Changing Faces

April saw quite a bit of movement in the biotech C-Suites, including both departures and arrivals. Read on for a whirlwind, worldwide tour of recent personnel moves.

Leadership shuffle at Novo Nordisk. The departure of Camilla Sylvest, EVP commercial strategy and corporate affairs, from Novo Nordisk prompted some shuffling in the company’s executive management team. Rare disease EVP and president Ludovic Helfgott, who joined the company in 2019 from AstraZeneca, will take over product and portfolio strategy, including commercial strategy, medical affairs, and business development, across the company. SVP product supply, emerging technologies, Thilde Hummel Bøgebjerg, who has been at Novo for 18 years, will be promoted to executive vice president of quality, IT, and environmental affairs.

Departures and appointments at Galapagos. Belgium-based cell therapy outfit Galapagos has seen significant changes in its leadership team. Dr Paul Stoffels, who has been chair and CEO since 2022, announced his intention to retire as soon as a successor is found. Stoffels, who oversaw the acquisitions of CellPoint and Abound Bio during his tenure, will remain on the Board. Additionally, Thad Huston, CFO and COO, has left the company for personal and professional reasons. Huston joined Galapagos NV in 2023 from Kite Pharma, Inc, to support the company's transformation into a cell therapy-focused biotech.

Meanwhile at SpinCo, a new spinoff of Galapagos, Henry Gosebruch was appointed CEO. Gosebruch was previously president and CEO at Neumora, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on neuroscience drug development. Before Neumora, he served as EVP and chief strategy officer at AbbVie.

Two biotechs welcome new CEOs. Both Swedish immunology company Hansa Biopharma and California AI-powered oligonucleotide engineering biotech Creyon Bio announced new top leadership in April. Renée Aguir-Lucander is in at Hansa—she previously served as CEO of Calliditas Therapeutics AB for seven years, where she successfully led the company through a dual listing on NASDAQ in both Sweden and the US. And Creyon Bio’s new CEO Serge Messerlian is the former CEO of Teon Therapeutics and former president of Janssen Oncology, where he led the development and commercialisation of multiple cancer therapies.

Biotechs announce medical and scientific leadership. Several biotechs added to the scientific side of the C-Suite.

Dr Celine Wilke joined ITM, a German radiopharmaceuticals company, as chief medical officer. Wilke has previously held various senior leadership positions at Novartis, overseeing clinical trials that led to the global approvals of Pluvicto and Locametz.
Dr Leonardo Viana Nicacio was appointed chief medical officer of Protara Therapeutics, an NYC biotech focused on cancer and rare disease. Prior to this appointment, Nicacio held clinical development leadership roles at Stemline Therapeutics, Seagen (acquired by Pfizer in 2023), and AstraZeneca.
Haley Laken joined Massachusetts auto-immune therapy developer Zenas BioPharma as chief scientific officer. Laken was previously chief operating officer at Tabby Therapeutics and chief development officer at Jounce Therapeutics.

Transgene and Telix add tech leaders. At Transgene, a Strasbourg, France-based biotech working on virus-based immunotherapies for cancer, Simone Steiner was appointed chief technical officer. Steiner most recently served as chief technical operating officer at T-knife Therapeutics and has over 10 years of experience at Novartis.

Also in April, Paul Schaffer joined Melbourne radiopharmaceutical shop Telix Pharmaceuticals as chief technology officer. Schaffer came in through Telix’s acquisition of ARTMS Inc, where he has led technology for the past seven years. He has also served as director of life sciences at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator research centre, since 2012.

A bevy of new CFOs. We saw several appointments last month to the top finance post.

Fang Z Ni joined Copenhagen ADC developer Adcendo ApS from Black Diamond Therapeutics, where he served as chief business and financial officer.
Astraveus, a Paris cell therapy company, tapped Laurence Riot Lamotte for the role. Lamotte has led notable financings, including IntegraGen’s IPO.
Soumya Chandramouli joined Belgian biotech Novadip as CFO, bringing 25 years of experience in financial management, most recently as CFO of IBA Group.
Actimed Therapeutics, a UK specialty pharma, brought on Shaun Claydon, a chartered accountant with significant industry experience, including serving as CFO of Creabilis.

Nxera adds two to C-Suite. April saw Kiyoshi Kaneko in as chief commercial officer at Nxera Pharma and Mariko Nakafuji appointed chief legal officer. Kaneko previously held the position of SVP commercial organisation and corporate strategy for AstraZeneca in Japan, while Nakafuji joined Nxera in 2021 as General Counsel and played a key role in the company’s transformational acquisition of the Japan and South Korean businesses of Idorsia Pharmaceuticals. Nxera is a Japanese biopharma company with assets in neurology, GI and immunology, metabolic disorders, and rare diseases.

Three VP and director-level hires. Last but not least, three notable hires outside the C-Suite:

Dr Bo Wang was appointed SVP and head of biomedical AI at Xaira Therapeutics, a San Francisco biotech leveraging artificial intelligence to rethink the traditional drug development process. Wang is a professor at the University of Toronto, chief AI scientist at Canada’s largest research hospital system, and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) AI Chair at the Vector Institute.
Mark Fife joined UK biologics maker Glen Cova Scientific as director of preclinical development. Fife arrives from Nextera, where he led the establishment and expansion of the company’s preclinical department.
Romain Pettenaro joined French genetic medicines company Coave Therapeutics as VP of business development. Pettenaro comes from Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, where he led or co-led several major strategic transactions, including a $1 billion AAV gene therapy portfolio purchase and licensing agreement focused on rare cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

That’s it for our pharma and biotech hires for April, but stay tuned for our other hires round-ups and remember, you can send your own hires to [email protected] for inclusion in this column.