Movers & Shakers: Galera, Verily, Avid and More Tap New Execs

As the summer ends, biopharma and life sciences companies, such as Seraxis, Verily and Vaxart, tap new members to bolster their leadership teams in roles like chief medical officer, chief technology officer and more.

Galera Therapeutics – Eugene P. Kennedy was named CMO of Pennsylvania-based Galera.

Kennedy is a Johns Hopkins-trained surgical oncologist and former pancreatic and hepatobiliary surgery chief at Thomas Jefferson University. He succeeds Jon T. Holmlund, who will retire at the end of this year. Before joining Galera, Kennedy served as CMO at Innovative Cellular Therapeutics. Previously, he served as CMO at Lumos Pharma, and before that, Kennedy served as CMO of NewLink Genetics.

Avid Bioservices – Pramthesh (Prem) Patel was named vice president of process development for its mammalian cell business.

Over the course of his career, Patel held research, development and manufacturing roles at GSK (formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline) and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Verily – Alix Hart was tapped to serve as chief marketing officer of Verily.

She will be responsible for all brand, digital and product marketing efforts and overall marketing operations. Hart joined Verily in early 2021 as head of content and digital strategy. Before joining Verily, Hart spent five years at NVIDIA as the global head of digital marketing. Before NVIDIA, she held marketing leadership roles in companies spanning various industry sectors, including Symantec, Best Buy and Time Inc., with brand, PR, e-commerce, digital and media responsibilities.

ProKidney Corp. – Glenn Schulman was named senior vice president of investor relations.

Schulman previously served as vice president of investor relations at X4 Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he held similar positions at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Achillion Pharmaceuticals and CuraGen Corporation. In addition to his IR and corporate communications roles, he was a practicing pharmacist for 16 years.

Vaxart, Inc. – Biotech veteran Ray Stapleton was named chief technology officer.

Stapleton joins Vaxart from Genocea, where he served as CTO. Before Genocea, he served as president and COO of American Type Culture Collection. Prior to ATCC, Stapleton worked in senior manufacturing and technical operations roles at Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. and Synthetic Biologics, Inc., after spending 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility in Merck and Company’s manufacturing organization.

Dyne Therapeutics – With more than two decades of experience, Francesco Bibbiani was named senior vice president and head of development.

Bibbiani joins Dyne from Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., where he served as vice president of global clinical development and oversaw all stages of the development of neuromuscular and neurology product candidates. Previously, Bibbiani was the vice president of clinical development for PTC Therapeutics, Inc.; before that, he held several roles at Eisai, Inc.

Seraxis, Inc. – Maryland-based Seraxis named Paul Strumph as its new chief medical officer. 

Before Seraxis, Strumph was CMO of Metavant Sciences and served as head of clinical development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. He also held CMO roles at Quintiles and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Before those positions, Strumph held numerous roles of increasing responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline, Merck KGaA/EMD, and Bristol Myers Squibb & Co.

Ori Biotech – Cell and gene therapy manufacturing company Ori Biotech added three to its leadership team. Quentin Vicard was appointed director of product management, Brian Macauley was named cloud platform lead, and Claire Horlock was named principal scientist. Vicard joined from Sartorius, Macauley and Horlock joined the company from Autolus.

Olink Holding AB – Chief Commercial Officer Carl Raimond will be named president of Sweden-based Olink effective upon hiring a new CCO, which is expected by the end of the year.

He will continue to serve as CCO in the interim. Raimond has served as Olink’s CCO since October 2020, previously serving as the company’s senior vice president of sales beginning in August 2020. Prior to Olink, he served in various executive commercial leadership roles at PerkinElmer, Inc. Additionally, Anna Marsell will assume the role of chief operating officer effective Dec. 1. She will join the company from Galderma, where she has held several leadership positions with increasing responsibility over the past ten years, including general manager/head of Nordic, and senior roles in decision support and strategic planning.

Biote Corp. – Samar Kamdar was named chief financial officer and will oversee the company’s financial operations with a focus on driving revenue growth and profitability. Most recently, Kamdar served as CFO at Slync.io, a software-as-a-service operating platform company. Previously, Kamdar was CFO at TaxAct, a leading provider of tax preparation solutions.