Pharmaceutical Market Europe • June 2022 • 42-44
APPOINTMENTS
British Medical Association
Rachel Podolak and Neeta Major
The British Medical Association has appointed Rachel Podolak and Neeta Major as its joint chief executive officers and they will share the role. Podolak is a serving member of the BMA leadership team and she started her career as a graduate trainee at the BMA. She has worked in health policy for over 15 years for both the BMA and the General Medical Council, at a UK and Welsh level.
Neeta Major is a graduate of the London School of Economics. Major brings 30 years' experience in finance from a variety of sectors including local authorities, financial services, academia and one of the big four accountancy firms. She will be responsible for implementing corporate and financial strategy across the organisation.
Enthera Pharmaceuticals
Aled Williams
Enthera Pharmaceuticals has appointed Aled Williams as CEO and member of its Board of Directors. With over 25 years’ experience as a senior executive in the biotech and pharma sectors, he joins Enthera from Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals AG, where he served as chief business officer. He was chief commercial officer at VectivBio and also worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and Roche.
Adcendo
Dominik Mumberg
Adcendo has appointed Dominik Mumberg as its chief scientific officer. Mumberg brings over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and joins Adcendo from Bayer, where he served as head of therapeutic research area oncology and as vice president, targeted alpha therapies. Prior to his work with Bayer, Mumberg was director, apoptosis and signal transduction research at Schering.
Biomunex
Simon Plyte
Biomunex has appointed Simon Plyte as its chief scientific officer. Plyte will support the company in its early clinical development of bi- and multi-specific antibodies in cancer treatment. He also joins the scientific advisory board for non-conventional T cell redirection. He brings over 20 years’ leadership experience in R&D, having worked at
Merus, Molecular Partners AG and at Boehringer Ingelheim.
Xilio Therapeutics
Stacey Davis
Xilio Therapeutics has appointed Stacey Davis as chief business officer to further the company’s corporate and business development strategy. Davis has 25 years’ experience in building teams and leading corporate and portfolio strategy. She joins the company from Novartis Oncology. She served as senior vice president, as general manager at Prominex and worked at Johnson & Johnson and Jansen Biotech.
SciRhom GmbH
Jan Poth
SciRhom GmbH has appointed Jan Poth as its chief executive officer. Poth brings a wealth of experience to his new position at SciRhom, with a career spanning over 20 years in the pharma industry. He previously served as therapeutic area head, immunology at Boehringer Ingelheim. In his new role, Poth will support the advancement of the company’s therapeutic candidates.
HOOKIPA Pharma
Christine Baker
HOOKIPA Pharma has appointed Christine Baker as its chief operating officer. After joining in 2019 as chief business officer, Baker has helped to secure several strategic business collaborations for HOOKIPA’s novel arenaviral immunotherapeutics. With over 30 years’ experience, she served as chief business officer at EpicentRx and as vice president at Novartis Oncology.
Opus Genetics
Jennifer Hunt
Opus Genetics has appointed Jennifer Hunt as its new chief development officer. In this role, Hunt will lead clinical development and regulatory affairs. She has over 25 years’ experience in drug development, specialising in global clinical operations and product development. Before joining Opus, she worked at Genzyme, Voyager Therapeutics and Editas Medicine.
Kry
Kalle Conneryd-Lundgren
Kry has appointed Kalle Conneryd-Lundgren as its chief clinical operations officer. Conneryd-Lundgren will lead the company’s global clinical operations team and aims to expand Kry’s clinical strategy and strengthen its software services. He is an associate professor in reconstructive plastic surgery and craniofacial diseases joins Kry from Karolinska University Hospital.
NHS England
Chris Hopson
NHS England has appointed Chris Hopson as its new chief strategy officer. Hopson offers an extensive background in senior leadership, with a career spanning management, communications and corporate affairs in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Prior to his new role, Hopson served as the chief executive for NHS Providers – formerly the Foundation Trust Network – using his position to advocate for the provider sector for nearly ten years. With over 225 members, NHS Providers is the membership organisation for the NHS acute hospitals and community, mental health and ambulance services. Prior to his work with NHS Providers, Hopson worked in various directorial roles at HM Revenue & Customs and worked as a consultant of the School Directorate on behalf of the UK Department for Education in 2002 on behalf of the UK Department for Education. In 1992 he was a special adviser to the secretary of state in the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Between 2006 to 2008, he served in the UK Civil Service High Potential Development Scheme. In 1991, Hopson attained his master of business administration from the Cranfield School of Management.
NHS Providers
Saffron Cordery
NHS Providers has appointed Saffron Cordery as its interim chief executive. Cordery has worked in healthcare since 2007, serving as head of communications and strategy and as director of communications and strategy. She was director of policy and strategy and deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, a position she held for ten years. Previously, Cordery was head of public affairs at the Local Government Association.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Phil Davey
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has appointed Phil Davey as country manager of the UK and Ireland.
Davey will drive the growth of the company’s current UK portfolio, alongside a pipeline of new medicines for both rare and more common diseases. With over 18 years’ experience, he joins Alnylam from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he spent the last seven years, most recently as vice president, business unit lead.
EFPIA
Roberta Savli
EFPIA has appointed Roberta Savli as its executive director of public affairs. Savli joined EFPIA in 2018 and has a wealth of healthcare industry experience, having served in a variety of leadership positions. These included working as director of policy and strategy at the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases, and working in both the European Parliament and Commission.
Eli Lilly
Mary Lynne Hedley
Eli Lilly has appointed Mary Lynne Hedley as a member of its Board of Directors. Hedley will serve on the Science and Technology Committee and the Ethics and Compliance Committee. Hedley is a recognised immunologist and cancer cell biologist, with a background in the pharmaceutical industry. She has served as a Senior Scientific Fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard since 2001.
