Pharmaceutical Market Europe • February 2022 • 42-44
APPOINTMENTS
GlaxoSmithKline
Tony Wood
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has appointed Tony Wood as its new chief scientific officer designate, effective from 1 August 2022. Wood’s new role will see him taking full responsibility for research and development, spanning across GSK’s portfolio and pipeline. Wood will succeed Dr Hal Barron as CSO. Wood joined GSK in 2017, serving as the company’s senior vice president of medicinal science and technology. In this role, he supervised all science and technology platforms supporting the discovery, development and delivery of new medicines across the organisation. With over 30 years of experience, Wood has been referred to as one of the world’s pre-eminent chemists, delivering innovative medicines across a variety of R&D fields.
Merck
David Weinstock
Merck has appointed David Weinstock as its vice president for the company’s Discovery Oncology teams, leading multiple oncology programmes, complementing the company’s clinical pipeline. Weinstock has extensive leadership experience, having served as the Lavin Family Chair of Preventative Medicine at the Dana Faber Cancer Institute and as an associate physician in medical oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Merck
Frank Clyburn
Merck has announced that its executive vice president and president of Human Health, Frank Clyburn, is leaving the company, effective on 1 February 2022. Clyburn leaves Merck, having joined in 2008, assuming various leadership positions within the company, including commercial officer for Human Health and president of Merck’s global oncology business, alongside managing multiple pharmaceutical franchises.
Altos Labs
Hal Barron
Altos Labs has appointed Hal Barron as its new CEO and board co-chair of the private biotech company, commencing on 1 August 2022. Barron previously served at GlaxoSmithKline for four years, where he was chief scientific officer. He will continue to fulfil his role as a non-executive director with GSK, lending his support to other R&D projects on behalf of the company.
Chinook Therapeutics
Charlotte Jones-Burton
Chinook Therapeutics has appointed Charlotte Jones-Burton as its new senior vice president of product development and strategy. Jones-Burton will assist in developing the company’s existing pipeline of precision medicines for kidney diseases. Having worked for over a decade in pharmaceuticals, at both Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck, Jones-Burton brings a wealth of industry expertise to her role.
Angelini Pharma
Rafal Kaminski
Angelini Pharma has appointed Rafal Kaminski as its new chief scientific officer. Kaminski will provide leadership for future pipeline development and research and innovation model. Prior to this, Kaminski served as chief scientific officer at OncoAndredi Therapeutics, having also served in international senior research and development leadership roles with Roche and UCB.
iTeos Therapeutics
Yvonne McGrath
iTeos Therapeutics has announced the promotion of Yvonne McGrath as the company’s chief scientific officer. McGrath will be responsible for furthering the advancement of iTeos' pipeline of immunotherapy candidates in advanced cancers. McGrath served as vice president of R&D from June 2020, bringing over 20 years of immunology expertise to the company, having served as chief scientific officer at Complix.
insitro
Ellen Berg
Ellen Berg is insitro's new VP of Biomarker Sciences. She brings a wealth of scientific leadership expertise in translational human biology for drug discovery, specialising in the development of new translational technology research. Berg served at Eurofins Discovery as its chief scientific officer, developing new in vitro pharmacological and phenotypic profiling data and analysis services.
insitro
Theofanis Karaletsos
insitro has appointed Theofanis Karaletsos as its new VP of data science and machine learning. Previously, Karaletsos worked for Facebook as a staff research scientist in the Probability Organization, researching probabilistic treatments and programming. He was also a senior researcher at Uber AI Labs and brings excellent machine intelligence insight to insitro.
Novartis UK
Roland Kreissig
Novartis UK has appointed Roland Kreissig as its new oncology general manager for UK and Ireland, effective from 1 February 2022. Kreissig joins the UK branch after working for 17 years within Novartis where he addressed access issues for innovative oncology therapies. Kreissig has incorporated his expertise as a trained physician into his work, dedicating himself to patient care. Kreissig will be leading the UK team in finalising organisational changes that move towards new external engagement models, supported by data and digital. Kreissig will focus on reinforcing relationships with the NHS to improve treatment access, healthcare inequalities and address post-COVID-19 backlogs in cancer care.
Bausch + Lomb
Yehia Hashad
Bausch + Lomb has appointed Yehia Hashad as its chief medical officer and executive vice president of research & development. Hashad has over 25 years of experience working in leading multinational pharmaceutical companies, specialising in ophthalmic healthcare. He has provided leadership expertise at Allergan/AbbVie, serving as the company’s senior vice president and head of R&D.
Exscientia
Charlotte Deane
Context Therapeutics has appointed Christopher Beck as its new senior vice president of operations. Beck has joined Context after serving as vice president of programme management at Galera Therapeutics. Prior to his work at Galera, he spent nearly a decade at Shire where he helped in creating the company’s first global project management and resource capacity planning capability.
Covis Pharma
Michelle Lock
Covis Pharma has appointed Michelle Lock as its new chief operating officer. She will be responsible for leading the company’s global commercial business and technical operations. With over 30 years of healthcare experience, Lock has led pharmaceutical companies in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia. She will report to the company’s CEO and will be based in Zug, Switzerland.
Covis Pharma
Sandy Loreaux
Covis Pharma has appointed Sandy Loreaux as its president. In November 2021, Loreaux joined as the company’s senior vice president of US market access, pricing and reimbursement. Loreaux brings a wealth of industry expertise to the role, having worked at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals as its senior vice president and general manager of critical care, assuming responsibility for profit and loss.
