Changing Faces: Digital and supplier, January 2026

Digital
Man shakes woman's hand in signal of a business deal

The life sciences supplier and digital health sectors witnessed significant leadership movements in January, with appointments spanning storage specialists, diagnostics companies, technology providers, and emerging digital platforms.

Read on for the round-up.

Storage specialist appoints new chief executive. Astoriom, a UK specialist in R&D sample storage, named Will Edwards as CEO. Edwards brings extensive international leadership experience in the storage, logistics, and technology sectors, most recently as CEO of Spectrum Storage Group.

Flagship company taps cell therapy veteran. Etiome, a Flagship Pioneering company focused on changing how chronic and progressive diseases are detected and preempted, appointed Adrian Rawcliffe as CEO. He most recently served as CEO of Adaptimmune Therapeutics, where he led the registration of the first engineered TCR T-cell therapy for a solid tumour.

Drug development tools firm establishes executive leadership team. NanoTemper Technologies, a technology company offering high tech tools for drug development, assembled a new Executive Leadership Team bringing experience in drug discovery, bioprocessing, customer partnerships, and scaling organisation growth. The team consists of:

  • Co-founder and chief executive officer Stefan Duhr
  • Chief commercial officer Eva Lindskog
  • Chief financial officer Steffen Schneider
  • Chief human resources officer Jörg Stegert
  • Chief scientific officer Werner Streicher
  • Chief technology officer Martin Zech
  • Chief of staff Andreas Söllner

CDMO undergoes leadership transition. At German CDMO Rentschler Biopharma, CEO Benedikt von Braunmuehl stepped down by mutual agreement with the Board. Uwe Buecheler, vice chairman of the Supervisory Board, has assumed the role of interim chief executive officer, until a new CEO is appointed. Additionally, Detra Glinatsis joined Rentschler as head of business development, US. Glinatsis rejoins Rentschler Biopharma from Northway Biotech, having worked at Rentschler earlier in her career as a senior director of business development.

Three research centre hires. Three organisations focused on biomedical research reported leadership hires in January.

  • The Roslin Institute, a world-leading research centre that forms part of the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, appointed John Hammond, an expert in genetics, genomics, and immunology, as director. He will take over for Mark Stevens, who has held the post of interim director since Bruce Whitelaw’s departure in September 2025.
  • The START Center for Cancer Research, a community-based research network specialising in early-phase oncology trials, hired Dr Navid Hafez as director of clinical research for its LA centre. He brings more than a decade of experience as an academic and clinical investigator, including his most recent role as an attending physician at The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, a Cedars-Sinai affiliate, and previously as Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology at Yale School of Medicine.
  • City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the United States, appointed Vanessa Almendro Navarro as chief commercialisation officer. Most recently, she served as vice president and head of science & technology innovation at Danaher, where she led major efforts to modernise innovation strategies.

Digital health company brings on NFL legend. eMed Population Health, a digital health company for clinically supervised GLP-1 management, named Tom Brady as chief wellness officer. A seven-time Super Bowl champion, he holds the record for the most titles by a quarterback and has made 10 Super Bowl appearances and 18 division titles.

Clinical trial technology firm strengthens leadership. IgniteData, a clinical trial technology company focused on intelligent automation, made two senior appointments: Joe Legnfellner joined as chief product officer while Laura Hilty was named chief strategy officer. Legnfeller most recently served as senior director of clinical research informatics & technology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, while Hilty is a former leader at several clinical research technology firms and principal at digital healthcare-focused VC HealthX Ventures.

Healthcare research technology company expands commercial team. Konovo, a global healthcare company on a mission to transform research through technology, appointed Tom Halliday as chief commercial officer. Most recently, he served as strategic intelligence general manager at Norstella. The company also named Swathi Kulkarni as managing director for India. Prior to joining Konovo, she was the CEO and co-founder of Elda Health, a full-stack digital wellness platform.

AI platform developer bolsters senior team. Qureight, a UK-based company developing an AI platform to support clinical trial design, made two key hires: Dr Steven Bishop, a 20-year healthcare and data science veteran who previously served as Qureight's chief data officer, joined as chief medical officer, while Rebecca Simmons was appointed chief operating officer. Simmons was previously COO at quantum computing company Riverlane.

