Pharmaceutical Market Europe • April 2025 • 36
APPOINTMENTS
Aurion Biotech
Arnaud Lacoste
Aurion Biotech has appointed Arnaud Lacoste as chief executive officer. Lacoste brings extensive industry experience to his latest role, which he takes on after most recently serving as Aurion's chief scientific officer. Lacoste has already made a significant contribution to the company and has played a key role in its founding. He has also designed its scientific strategy and led development efforts, including non-clinical development. Prior to joining Aurion, Lacoste was at Novartis for 12 years, most recently serving as group head of cell and gene therapies, regenerative medicine. He was also project team leader, stem cells and regenerative medicine at Novartis, and earlier in his career served as director of Rockefeller University’s stem cell facility, and as chief scientific officer and co-founder at Inseron.
Nimbus Therapeutics
Abbas Kazimi
Nimbus Therapeutics has appointed Abbas Kazimi as chief executive officer and a member of its board of directors. Kazimi has most recently been serving as chief business officer at Nimbus, after joining the company as director of business development. Prior to this, Kazimi spent a decade in planning and executing strategic transactions for life sciences clients.
Stoke Therapeutics
Ian Smith
Stoke Therapeutics has appointed Ian Smith as interim chief executive officer. Smith brings more than two decades of industry experience to the role. He previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer, and chief financial officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He has served as a member of Stoke’s board of directors for over a year.
IsomAb
Gary Burgess
IsomAb has appointed Gary Burgess as chief medical officer. Burgess has over 20 years of experience across all phases of drug development in a broad range of therapeutic areas. He previously held senior positions at Aerami Therapeutics, Vectura and Conatus Pharmaceuticals, and worked in the cardiovascular therapeutic area at Pfizer on treatments for vascular diseases.
Mestag Therapeutics
Matthew Sleeman
Mestag Therapeutics has appointed Matthew Sleeman as chief scientific officer. Sleeman joins the company from Regeneron, where he served as vice president of research, head of therapeutic focus area immunology and inflammation. Earlier in his career, Sleeman was Cambridge site lead for the respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity group at MedImmune.
Novavax
Margaret McGlynn
Novavax has appointed Margaret McGlynn as chair of the board. McGlynn brings extensive industry experience to the role. She previously held positions of increasing responsibility over 26 years at Merck, culminating in her role as president of Merck vaccines and infectious disease. She also served as chief executive officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
Novavax
John Shiver
Novavax has appointed John Shiver to its board as an independent director. Shiver has more than 30 years of vaccine, biologics and RNA therapeutics experience in pharmaceutical research and development, and previously held roles at IGM ID, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck and the National Cancer Institute. He has also served on multiple scientific advisory boards and committees.
LEO Pharma
Mark Levick
LEO Pharma has appointed Mark Levick as an independent member of its board of directors. Levick is a former EU medicines regulator and served as chief executive officer of Alvotech. He was previously a practising specialist physician in the UK and Australia, before leading global research and development groups at GSK and Novartis.
LEO Pharma
Liisa Hurme
LEO Pharma has appointed Liisa Hurme as an independent member of its board of directors. Hurme currently serves as president and chief executive officer of Orion Corporation. She has over 20 years of experience in the chemical and healthcare industries, also chairs the board at the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland.
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