Mark A. Meltz, J.D. has joined the company as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Sarah J. Spencer has joined the company as Vice President, Corporate Communications.
| SAN FRANCISCO, April 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BOLD), a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative gene therapy products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare diseases, today announced that Mark A. Meltz, J.D. has joined the company as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Sarah J. Spencer has joined the company as Vice President, Corporate Communications. In addition, Thomas P. Soloway, currently Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, has been promoted to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Tom will continue to lead the finance, accounting, and investor relations functions. Mark will lead the legal, compliance, and corporate governance functions. Sarah will be responsible for internal and external communications to build global awareness of the company, its mission, culture, and innovative product portfolio. “Tom’s promotion is reflective of his outstanding leadership of finance, accounting, and investor relations, as well as his significant contributions to our overall corporate strategy,” stated Matthew R. Patterson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We are also thrilled that Mark and Sarah are joining Audentes at this exciting time. Both are experienced leaders with significant industry and subject matter expertise which will be invaluable as we continue to advance our portfolio of product candidates through clinical and regulatory milestones and build a commercial organization.” Mark has nearly 20 years of leadership experience serving in various roles at global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as a top international law firm. He joins Audentes from PaxVax, a specialty vaccines company, where he managed business development, legal, compliance, and government affairs/public policy functions, and led the company’s October 2018 sale to Emergent BioSolutions. Prior to joining PaxVax, Mark worked at Biogen Idec (now Biogen), where he served as the U.S. commercial lead lawyer for Tysabri® and Tecfidera® (including for its US launch), and as the lead lawyer for global medical affairs. Earlier in his career, Mark served as Head of Legal for Novartis Vaccines for North America and Latin America (including for the U.S. launch of Menveo®). Before joining the industry, Mark practiced law at the international law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP (now part of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP), where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, securities regulation, and general corporate matters. Mark earned his Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School, Magna Cum Laude, and his Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in Psychology from Yale University. Sarah has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and life sciences communications. She joins Audentes from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she was most recently Head, US Corporate Communications. Sarah spent 13 years at GSK working in a variety of global communications roles both in the UK and the US where she had responsibility for corporate media relations, financial communications, crisis communications, reputation management, and product and pipeline communications. Sarah has worked directly with CEO & C-suite executives extensively. Prior to GSK, Sarah worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals (now Perrigo Company) where she led the launch communications for Tysabri® and helped to build the profile of the company’s neurology pipeline. Sarah also worked at Berry PR, a healthcare public relations agency, where she developed and executed communications strategies and campaigns for small and emerging biotech clients. Sarah began her career at Rite Aid Corporation where she served for eight years as a lead media spokesperson handling numerous high-profile issues and crises. Sarah holds a B.S. in Communications & Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. In connection with Mark’s appointment, effective March 28, 2019, the company’s compensation committee granted him 104,000 stock options and 37,333 restricted stock units as an inducement to employment pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The exercise price of the inducement stock options is $37.26. The option award will vest with respect to 25 percent of the award on March 28, 2020, with the remaining portion of the stock option award vesting monthly thereafter, and the restricted stock units award will vest with respect to 25 percent of the award on March 5, 2020, with the remaining portion of the award vesting quarterly thereafter, each subject to Mark’s continued service. About Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. For more information regarding Audentes, please visit www.audentestx.com. Forward Looking Statements Audentes Contacts: Investor Contact: Media Contact:
SOURCE Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. |
Company Codes: NASDAQ-NMS:BOLD |
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