Lucida Medical
David Tuch
Lucida Medical has appointed David Tuch as a non-executive Chair of the Board. Tuch has extensive senior leadership experience, having served as global head of imaging at Novartis and head of research alliances at GE Healthcare. Tuch started and served as CEO for Lightpoint Medical, developing miniaturised gamma ray sensor for surgery for prostate cancer and other conditions.
Aqillion
Anneli Hällgren
Aquilion has appointed Anneli Hällgren as its new head of preclinical development, with a view to include regulatory safety studies. Hällgren has served as a consultant in preclinical drug discovery with more than 20 years of experience. She has led R&D projects focusing on various disease areas, including inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, serving at AstraZeneca, Biolipox and Melacure.
Biogen
Nancy Leaming
Biogen has announced that Nancy Leaming will retire from her role as a member serving on Biogen’s Board of Directors. Leaming’s retirement will become effective at the time of Biogen’s 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. After joining Biogen’s Board in 2008, Leaming served as the CEO and president of Tufts Health plan – a healthcare insurance provider.
Biogen
Brian Posner
Biogen has announced that Brian Posner will retire from his role as a member serving on Biogen’s Board of Directors. Posner’s retirement will take effect at the time of Biogen’s 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. Alongside his role at Biogen since 2008, Posner is a private investor and founder and Managing Partner of Point Rider Group LLC.
Anthem PR
Rebecca Fergusson
Health PR group Anthem has appointed Rebecca Fergusson as its new managing director, overseeing the company’s daily management and progression strategies. Fergusson brings over 20 years of experience to the role, having previously served as managing director at Mind + Matter, a branch of Ashfield Health. Prior to this, Fergusson was the managing director of Red Health – previously part of Huntsworth.
MedEvoke
Shauna Aherne
MedEvoke has appointed Shauna Aherne as president, succeeding Marc Sirockman. Aherne has demonstrated excellent leadership skills and extensive knowledge during her time at MedEvoke, serving as part of the MedEvoke team for over six years. She joined the company as vice president of strategic accounts before being promoted to senior vice president in the same department.
Healthware
Jonah Comstock
Healthware has appointed Jonah Comstock as editor-in-chief. Comstock brings to his new role a solid background in healthtech and digital health journalism. Comstock will provide editorial oversight of Healthware’s pharmaphorum, Frontiers Health and the Digital Health Blogs. Previously, Comstock worked at MobiHealthNews, advancing to editorial director for HIMSS Media.
AXON
Elisabeth Mozel-Jury
Axon has appointed Elisabeth Mozel-Jury as its vice president of strategy and business development as part of the agency’s Clinical Studies practice. She was previously AXON’s director of public relations and brings to her new role nearly 20 years of healthcare strategy, communications experience and a background of creating impactful programmes to effect meaningful change.
Page & Page
Kristian Webb
Kristian Webb has been appointed as Page & Page’s first scientific director. Webb will lead the company’s scientific team, utilising his years of expertise and industry knowledge to work at supporting its clients. Webb served as a scientific director at Havas Lynx Faze and also worked as a chief cardiac physiologist within the NHS, while founding a medical device company for patients needing implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.
Envision Pharma Group
Julie Beeso
Envision Pharma Group has appointed Julie Beeso as its new global director of professional development and engagement. In this new role, Beeso will help to develop professional development programmes. Beeso has nearly 25 years of experience across a variety of medical communication positions in both the UK and the US, and recently led patient engagement at Oxford PharmaGenesis.
Eisai
Tricia Brooks
Eisai has announced the appointment of Tricia Brooks as the company’s vice president and head of office for government affairs and policy. Equipped with over 25 years’ public affairs and strategy experience, Brooks will develop the company’s public policy function by growing Eisai’s work in forming a network of key decision makers. Alongside her new position, Brooks will also serve as a member of the Eisai Executive Committee.
Drug Information Association
Aleksandar Ruzicic
The Drug Information Association (DIA) has appointed Aleksandar Ruzicic to its Regional Advisory Council for the EMEA region. With a background in life sciences, Ruzicic joined Executive Insight in 2013 as a partner, providing his expertise as both a marketing and service design lead and currently serves as the company’s head of operations. Ruzicic will aid the DIA in improving global patient healthcare services.
Macomics
Karin de Visser
Macomics has appointed Karin de Visser to its advisory panel. With a wealth of immunology and oncology experience, de Visser provides senior group leadership at the Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. She is also group leader at Oncode Institute and professor of Experimental Immunobiology of Cancer at Leiden University Medical Center.
Macomics
Carlos Gomez-Roca
Macomics has appointed Carlos Gomez-Roca to its advisory panel. Gomez-Roca is recognised for conducting the first-in-human trial of emactuzumab and serves as a cancer specialist at the Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse, where he is co-Chair of the Clinical Research Unit at IUCT-Oncopole and leader in the Early Phase Unit focusing on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology.
Macomics
Daniel Speiser
Macomics has appointed Daniel Speiser to its advisory panel. He has over 30 years of translational research experience previously serving as a clinician-scientist at the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute. Speiser pioneers
T cell-based immunotherapy for cancer patients, making notable contributions to human T cell research, analysing immune activatory and inhibitory pathways.
Macomics
Klaus Okkenhaug
Macomics has appointed Klaus Okkenhaug to its expert advisory panel. Okkenhaug currently serves as Chair of Immunology at Cambridge University within the Department of Pathology. In his research, Okkenhaug focuses on the pathways used by the immune system to instruct and coordinate defences against pathogens, to understand the effect of drugs on the immune system.