Check out these recent hires and promotions.

Every issue, GEN includes a section called People in the News, where we showcase new hires and promotions within the biotech and pharma industries. Find out who’s up and coming in the industry below.

Moderna Therapeutics added John Reynders as its first chief information officer. Most recently, he served as vp of R&D information at AstraZeneca. Reynders has held senior leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, and Celera Genomics.


John Reynders

Vical appointed Richard M. Beleson and Stephen A. Sherwin, M.D., to its board of directors…Paul Bradley joined SCM Pharma as operations director and was appointed to the company’s board of directors…Trius Therapeutics added Matthew Onaitis as general counsel and secretary…Chembio Diagnostics hired Sharon Klugewicz as COO…Ohr Pharmaceutical named June S. Almenoff, M.D., Ph.D., to its board of directors…Flagship Ventures hired Stephane Bancel as a senior partner.

Halozyme Therapeutics hired David A. Ramsay as CFO. Previously, he was vp of corporate development at the company. Before joining Halozyme, Ramsay served as vp, CFO at Lathian Systems. Prior to Lathian, he was vp, treasurer at ICN Pharmaceuticals.


David A. Ramsay

BioInvent International appointed Michael Oredsson as president and CEO…Kala Pharmaceuticals added Charles McDermott as evp of business development…Ramani Varanasi joined Avillion as CBO…Kinetic Concepts named James G. Carlson to its board of directors…Achillion Pharmaceuticals promoted Milind Deshpande, Ph.D., as president and CEO and to its board of directors…Syngene hired Henry Bene as product and application support…ChemoCentryx appointed Ira Klein, M.D., to its board of directors.

Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Ph.D., is now CSO at Biogen Idec. He is currently a professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, where he was the founding director of the developmental and regenerative biology graduate program. He is also the scientific co-founder of Exelixis Pharmaceuticals.


Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas, Ph.D.

Patrick H. Griffin, M.D., is now CMO at Synergy Pharmaceuticals…Morgan Brown has joined Innovus Pharmaceuticals as evp and CFO…BioNano Genomics added Fahim Amini, Ph.D., as vp, commercial operations EMEA…BEATBio hired Michael Kranda as CEO and director…Shane Kovacs joined PTC Therapeutics as CFO…Prime Therapeutics named Scott Fries as svp of government programs…Novasep hired Udo Steinhauer as fine chemicals market director.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals appointed Kei S. Tolliver to its board of directors. Currently, she is evp at S&R Technology Holdings. Previously, Tolliver was vp of business development at Sucampo. She also served as general manager of Sucampo Pharma Europe.


Kei S. Tolliver

Alcresta appointed Steve Dubin to its board of directors and Gaetan Crucke and Chris Bleck to its advisory board…CROnos hired Pamela Keenan, Ph.D., as vp, scientific affairs…Verastem named Robert Forrester as president, CEO, and a director…Veronique Foutel is now chief strategic marketing officer at DBV Technologies…Microvi Biotechnologies appointed Rafael Simon as chairman of its board of directors.

Eric R. Olson, Ph.D., joined Syros Pharmaceuticals as CSO. Formerly, Dr. Olson was research vp for respiratory diseases at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, he has held positions as the director of the antibacterials and molecular sciences departments at Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer) and a research scientist at Upjohn.


Eric R. Olson, Ph.D.

T2 Biosystems hired Marc Jones as CFO and Frédéric Sweeney, Ph.D., as senior director, business development…Kurt Gustafson is now evp, CFO, and principal accounting officer at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals…Codexis hired Scott Watson as vp of sales and marketing…Affymax named Rich Brenner as CEO, Weston Rose as president, Mark Thompson as CFO, and John Orwin as chairman of the board…PCI hired Tim Roberts as associate director of clinical trials…Peter Greenleaf is now CEO of Histogenics.

Mirna Therapeutics added Sinil Kim, M.D., as vp of oncology and CMO. Prior to joining Mirna, Dr. Kim was senior director at Pfizer. Previously, he served as director of clinical oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Kim was also co-founder of DepoTech.


Sinil Kim, M.D.

Rheonix added Frank Gill as vp of manufacturing…StemCells hired Eliseo Salinas, M.D., as evp and head of research and development, Ann Tsukamoto, Ph.D., as evp, scientific and strategic alliances, Nicki Vasquez, Ph.D., as vp of program and portfolio management, and Allyson Gage, Ph.D., as senior director of clinical development…Polyphor elected Jerry Karabelas, Jean-Jacques Garaud, Bernard Bollag, and Jean-Pierre Obrecht to its board of directors…Daniel Adlerstein joined Atlas Genetics as director of R&D.

Did your company just hire and/or promote someone? Send your People announcements to [email protected].

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