Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
The industry in March saw new c-suite appointments at CRF Bracket, PCI Pharma Services, George Clinical, and Paragon Bioservices – as well as moves to boost medical device and DMPK services at Premier Research and Syngature Discovery, respectively.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
Susie Robinson this month joined CRF Bracket as chief people officer.
In her new role she told us she aspires to do four key things:
“Firstly, drive a thoughtful, transparent, accountable HR agenda that brings value to the organization and equilibrium among all stakeholders – colleagues, shareholder, customers. Together, we will build a talent engine that supports and drives the company’s business strategies, gaining commitment from all leaders to spot, develop, and retain our superior contributors and our next generation of leaders.
“We aim to create world-class people programs and practices that are built to last but are constantly under review, to ensure that we can predict and respond to changing conditions on the ground, in our business, and in our industry. Finally, we seek to enable an authentic connection between how our company presents itself and how it really feels to work here.”
Robinson joins CRF Bracket with more than two decades of human resources leadership having worked at various companies including B. Braun, Dow Jones, and Lumeris
The Asia-Pacific-based CRO has promoted Dr. Maria Ali to chief medical officer, a role in which she will be based out of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Ali said she is excited to be recognized in this leadership role at George Clinical.
“I look forward to aligning more of our clinical studies with our scientific leadership model that partners sound science with robust operations,” she told us.
“Through this role, my goal is to advance the field towards new paradigms of conducting clinical research globally that maximize the value of these studies for all involved, most importantly our patients.
"I will also use the opportunity to mentor and empower future generations of women leaders within George Clinical and the industry more broadly.”
The CDMO has named Thomas VanCott, PhD, as chief technology and strategy officer (CTSO) – and made several other promotions and hires.
“Paragon’s contract development and biomanufacturing services have rapidly expanded and contributed significantly to the large increase in GMP-compliant gene and cell therapy products in clinical development today," VanCott told us.
"I will work to both continue this impressive growth trajectory as well as strategically enhance and augment our CMC services to meet the increasing market and complexity of innovate products being developed today."
VanCott previously spent 14 years as the president and CEO of Advanced Bioscience Laboratories (ABL) and served as a US Army Captain in the Medical Service Corps at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Paragon also this month hired Chris Holmes, MBA, as vice president of facilities and engineering and Jim Gombold, PhD, as vice president of quality control and analytical development.
Randy Henrickson has been promoted to senior vice president of manufacturing, and Denise Krohn to vice president, quality assurance and compliance.
The new appointments follow the opening of a 200,000 square-foot facility and plans to hire more than 200 employees for the location.
Paragon CEO Pete Buzy previously told us, "There's also a significant deficit in gene therapy CDMO capacity that will mostly grow over the next three to five years. Paragon believes the space will increase by double digits in the foreseeable future."
The drug discovery and preclinical services company has added four new hires to its senior management team to boost its drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) capabilities.
Sygnature last month made two appointments, with Dr. Allan Jordan and Louisa Jordison joining the organization to support the company’s growth trajectory.
Dr. Stuart Best joins from RedX Pharma as the associate director of DMPK. In this role he will manage and supervise growth of the company’s Alderley Park-based DMPK team. The company opened the Alderley Park location in 2018 in response to an increasing demand for outsourced preclinical research services.
“I look forward to providing senior leadership for the Alderley Park base team and with the team aim to build a center of excellence for bioanalysis and in vivo PK to complement and support the broad DMPK offering from the department at Nottingham laboratories,” Best told us.
Joining him at the Alderley Park location is Dr. Wqrren Keene, who is transferring from the company’s Nottingham headquarters to support the management of the facility.
Dr. Hayley Butler also joins the company from RedX Pharma where she worked on oncology and infection projects.
In her new position as a principal scientist she looks forward “to providing DMPK project support and expertise to both fully integrated and stand-alone client projects, alongside further developing the PK and PK/PD capabilities within the department.”
Based at the company’s headquarters, Dr. Daniel Weston has been named associate director to support Sygnature’s metabolism studies. He most recently worked at AstraZeneca.
He told us, “In my new role at Sygnature Discovery, I will be focusing on providing differentiated capabilities around metabolite characterisation to add scientific value at key decision points.”
Dr. Bodo Spöri told us he looks forward to further raising global awareness of Sygnature Discovery in his new role as the company’s senior director of business development, DMPK services.
“In particular in the DMPK area, the strength of the team already in place and the recent hires demonstrate Sygnature’s commitment to thought leadership and ‘support beyond data’ for our clients, adding value for both stand-alone and integrated ADME-Tox projects in discovery and regulatory settings,” he said.
Spöri has worked at Cyprotex and Domainex, as well as in academia.
Premier Research has hired three new medical device and diagnostics specialists.
John Pappan (image left) who joins Premier Research from a global regulatory compliance consultancy, has been named director of regulatory affairs, medical device, and business strategy.
He has held positions at DePuy Synthes (Johnson & Johnson), the Long Island University College of Pharmacy, Integra LifeSciences Corporation, ConMed Corporation, and mdi Consultants Inc.
