Gadeta Strengthens Executive Management Team With The Appointments Of Shelley Margetson As CEO & Thomas Davis As CMO

UTRECHT, the Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gadeta B.V., a Dutch start-up company focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer immunotherapies based on gamma delta (?d) T cell receptors, announced today the appointments of Shelley Margetson as Chief Executive Officer, and Thomas Davis, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer.

Giovanni Mariggi, Ph.D., principal at Medicxi and member of Gadeta’s Board of Directors, said: “We are delighted with these senior appointments that round out Gadeta’s management team and set the company on its course for growth and further development. As CFO, Shelley has proven her mettle at Merus, helping raise some of the largest private financing rounds in European biotech, as well as playing a critical role in Merus’s Nasdaq listing in May 2016. During his 11-year tenure as CMO, Thomas was instrumental in building Celldex’s advanced pipeline of therapeutic antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, immune system modulators and other protein-based therapeutics. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Mark de Boer, who as founder and acting CEO helped jump-start Gadeta with his vision and incredible drive.”

Shelley Margetson is an experienced industry executive who joins Gadeta from Merus where she was Chief Financial Officer from 2010 until November 2016, and Chief Operating Officer until August 2017. At Merus, Ms. Margetson was involved in raising over EUR 100 million in private financing rounds from blue chip VCs and big pharma corporate venture investors such as Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Novartis Bioventures, and Pfizer Venture Investments. In 2016 she spearheaded the successful IPO of Merus on Nasdaq. From 2001 until 2010, Ms. Margetson held finance positions of increasing responsibility at a number of biotech companies.

Thomas Davis joins from Celldex, where he was Chief Medical Officer from 2006 until September 2017. Formerly he was Chief Medical Officer at GenVec and Senior Director of Clinical Science at Medarex. Prior to joining the industry, he supervised clinical efforts in adult hematologic malignancies and marrow transplantation and therapeutic antibodies and vaccines at the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and worked with Dr. Ron Levy on the development of rituximab and idiotype vaccines at Stanford University. Dr. Davis received his B.A. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins, M.S. in Physiology and M.D. from Georgetown University, and Oncology training at Stanford University.

About Gadeta

Founded in 2015, Gadeta has developed a technology platform based on combinatorial T Cell receptor exchange (CTE) to create optimized gamma delta (?d) T-cell receptors (TCRs) with an enhanced anti-cancer reactivity. The platform is based on research from Prof. Jürgen Kuball from the University Medical Center Utrecht and Chief Scientific Officer at Gadeta. Gadeta’s new cell-based anti-cancer product called T Cells Engineered To Express A Defined Gamma Delta TCR (TEGs) has strong therapeutic potential for combating and eradicating both hematological and solid tumors. This approach utilizes high-affinity ?d TCRs expressed on aß T cells with superior proliferation capacity. For more information: www.gadeta.nl.