PDS Biotechnology
Sanjay Zaveri
PDS Biotechnology has appointed Sanjay Zaveri as its new senior vice president of business development. In 2017, Zaveri had previously served as head of business development and corporate strategy at Strongbridge Biopharma. Before working at Strongbridge, Zaveri held various biotechnology consulting positions with Guidehouse, formerly Navigant Consulting, and IQVIA.
Sphere Fluidics
Evelyn Stevenson
Sphere Fluidics has appointed Evelyn Stevenson as its director of product management. Stevenson has over 20 years’ commercial experience in life sciences, having worked with companies like Azenta Life Sciences, Lonza and Thermo Fisher Scientific. She has an extensive background in business development, ensuring product portfolio strategies are aligned to future business needs.
Sphere Fluidics
Denise Emsden
Sphere Fluidics has appointed Denise Emsden as its new vice president of people and organisational development. Emsden is a highly experienced HR professional with a strong background in commerce. She has worked within life sciences in senior leadership roles for companies including Abcam and Mundipharma and has also worked with Juddmonte and Sainsburys.
Sphere Fluidics
Ravi Girdhar
Sphere Fluidics has appointed Ravi Girdhar as its director of sales in the EMEA region. Girdhar brings a wealth of experience to the role, having held various commercial positions within Thermo Fisher Scientific, GE Healthcare and Gyros Protein Technologies. Girdhar will support the company’s expansion plans for its product portfolio and pipeline and accelerating its biopharma discovery.
Havas Health & You
Dan Rubin
Havas Health & You has appointed Dan Rubin as its president of Havas Health +. Rubin has worked for over 15 years in the industry, and recently served as president of 21GRAMS Gotham, one of the advertising branches of the international health innovation company Real Chemistry. He also worked in key positions at CDM New York, as managing partner, executive vice president and as director of client services.
McCann Health London
Alex Frew
McCann Health London has appointed Alex Frew as its new managing director and will report to Jonathan Kukathasan, the president of IPG Health UK. Frew has most recently served as managing partner and has extensive leadership experience, having served as McCann's business director in 2017. Frew also worked as a client services director, London and Zurich for ICC – an FCB Health Company – in 2015.
WE Communications
Ben Fisher
WE Communications has appointed Ben Fisher as its head of healthcare, UK. Fisher previously served as the company’s director of scientific engagement, and in his new role will oversee all health and pharma communications services for WE’s UK clients, alongside the agency’s scientific engagement offering. Fisher also worked at Health Unlimited as deputy managing director, and at Pollen Health as a director.
Four Communications Group
Sarah Hart
Four Communications Group has appointed Sarah Hart as its director of Four Health. Hart brings over 25 years' experience working with pharmaceutical clients in the UK and at an international level. She has supported clients in developing communications strategies, devising and implementing creative communications campaigns, while engaging with key stakeholders and overseeing crisis management.
Difference Collective
Becky Snazell
Difference Collective has appointed Becky Snazell as a Collective consultant. Snazell has over 25 years’ experience, having worked with commercial and medical affairs leaders across the industry. Snazell served as a director at Edelman, where she served health and corporate teams in Brussels, New York and London. She held senior director roles at MSL and in-house positions at GSK, Biogen and Pfizer.
Difference Collective
Corinna Bull
Difference Collective has appointed Corinna Bull as a Collective consultant. Bull served as the senior director of corporate affairs and market access at Eli Lilly. She has a strong background in healthcare policy consultancy in life sciences, genomics and AI. Bull has worked in UK politics, supporting policy development and has collaborated with other organisations to create policy white papers.
Difference Collective
Raffa Addis
Difference Collective has appointed Raffa Addis as a Collective consultant. Addis specialises in employee engagement and business partnering. Addis has worked in the industry for over 15 years as GlaxoSmithKline, where she developed and oversaw the delivery of global business communications strategies. She also helped to drive diversity and inclusion digital channel programmes.
Difference Collective
Stephanie Higginson
Difference Collective has appointed Stephanie Higginson as a Collective consultant. Higginson specialises in corporate relations. From 2016 to 2020, she served as a senior public relations manager at Roche, covering brands and internal communications. Prior to Roche, Higginson served at UCL Partners as a communications manager, and in 2014 worked at WRG Live as a communications and content consultant.
Makara Health
Ekta Rohra
Makara Health has appointed Ekta Rohra as its new digital business unit director. Rohra has worked in the industry for 15 years and is a qualified medical doctor, holding a MBA in drug development and she has previously worked in medical publishing. Rohra is responsible for leading the agency’s digital team, overseeing technology and troubleshooting, while supporting the team to drive digital engagement.
Makara Health
Kim Bond
Makara Health has appointed Kim Bond as its eLearning lead. Bond will be responsible for creating innovative, engaging and inspiring eLearning for the agency. Prior to her work at Markara Health, she worked at Doctors.net.uk, alongside the NHS to provide doctors with key messages and training. She then moved into pharmaceuticals, before setting up a digital agency to deliver eLearning to the NHS and pharma.
ZPB Associates
Celine Parmentier
ZPB Associates has appointed Celine Parmentier as director of pharma services. Parmentier brings over 10 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having led teams and campaigns spanning several healthcare advertising agencies. She served at Havas Lynx Group in various senior roles. She will lead ZPB’s work with pharmaceutical companies, utilising the agency’s mix of insight and creative communications.
ZPB Associates
David Rowley
ZPB Associates has appointed David Rowley as a new board adviser. Rowley joins ZPB as a health agency veteran and entrepreneur, having served as founder and CEO of Huntsworth Health and also as co-founder and CEO of Open Health. With his extensive experience in healthcare market access and strategy, Rowley will support the growth of the business by driving its reach into the pharmaceutical sector.