Biotech and pharma companies strengthen their leadership teams with new appointments.
Bayer – Life science giant Bayer AG reduced its C-Suite from seven to five. The changes are effective Jan. 1. This week, the company announced Hartmut Klusik and Kemal Malik will leave the company’s supervisory board as the company eliminates both positions. Klusik has been a member of the board of management since January 2016 and is responsible for human resources, technology and sustainability. He is also the company’s labor director. Malik has been a member of the board since February 2014 and is responsible for innovation as well as the Asia/Pacific region. Their responsibilities will be reallocated. Werner Wenning, chairman of the supervisory board of Bayer, said by streamlining the structure, Bayer is “optimizing the allocation of responsibilities and contributing to the company’s ongoing efficiency program.” As of Jan. 1, 2020, the Board of Management of Bayer AG will consist of Chairman Werner Baumann, Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Nickl and division presidents Liam Condon, who is in charge of Crop Science, pharmaceuticals head Stefan Oelrich and Heiko Schipper, who is in charge of consumer health.
Cerevel Therapeutics – Industry veteran Tony Coles was tapped to helm Pfizer spinout Cerevel as its new chief executive officer. Coles, who has had a distinguished career with multiple companies, including Onyx and Vertex, has been serving as executive chairperson of Cerevel’s board of directors since December 2018. He will retain that role in addition to his duties as CEO. Before Cerevel, Coles was co-founder and CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics where he was instrumental in establishing and advancing a drug discovery platform based on live-cell modeling that has resulted in three novel drug candidates for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Before Yumanity, he helmed Onyx Pharmaceuticals where he oversaw its acquisition by Amgen and also served as head of commercial operations at Vertex. Earlier in his career, he held several executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and positions of increasing responsibility at Merck. Coles currently serves on the Board of Directors of McKesson Corporation and Regeneron and is a member of the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins University.
BrainStorm -- Preetam Shah has been named chief financial officer of Israel-based BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to BrainStorm, Shah served as director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Barclays Capital Plc., where he focused on life sciences and medical device sectors. Before that, Shah served as vice president of Healthcare Investment Banking at Canaccord Genuity Inc. Shah founded and served as managing director of Saisarva LLC., a healthcare financial consulting firm. Shah will be based in New York.
Mogrify – U.K.-based Mogrify Ltd. named Jane Osbourn as chair of its board of directors. In addition to this role, Osbourn will become a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and support the company’s executive team in therapeutic program selection, industrial partner development, mentoring and investor relations. Osbourn most recently served as vice president for Research and Development and Site Leader at MedImmune, an AstraZeneca company. Osbourn is also chair of the board of directors of the BioIndustry Association, a director of Babraham Bioscience Technologies and a director of Cambridge Enterprise.
MaaT Pharma – France-based Maat tapped Jean-Marc Renard as chief business officer and Emmanuel Prestat as computational biology manager. Renard previously was vice president of corporate development at Sanofi Pasteur where he was responsible for global business development, M&A and alliance management activities. Before that, he was the senior director of M&A and strategic projects at Aventis Pharmaceuticals before it merged with Sanofi-Synthélabo in 2004. Prior to joining MaaT Pharma, Prestat was associate director of R&D at HalioDx, a diagnostic company developing tools for immuno-oncology assays. Before that, Prestat served as a senior manager of biostatistics & bioinformatics within the in vitro diagnostics department at QIAGEN.
ZeaKal -- ZeaKal, a San Diego-based plant traits innovator focused on improving crop efficiency, added Paul Schickler, former president of DuPont Pioneer, to its leadership team. Before joining ZeaKal, Schickler served in various leadership roles during a four-decade tenure at DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva Agriscience). Schickler will take an active role in driving strategy and partnership opportunities for ZeaKal.
Kintai Therapeutics -- Mark E. Nuttall was named CBO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Kintai Therapeutics. In this role, Nuttall will oversee the company’s business development and alliance management functions. Nuttall was most recently the CBO at Kymera Therapeutics, where he executed a strategic collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Kymera, Nuttall was the vice president and head of business development and licensing for several core therapeutic franchises at Sanofi Genzyme. He spent 13 years at Johnson & Johnson, most recently spearheading global strategy for neuroscience business development. Nuttall began his career in the pharmaceutical industry in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.
Pappas Capital – N.C.-based Pappas announced that Alex Arfaei has joined the life sciences VC firm as a partner of Pappas Ventures. Arfaei will be responsible for helping to identify and evaluate investment opportunities for the firm’s venture capital business. Arfaei previously held operating roles at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Merck.
