Changing Faces

Welcome back to Changing Faces for the month of July. Today we’re looking at CROs, CDMOs, suppliers, and tech vendors – the industry around pharma that keeps pharma ticking.

Selkirk’s new CEO brings broad pharma experience. Selkirk Pharma has appointed Colleen Dixon as its new CEO. With senior leadership experience at AstraZeneca, Baxter Biopharma Solutions, and Eli Lilly and Company – most recently serving as head of biopharmaceutical project management at AstraZeneca – Dixon brings a wealth of knowledge to the Spokane-based manufacturer specialising in injectable drugs.

Two more CDMOs bolster C-suites. Elsewhere in the manufacturing world, Lucinda (Lucy) Crabtree, former CFO of MorphoSys and Autolus Therapeutics, has joined Oxford Biomedica as CFO and Board member. Crabtree steps in for Stuart Paynter, whose departure comes after nearly seven years in the post. And Pennsylvania-based manufacturer Veranova has welcomed Cécile Maupas as SVP and chief commercial officer. Maupas’ journey began at GE Healthcare Life Sciences before venturing into business development roles at a number of CDMOs.

Two executive hires for clinical trial tech vendors. Signant Health, a Philadelphia clinical trial partner that offers site-based eCOA, EDC, eConsent, RTSM, supply chain management, and data quality analytics, has brought on board Paul Richmond, who leaves behind 14 years at CRO PPD to become Signant Health’s chief commercial officer. Meanwhile, Pascal Piedbois has joined Brussels clinical trial partner One2Treat as chief medical officer. Piedbois, the former head of medical oncology at Paris University, has also held leadership positions at AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

CROs welcome new commercial leaders. Three clinical research organisations built up their commercial teams with hires in July.

MMS, a data-focused CRO with offices in Canton, Michigan and Reading, England, has appointed Ben Dudley as chief commercial officer. Dudley brings 25 years of life sciences experience, including operational and commercial roles at Parexel, Covance, and AstraZeneca.
Dr Chris Mathes has joined Metrion Biosciences as chief commercial officer, having previously held executive positions at Sophion Bioscience, ChanTest (now part of Charles River Laboratories), Icagen, and AnaBios. Metrion specialises in ion channel assays.
Tracy Hudson has been named VP of proposals and vendor management at Catawba Research, a North Carolina CRO. Hudson supported global outsourcing strategy at companies such as Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough, and Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

Still more newly-minted CCOs. This month’s hires featured no fewer than six appointments in the chief commercial officer role. The final two? Steve Becker joins Broken String Biosciences, bringing 30 years of management experience, most recently at Thermo Scientific. And James Halle joins Optibrium from Cytel, where he was global head of product growth.

Arima, Newcells, Avance build up sales teams. Arima Genomics, a California outfit developing a 3D genomics platform for a variety of life sciences use cases, has tapped Raees Ebrahim as VP of sales. He most recently led sales at ChromaCode, another genomics platform company. And Emile Shaffu, whose background includes Bionano Genomics and Horizon Discovery (now Revvity), has joined Newcells Biotech, a Newcastle, UK drug discovery partner with a focus on in vitro models, as director of sales. Meanwhile, Jeanne Schow has joined CRO Avance Clinical as SVP of business development, bringing a 25-year background in the space that includes roles at Baxter Healthcare, Avantor, and UCB.

Three regional hires. Three companies this month appointed leaders to head up particular geographies.

Jessica Han has been named director of Asian operations at global CRO Avance Clinical. A former critical care nurse, Han’s CRO experience includes stints at Parexel, PRA Health Sciences (now ICON), and Novotech.
Shawn Gage has been appointed VP US clinical affairs at Xeltis, a Dutch pre-clinical medtech company developing implants that encourage the regeneration of patient tissue. He brings nearly two decades of valuable clinical experience in the haemodialysis and vascular access field.
Syed Zaman has joined Biocair as GM of India, bringing 20 years of experience in the cold chain logistics industry. Biocair is a US-based life sciences logistics specialist.

Lab tech maker appoints advisor. Yih-Shing Duh has been named chief scientific advisor at HEL Group, a global developer and manufacturer of laboratory tools for process optimisation, safety, and scale-up. A professor at Xiamen University in China, Duh leads the Reaction Risk Evaluation Laboratory (RHEL) of Gulei Institute of Petrochemical Research.

Leadership shuffle at IMI. IMI, a specialist engineering company that designs, manufactures, and services highly engineered products that control the precise movement of fluids, has moved Roby Buyung into a new role as president of process automation, replacing Jackie Hu, who has moved into the chief operating officer role. Buyung has spent more than a decade at IMI in various leadership positions, most recently serving as CFO.

Looking for the Board appointments? In order to give Board appointments their due as the exciting developments they are, we’re trying something new this month: spinning Board appointments into their own round-up across all company categories. Keep an eye out for that soon.

That’s it for this edition of Changing Faces. Remember, if you’ve had a recent appointment and you work in or around the pharma space, we want to hear about it. Please send your press releases to editorial@pharmaphorum.com to be included in future editions of Changing Faces.