December 2021 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 38-40
// APPOINTMENTS //
Appointments
Mover of the Month
Merck has appointed Stuart Hill as UK & Republic of Ireland (ROI) medical director. Previously, Hill was Merck UK & ROI business unit director for Oncology. He has been with the company since 2010, playing a key role in the formation of Merck’s oncology alliance with Pfizer since 2015. Doina Ionescu, managing director and general manager for Merck’s UK & ROI Healthcare business said: “Stuart‘s internal move to medical director is testament to his resilience, hard work and dedication to put the needs of patients at the forefront of his role. His role in the oncology business has been pivotal in overcoming the challenges presented by the pandemic; he has focused on alignment across internal business functions and upskilling to improve performance and communication, resulting in strong sales growth in the oncology business.”
Also joining the leadership team at Mind+Matter is Kesha Tansey, who has been promoted to client director. The agency has bases in the US and the UK, with over 250 marketing specialists utilising the world of data and technology to create meaningful experiences. Growth since launch has led to more than 60 new hires globally.
Versantis has appointed Katharina Staufer as chief medical officer. A leading hepatologist, Staufer was most recently head of transplant medicine at University Hospital Bern and a consultant at the Medical University, Vienna. Staufer is a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
Fishawack Health has welcomed Sheena Amin-Liebman as its new Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) director to lead its D&I objectives. Amin-Liebman joins Fishawack Health with deep experience in D&I, having previously worked as the D&I lead at Accenture Interactive. In that role, she worked with senior management and business partners to develop a D&I strategy focused on delivering action and results spanning the entire employee experience. Amin-Liebman is also an expert in designing initiatives that enhance culture, belonging and financial inclusion while ‘moving the dial on diversity and inclusion metrics’.
BIAL has appointed Joerg Holenz as R&D general manager, a role he will assume alongside that of member of the board of directors. Holenz has over 20 years of experience in creating ‘agile and successful’ R&D organisations, BIAL said in a statement. During his career, he has worked predominantly in peripheral and central targets in the pain/neuroscience disease areas, where he has delivered several clinical candidates and one marketed analgesic. He has previously worked at AstraZeneca’s CNS/pain research unit in Sweden as neuroscience project leader and at Grünenthal as SVP neuroscience.
Kathryn Corzo has joined Cambridge, UK-based cell coding company bit.bio as its new chief operating officer. Corzo has extensive experience in early and late drug development across multiple indication and platforms. Most recently, she served as partner at Takeda Ventures, and previously as head of Oncology Cell Therapy Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She also served on Takeda’s R&D Management Committee, was a member of the pharma company’s Oncology Leadership Team and served on the board of directors for Maverick Therapeutics. In addition, she was previously Sanofi’s vice president, R&D and head, Myeloma, where she led global registration programmes to drug approvals in the US, EU and Japan.
Enthera Pharmaceuticals has appointed Antonio Speziale as chief medical officer to lead its clinical team and expand its pipeline. He brings 22 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and joins Enthera from Galapagos, where he was translational medicine leader. Speziale previously held senior management positions at several other life sciences companies, including Novartis, Shire, Genzyme and at Wyeth.
MOMA has appointed Hans Bitter as senior vice president and head, data science, a newly created role. Previously, Bitter served as senior vp, data sciences and chief data officer for oncology at bluebird bio, prior to which he was global head of oncology bioinformatics at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research. He also held posts at Hoffman-LaRoche.
Amylyx Pharmaceuticals has announced the appointment of Stéphanie Hoffmann-Gendebien as head, general manager in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Amylyx is incorporated in the Netherlands and is establishing a presence in Europe, and plans a future expansion into the Middle East and Africa markets. Hoffmann-Gendebien brings more than 20 years’ leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, having successfully led the launch of two orphan drugs in Europe and directed global market development launch planning for two additional orphan drugs. Previously, Hoffmann-Gendebien served as vice president, general manager, EMEA, at Clementia Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Clementia, she was the European director of strategic market development at Enobia Pharma (Alexion Pharmaceuticals) and held roles of increasing responsibility in Genzyme Europe (now Sanofi Genzyme). She serves on the board of directors at Secoya Technologies and volunteers with the European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS). Most recently, she served as managing director and founding partner of GH Partners.
Page & Page and Partners has announced three new full-time hires. Russell Dowling joins as creative artworker, Emily Sweet, as an additional medical writer who joins the Content team, and Joseph Norman, in a newly created marketing manager role. These new hires reflect the company’s growth over the last year and its relocation to London.
Rebeca Sanchez Sarmiento has joined Insightful Science and Dotmatics as chief financial officer. Sanchez Sarmiento has extensive experience across corporate strategy, FP&A and investor relations across both private equity-backed and publicly traded companies. In her new role, she will focus on developing an integrated share service environment in a bid to systemically scale and promote cohesion across all function to support the organisation’s M&A growth strategy. Sanchez Sarmiento will also be responsible for further building the finance and accounting organisation, including instituting robust corporate governance and controls commensurate with public company standards.
Adding to its hires, Sophia Awan has joined Ovid Health as operations manager, to support the agency’s growth strategy. Awan has over five years’ experience in start-up enterprises, delivering in operations, procurement and logistics roles. She is the group organiser for London Start-up Founders on meetup.com and is a co-facilitator for the East London Action for Happiness group.
Tom Vadaketh is joining Bausch Health as chief financial officer. Vadaketh has more than 30 years’ financial leadership and experience, including nearly ten years in CFO roles at eResearch Technology, Cambrex Corporation and the Crosby Group. He also previously spent more than 20 years at Tyco International and Procter & Gamble, where he held roles of increasing responsibility.
Emergex Vaccines has promoted Robin Cohen to chief commercial officer. Cohen was recruited as director of business development at Emergex in February 2021, responsible for driving strategic partnerships and alliances to support its vaccine development programme. Prior to joining Emergex, Cohen was at Janssen-Cilag, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, where he worked as part of the EMEA regional Business Development Team since 2017. Before that role, he was the commercial lead for infectious diseases where he was responsible for the launch of a number of new therapeutics treatments in the fields of Hepatitis C and HIV. He also held a number of senior leadership roles in both sales and marketing fields across multiple therapy areas.
Research Partnership has appointed Richard Goosey as head of analytics. Goosey has over 40 years’ experience in marketing science, analytics and methodology. He is a Fellow of the Market Research Society and Royal Statistical Society, and an invited member of the EphMRA Forecasting Forum. Previously, he worked for Lundbeck, Roche and most recently Kantar Health for nine years.
Mind+Matter, an Ashfield Health Company, has announced the promotion of Ian Ray from associate creative to creative director. He will join the leadership team and will play a key role in shaping the future strategy and direction of the award-winning agency, which launched in January 2021 following the merger of Pegasus, Ashfield Digital and Creative and Cambridge Biomarketing.