The COO of Seattle Genetics, Eric Dobmeier, is leaving the company to helm Silverback Therapeutics.
The chief operating officer of Seattle Genetics, Eric Dobmeier, is leaving the company to helm Silverback Therapeutics. The change is effective Jan. 1, 2018.
“I’ve been at Seattle Genetics for almost 16 years,” Dobmeier told GeekWire. But he expressed interest in a chief executive officer position, and he liked the science and staff at Silverback.
Dobmeier isn’t the only high-profile executive to join the stealthy Silverback. John Carroll, writing for Endpoints News, says, “Orbimed’s Peter Thompson came in with a $10 million ante to a $60 million launch round last year, paving the way to recruiting Seattle Genetics’ VP of manufacturing Mike Sun. And the tech wire service added that Juno contributed Sam Blackman, a senior medical director at the I/O company, as head of clinical development while Valerie Odegard stepped over to become SVP of research.”
Not much is known about Silverback, which doesn’t appear to even have a website. According to Crunchbase, Peter Thompson is the company’s co-founder, president and chief executive officer, although he’s stepping down from the CEO position to make way for Dobmeier. In February, the company launched in Bellevue, Washington with $10 million. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that $10 million is part of a $60 million financing.
Thompson is a physician by training, and is also the co-founder and director of Corvus Pharmaceuticals. He is also chairman of the board of Principia Biopharma, co-founder and director of Cleave Biosciences, and Affiliate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington.
The company is believed to be involved in immuno-oncology, largely because many of the people involved in the company have a background in immunology and some held positions at Juno Therapeutics, also based in the Seattle area, which is an immuno-oncology company.
Thompson told GeekWire that he plans to continue to stay as chairman of the board of directors and as an adviser as Dobmeier takes over. “Eric is the perfect fit for the organization,” he said.
According to LinkedIn, Silverback has about 30 staffers. It has leased approximately 19,000 square feet of office space in the Vue Research Center in South Lake Union, Washington.
Dobmeier worked at Seattle Genetics since 2002, and has been chief operations officer since 2011. The company has not announced plans for his replacement, indicating that for now, at least, other executives will take over his duties.
Silverback’s Valerie Odegard, who is senior vice president of research, has a background in immunology. Prior to her role at Juno, she was director of Cellular Immunology at Novo Nordisk, and before that, senior scientist at Trubion Pharmaceuticals. Her PhD from Yale University was in Immunobiology. She holds two patents for TCR Complex Immunotherapeutics along with Thompson, Catherine McMahan, Peter Baum, Philip Tan, John Blankenship and Sateesh Natarajan.
Other Silverback staffers include Badreddin Edris, a senior associate at OrbiMed and Silverback’s co-founder and head of corporate development, Samuel Blackman, senior vice president, Peter Baum, vice president of Immunology, Ken Brasel, senior scientist, Rebecca Brunette, scientist, and Brenda Stevens, senior scientist.
