Parexel boosts its oncology team, Premier Research has a new COO joining from PPD, and SGS names a new biologics manager, among other new hires in February.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
Parexel boosts its oncology team, Premier Research has a new COO joining from PPD, and SGS names a new biologics manager, among other new hires in February.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
Parexel made several appointments in February to bolster its oncology expertise.
Joining the company’s regulatory consulting team, a role in which she will focus on building the Parexel’s new cross-functional oncology initiative, is Amy McKee, MD, former deputy director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence.
McKee told us, “In this new role, I hope to partner with clients to shepherd promising new therapies through traditional and novel development pathways as well as forge relationships across Parexel to bring a comprehensive, cohesive oncology expertise to our clients.”
McKee is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist with expertise in the treatment of neuroblastoma.
Dr. Matthew Cooney, MD also was named senior medical director and therapeutic area lead for oncology within the Parexel’s global medical services team – joining more than 10 oncologists added to the group in the last year.
A medical oncologist most recently with University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, Cooney told us he has had the ability to work with thousands of cancer patients during his 15 years of practice.
“In my new role, I hope to bring the perspective of those patients, along with my clinical experience, to help our clients take a patient-centric approach to drug development and ultimately advance the delivery of new therapies for patients in need,” he said.
Both an industry and military veteran, Dr. Mike Wilkinson joined the contract research organization (CRO) as its new chief operating officer.
Wilkinson spent 10 years at PPD, first overseeing worldwide clinical trial operations as executive vice president of global clinical development, and later as PPD’s chief information officer and head of technology.
He also worked at Quintiles (now Iqvia) for seven years, holding various roles including global head of internal medicine and vice president of project management.
Wilkinson retired from the military as a US Navy Commander after 23 years in the military before joining the biopharmaceutical industry.
Premier Research also this month created a new patient and stakeholder engagement function.
Juliet Moritz was named vice president, patient and stakeholder engagement (PASE), a role in which she will be the internal expert on patient-focused clinical research activities.
Moritz has been with Premier Research for three years and will work across all therapeutic areas and functions.
The consultancy – which in February month also opened a new office in Dublin, Ireland ahead of Brexit – has made several hires.
Boyds also has established a clinical and medical affairs group to provide pharmaceutical medicine and medical monitoring support. Dr. Lalitha Mahadavan will lead the group backed by her experience in leading global projects and regulatory submissions for biopharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson, Biogen, and the NHS.
Mahadavan is a consultant in pharmaceutical medicine (GMC registered) and a fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, as well as a member of its Board of Trustees and a Faculty Revalidation Appraiser.
Professor Alan Boyd, Founder and CEO of Boyds, said: “I am delighted to be formally establishing the Clinical and Medical Affairs Group at Boyds, which forms part of our 2019 growth vision, and welcoming Dr. Mahadavan to lead the team.
Appointed as a senior associate of regulatory affairs, Dr. Sabine Rühle also joins Boyds from PPD, where she was a senior regulatory affairs specialist. She also was a member of PPD’s advanced therapy forum and is a member of the Organization of Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA).
In her new role, she will be based out of Boyds’ Cambridge offices, which opened last year.
Sabine said: “In my new role, I will be working on regulatory document preparation, as well as providing project and operational support to sponsors in all stages of drug development.”
SGS named a new biologics manager at its recently expanded biopharmaceutical testing facility in Lincolnshire, IL.
Dr. Haris Jamil has more than 25 years of experience in the industry and will oversee the new biologics department at the 58,000 square foot facility.
Jamil previously was at Fresenius Kabi where he was a senior manager in the company’s analytical development.
SGS announced the $1.7m investment to expand its capabilities in September 2018.
The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has named a new director of business management for the US and Canada, Kieran Chouhan.
In his new role, Chouhan – who has more than 8 years of experience working it the North American CDMO industry – will be responsible for sales and business development for the company's commercial manufacturing services.
“I am looking forward to getting to know the existing customers, continuing to build those relationships and ensuring we go above and beyond their expectations,” Chouhan told us.
“I am confident my experience will also allow me to contribute positively to the business’ continued growth by bringing in some new and exciting projects."
Datavant made several executives hires to support its expanding network of health data partners.
The new hires include Steven Swank as chief revenue officer and Nick Colburn as chief financial officer. The company also added Niall Brennan and Charles Safran to its advisory board.
Datavant CEO Travis May said the additions will help Datavant scale its ecosystem: “We will benefit from Steve’s leadership and experience building a world-class sales and partnerships team, and we will be guided by Nick’s wisdom as a three-time chief financial officer at enterprise software companies.”
Swank has held several sales leadership positions and was most recently the chief revenue officer at RPX Corporation. Prior to this, he was vice president of sales at Comdata.
Colburn most recently served as the chief financial officer at Building Robotics (DBA Comfy), which was sold to Siemens in 2018. He also held the same position at Funding Circle US and at Nexxo Financial, and has held senior finance positions at PayPal and Providian.
Laurie Heilmann is the new senior vice president of business development and marketing at the protein engineering company.
Heilmann has more than 30 years of leadership experience across the life sciences industry. She will report to Codexis CEO John Nicols in her new role, and the company’s global business development and marketing team will report to her. Most recently, Heilmann was president of global life sciences and diagnostics at Crown Bioscience.
"This is an optimal time to join Codexis, which is on the crescendo of exponential growth, in the life science and industrial markets. Codexis’ extendable protein engineering technology platform, CodeEvolver, is rapidly becoming a vital tool for pharmaceutical manufacturing companies," Heilmann told us.
"I am looking forward to expanding the global reach of Codexis’ sales and marketing commercialization team. My focus will be to develop strategies which increase awareness in untapped vertical markets. I am thrilled to be working with CEO John Nicols and the rest of the Codexis team toward fulfilling the great promise of this remarkable company."
The drug discovery and preclinical services provider made two appointments, with Dr. Allan Jordan and Louisa Jordison joining the organization to support the company’s growth trajectory.
Jordan has been named director of oncology drug discovery and will build Sygnature’s oncology drug discovery capabilities and cellular biology. For the past decade, he had been working at Cancer Research UK.
In a newly-created position, Jordison will help lead the company’s planning, growth and capital projects as the director of strategic planning. She has held roles at Experian, Deloitte, and KPMG.
Sygnature Discovery CEO Dr. Simon Hirst said: "Louisa’s and Allan’s appointments mark a further step in the development of Sygnature as a leading player in the global drug discovery and pre-clinical CRO sector. They demonstrate our commitment to sustainable and secure growth of our company and continuing to broaden and enrich our in-house capabilities and therapeutic area expertise so that we are in an optimal position to serve our growing customer base."