"What our team aims to achieve is the appropriate regulatory pathway for our clients,” Pappan told us. "Many times we will be able to simply pursue the Traditional 510(k) pathway. But because FDA published an updated guidance back in December and also had announced changes to their 510(k) paradigm, that may lead more companies choosing the Breakthrough Device Program (BDP), particularly those companies with breakthrough technology."
"To that point, the device you intend to bring into the market must provide a more effective treatment or diagnosis of the life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating disease or condition. In many cases, the device will fall under a premarket approval application, or PMA, which is a more costly (not to mention much more lengthy) pathway for the sponsor to pursue," added Vicki Gashwiler (image right), who, with nearly 20 years in health care, has been named the executive director of medical device and diagnostics. She is licensed and has served as a registered nurse in critical and cardiovascular care.
Sundeep Shrivastava (not pictured) has held leadership positions at Iqvia and Abbott Vascular and in his new role will be executive director of clinical development services, medical device, and diagnostics.
The company last month named a new COO, Dr. Mike Wilkinson.
Tim McGrath has joined the newly-merged service provider as the chief operating officer.
In this role, he will contribute to the integration of Neomed-Labs and Pacific Biomarkers – which were merged in late 2018.
"Implementing harmonized systems and processes with best operational practices across all sites will be an area of focus in the near term," said McGrath. "With the anticipated expansion and significant growth of the business, it is critical that we have world class, scalable operations that continue to meet the needs and expectations of our customers.
McGrath has worked at Quintiles (now Iqvia) and Q2 Solutions, a role in which he was responsible for multiple sites in the US and Europe. He also head central labs in the Americas with sites in North and South America overseeing more than 500 employees.
The hire follows the recruitment of Abigail Brus as the vice president of operations in Seattle and Saadya Fatmi in the same role in Laval. Brus also was previously from Q2 Solutions and worked at Covance. Fatmi joined from Biotrials and has more than 25 years of experience in the CRO industry.
Clinical Network Services (CNS) – acquired by Novotech in late 2018 – this month appointed Dr. Robert Malone as principal consultant in its Washington DC office.
A part of the company’s US BioDesk team, Malone brings more than 20 years of management and leadership experience in academia, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.
The BioDesk division is an intelligent global product development and regulatory affairs consultancy.
The bioanalytical testing laboratory has a new scientific officer, Dr. Lydia Michaut.
Lydia brings a wealth of experience in immunology, genetics, gene therapy and regulated bioanalysis to the company, and is perfectly placed to liaise with clients to ensure that BioAgilytix delivers high quality laboratory services tailored to their specific needs.
Michaut spent 15 years in academia before working at Novartis, where she was dedicated to interfacing between the company and bioanalytical CROs.
The biopharmaceutical outsourcing services provider announced Serge Dupuis as senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO).
Dupuis has more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing environments and joins the company from CSP Technologies where he was CFO.
PCI recently expanded operations through acquisition, adding locations in San Diego, Dublin, and Melbourne.
The analytical testing and product development laboratory announced Carla Totton as the new leader of its quality assurance unit. In this role she will be responsible for developing, coordinating, implementing, and monitoring the company’s quality management system.
"In my new role I will develop additional standards to ensure Avomeen maintains a quality culture of compliance,” Totton told us.
As part of this, she also will manage the company’s controlled substance program, as well as the metrology and preventative maintenance program.
Totton has more than 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is a Certified Quality Auditor by the American Society for Quality. Most recently she worked at Catalent Pharma Solutions. She also has worked at Virbac US and ABC Laboratories.
The global provider of central laboratory and support services has named Dr. Anthony Todd Everhart to the position of medical director.
“In this new era of precision medicine, the role of the central laboratory is changing rapidly. Choosing a laboratory partner is no longer simply about a few dozen safety labs and a couple of data transfers. With the anticipated increase in gene editing and cell therapy research, the trials will be smaller, the study designs will be more complex, and the specimens collected will be more precious," said Everhart.
Speaking of his new role, he told us, "I will provide my clinical development, medical, and data analytics expertise to the continued growth and development of the unique service offerings required of the modern laboratory partner to successfully realize these innovative new therapies.”
Everhart was previously the vice president of medical informatics at Chiltern/Covance, vice president of medical affairs Americas at Chiltern, and medical director at Clinical Trial Management Services (CTMS).
He is board-certified in internal medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Based out of the company’s Austin, Texas-based laboratory, Dr. Shaolian Zhou, PhD, has joined the company as senior vice president and lab director for bioanalytical services.
Zhou previously was the global head of small molecule bioanalytical research and development at Roche Research and Early Development. He also has worked at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research as site head of analytical sciences and research investigator of metabolism and pharmacokinetics.
Additionally, he has more than four years of experience at a CRO, having worked for Covance Laboratories as a method development manager.
ERG, an independent clinical research site companies in the US, has announced the promotion of Andria Chastain to chief operating officer and the addition of Paul Greene, PhD, as chief business officer.
Chastain has been with the company since its inception and was previously the senior vice president.
A psychologist with post-doctoral training as an Eli Lilly Fellow, Greene joins ERG after six years at Syneos Health.
In his new role, he will lead corporate strategic growth initiatives, business development, client budgets and contracts, as well as marketing.
