely Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.
Richard Graydon, M.D. will assume the role of interim CMO.
Prior to Atossa, Graydon was senior director of clinical development at Johnson and Johnson where he was responsible for leading compound development and clinical trial programs for Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he held the role of director of clinical development at Daiichi Sankyo where he led the early and late-stage development of the small molecule targeted therapy quizartinib for FLT3-positive acute myeloid leukemia.
Edward Fang, M.D. was tapped as CMO. He will oversee development for APT's phage bank treatment candidates through commercialization.
Fang most recently served as CMO of MicuRx Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he was CMO of Adenium Biotech, a Danish spinoff from Novozymes. Earlier in his career, Fang held clinical development management roles at Trius Therapeutics and Cerexa.
Biogen veteran Nathalie Franchimont, M.D., Ph.D. took over the role of CMO at Nimbus.
Franchimont joins Nimbus from Biogen, where she served as senior vice president and head of the multiple sclerosis and immunology development unit.
She previously held a variety of other leadership roles at Biogen, including leading the multiple sclerosis research and early development unit, the new indications research and early development unit and the immunology drug innovation unit. Prior to joining Biogen, Franchimont held medical affairs and clinical development roles at Amgen.
Franchimont has served on the board of directors of OMass Therapeutics since 2020.
Chief Financial Officers
Timothy E. Morris takes over the role of chief financial officer for Australia-based Opthea Limited.
Morris is a veteran pharmaceutical executive based in the United States who has held multiple financial roles throughout his career. Morris joins Opthea from Humanigen, Inc. where he served as both CFO and chief operating officer. Prior to that, he was CFO of Iovance Biotherapeutics. Before that, he was CFO of AcelRx Pharmceuticals, VIVUS, Inc. and Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. He serves on the board of directors of DBV Technologies S.A., Aquestive Therapeutics, Humanetics Corporation and Univercells S.A.
Fred Leffler was named CFO of Biofrontera.
Most recently, Leffler was a senior manager at McKinsey & Company in Boston. Previously, he was a senior director at FTI Consulting in the corporate finance and restructuring group. He also served as vice president at the boutique global investment firm RockCreek, and held various financial positions at General Electric and Sun Edison.
Ivor Macleod joins New Jersey-based SCYNEXIS as CFO. He replaces Larry Hoffman, who served as interim CFO since late 2021.
Macleod joined SCYNEXIS from Athersys, Inc. where he served as CFO since January 2020. Previously he was CFO and chief compliance officer of Eisai Inc., the U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary of Eisai Co., Ltd. Prior to Eisai, he served as vice president of finance at Merck Research Labs at Merck & Co., Inc. Before Merck, he held multiple financial roles served at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc.
Michael Fortunato has been promoted to CFO. He previously served as controller.
Fortunato spent almost seven years with the SEC’s Enforcement Division at the San Francisco regional office. There, he monitored SEC registrant compliance with SEC rules and regulations for companies located from Northern California to Washington State.
Other C-Suite Roles
Robert Williamson was named president and chief business officer of Triumvera. Williamson will lead business development and strategy for the company.
Prior to joining Triumvira, Williamson was president and chief executive officer at BioTheryX, Inc. He also held senior leadership roles at PharmAkea, Inc., ATXCo, Arriva Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Eos Biotechnology, Inc. and DoubleTwist, Inc.
Throughout his career, Williamson has served as a board member for a number of companies including Pharmasset, Inc. and Progen Pharmaceuticals.
Mark Baldry was named chief commercial officer of Boston-based X4.
He previously served as CCO of Freeline Therapeutics Holdings and Wave Life Sciences. Baldry also held the role of vice president of global marketing and commercial operations at Amicus Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Baldry held leadership roles at Biogen and Shire Pharmaceuticals.
Trish Howell was named chief operating officer of Bay Area-based Element Science.
Prior to joining Element Science, she was vice president of operations at Avail Medsystems, a company pioneering technology in surgical telemedicine with the goal of more connected healthcare. Before that, she was VP of Operations at Stryker via the acquisition of ZipLine Medical. Before this, Howell was VP of Operations at Pulmonx Corporation.
Jenny Hsieh was named chief strategy officer of New York-based Actinium.
Prior to joining Actinium, Hsieh was the head of corporate strategy at Immunomedics. Previously, she was the director of corporate strategy at Quest Diagnostics and a management consultant at several firms.
Beyond Hsieh, Actinium also made several other appointments. Sunitha Lakshminarayanan was named senior vice president, head of CMC and product development and Stephen Dressel was named vice president of strategic finance and analysis.