CordenPharma has a new CEO, Arbour Group advances plans to expand in RTP, Ashfield brings on a former Iqvia VP, and Recursion adds to its c-suite after raising $121m this month.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
CordenPharma has a new CEO, Arbour Group advances plans to expand in RTP, Ashfield brings on a former Iqvia VP, and Recursion adds to its c-suite after raising $121m this month.
Click through the following slides to hear what this month's new hires hope to achieve in their new roles.
Dr. Michael Quirmbach succeeded Dr. Riku Rautsola as the CEO and president of CordenPharma Group. To support the transition, Rautsola will become a senior advisor to the executive leadership team, which also includes Dr. Walter Kittl as COO, Heiko Serwe, CFO, and Dr. Esua Macniell, chief compliance officer.
“Since joining CordenPharma in 2014 I have had the great opportunity to contribute to building an industry-leading contract development and manufacturing organization,” said Quirmbach, who initially joined the company as the chief business officer.
“Our mission is clear,” he told us, “to provide superior support to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with delivered in full and on time products and services, keeping in mind the ultimate goal of improving the lives of the patients they serve, which are in critical need of the sophisticated medications we manufacture.”
In his new role, Quirmbach said he plans to continue growing CordenPharma “as a trusted, reliable and highly-respected CDMO by focusing on our integrated supply chain solution, supported with a clear, profitable growth strategy defined by our technology platforms.”
“Operational excellence, transparent and effective cost management and customer centricity will determine the foundation of our performance, while accelerated growth and sustained profit remain our ongoing objectives,” he added. “I look forward to this challenge and anticipate a promising future for CordenPharma in the years to come.”
Quirmbach previously has held management positions at companies including Siegfried, Dr. Reddy’s, and Solvias.
The company in July appointed Jim Esinhart (image right) – the former CEO of Chiltern – as a non-executive director.
Esinhart began his career in industry at GlaxoSmithKline and then PharmaResearch Corporation. After working at Inveresk and Charles River Laboratories, he joined Chiltern in 2006 and became CEO in 2012.
Esinhart said: “I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with Ergomed’s management team and Board … With the benefit of my experience, there are considerable opportunities ahead for Ergomed to continue building to address the growing needs in our industry, and the unmet needs of patients worldwide.”
Ergomed also named Rolf Soderstrom as a non-executive director of the company, chairing Ergomed’s audit and risk committee, replacing Peter George who will remain a member of the remuneration committee and nomination committee.
Soderstrom joins the board of Ergomed with more than 30 years of experience in finance. He also was CFO of BTG plc from 2008 to 2018.
Arbour Group provides regulatory compliance services for the life sciences industry. The company recently appointed Dominic Mancini, who brings more than 16 years of industry experience, as the new vice president of business development.
In his new role, Mancini will be responsible for building Arbour's footprint in the Raleigh-Durham area, as the company moves forward with plans to open an office at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in the Research Triangle Park.
"North Carolina is home to many emerging life science R&D innovators, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical device and contract research organizations," said Mancini.
The provider of nucleic acid sample preparation solutions appointed Professor Steve Howell as non-executive chairman of its board of directors.
Howell has over 20 years’ life science commercialization experience and is the founder of Innova Partnerships. He has held various positions at Unilever, Alere, and Unipath, and was named a visiting professor of commercial innovation at King’s College, London, in 2015.
Said Howell, “The Arcis sample preparation technology has enormous potential across many application areas, including diagnostics and genetic understanding. I am excited to be joining the team as we build the business to bring products to market that will have real and positive impact on patient quality of life.”
Ashfield, part of UDG Healthcare, appointed George Esgro as president of global business development for Ashfield Commercial and Patient Solutions.
Esgro was most recently the vice president of strategic business development US commercial for Iqvia. He joined the company – at the time, QuintilesIMS – in 2009 as a senior director of commercial sales.
“Ashfield has grown significantly in recent years and its mission to be the partner of choice for health care companies outsourcing their commercial, patient solutions and medical affairs programs globally, really resonates with me,” said Esgro.
Mr Esgro has also held sales, leadership, training, and marketing roles at various pharmaceutical companies, including 13 years with GlaxoSmithKline.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals – which also closed a $121m Series C financing round in July – named Heather Kirkby as chief people officer
"We want to create an environment where people can do the best work of their life, where they're surrounded by an incredibly diverse workforce, where people feel included, they feel belonging,” Kirkby told us.
“It’s also critically important that this is a place where people are experiencing extraordinary growth in their careers. I believe that the employee experience and culture can be designed like a product, focusing on employee and business needs, with the remarkable north star of improving patients’ lives.”
The Salt Lake City, UT-based company plans to build out its machine learning-enabled platform, which drawn on an in-house developed dataset to support drug discovery and development.
Julie O’Neill has joined Icon as a non-executive director. She was previously the executive vice president of global operations of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, prior to which she was VP of operations and general manager for Ireland at Gilead Sciences.
She has also held positions at Burnil Pharmacies and Helsinn Birex Pharmaceuticals.
O’Neill also serves on the board of DBV Technologies and Hookipa Pharma, in addition to Ireland’s National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training.