Medical device firm promotes from within Vygon, a French firm with expertise in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of medical devices in neonatology and vascular management clinical specialties, promoted two leaders to general manager positions. Christoph-Theodor Lerle became general manager of the German subsidiary, having joined the company in 2010 as product manager before being promoted to head of homecare sales in 2016, then to head of neonatology and intravascular therapies sales in 2019, and commercial director in 2023. Meanwhile, Dale Keegan was named general manager, UK, having been with the company since August 2016, most recently serving as chief financial officer.

Four C-Suite hires in commercial and finance departments. Several companies appointed new CCOs and CFOs.

  • GiftHealth, a Columbus, Ohio digital pharmacy and access platform, appointed Jeremy Richardson as chief commercial officer. Most recently, he served as VP of strategy and commercial growth at Elevance Health.
  • BioStem Technologies, a MedTech company focused on the development and commercialisation of placental-derived products for advanced wound care, promoted Barry Hassett to chief commercial officer. Hasset’s promotion occurred in conjunction with BioStem’s acquisition of BioTissue's wound care business, where Hasset had served as VP of commercial strategy.
  • Symeres, a mid-sized transatlantic contract research, development, and manufacturing organisation (CRDMO) for drug discovery and development, named Jurgen Berendsen as chief financial officer. His 15-year career included stints at KPMG, Hoogwegt International, and most recently Royal Reesink, where he served as vice president of finance and control.
  • Ember LifeSciences, a cold chain company leveraging proprietary temperature control technology to improve transportation of life-saving medicines and vaccines, appointed Ann Hyllengren as CFO. Hyllengren joins from Amgen, where she brought nearly two decades of experience across global accounting and finance, capital planning, and investor relations.

Medical and science leadership changes. Several other companies appointed new leaders in scientific and medical roles.

  • Medzown, a Boston precision medicine company dedicated to expanding access to advanced therapies and clinical trials, hired Dr Jennifer Malin as chief medical officer. She’s a physician executive with more than 15 years of experience designing and implementing value-based care initiatives in oncology, rare disease, precision medicine, and population health for organisations including Optum, UnitedHealthcare, and Anthem.
  • Concept Life Sciences, a UK CRO specialising in integrated drug discovery, development, and analytical services, appointed Dr Adam Davenport as chief scientific officer. Most recently, Dr Davenport served as chief discovery officer at Proxygen, where he led the development of molecular glue degraders.
  • Optibrium, UK developer of software and AI offerings that support drug discovery, named Dr Nathan Brown as director of science. He joined from Healx, where, as director of digital chemistry, he led the development of AI-powered computational methods for rare disease drug discovery.
  • Bio, a French start-up using AI and biophotonics to detect contaminated food and drug products in real-time, hired Michael J Miller as VP for scientific and regulatory affairs. With nearly 40 years of experience in pharmaceutical microbiology, contamination control, and the validation of rapid microbiological methods, Dr Miller has held senior and executive roles in microbiology at Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Company, and Bausch & Lomb.

Cell manufacturing specialist names operations chief. iOrganBio, a specialist in scalable and consistent cell manufacturing for research and therapies, hired Karol Jarzabek as chief operating officer. Most recently, he served as vice president of portfolio operations at QHP Capital, where he led value creation initiatives across 13 life sciences and pharmaceutical services companies, spanning partnership development and end-to-end value chain execution.

Quality management software provider adds people leader CluePoints, a risk-based quality management (RBQM) and data quality oversight software provider based in Pennsylvania, appointed Sinead Godkin as chief people officer. Most recently, she served as chief people officer at DigiCert, where she was a key member of the executive team.

International insurer expands life sciences underwriting. QBE, an international business insurer expanding its presence in the life sciences, hired Henrik Hansen as senior Life Science underwriter. After starting his career at AIG as liability underwriter, he spent the last 18 years with Aon Denmark, specialising in large and complex liability placement, with a focus on life science.

Two notable sales and marketing hires. Peer AI, an agentic AI platform for life sciences regulatory documentation, named David Florez as VP of sales. He joins from Veeva Systems, where he spent six years in senior sales roles working with pharma and biotech leaders on cloud solutions across clinical, regulatory, and quality. And ViCentra, a Netherlands company that makes a reusable patch pump for insulin delivery, appointed Reman McDonagh as VP of global marketing. She has held leadership roles at Roche, Medtronic, Cellnovo, and Insulet, with responsibility across brand strategy, go-to-market planning, market development, and major product launches in both established and high-growth markets.

That’s it for our digital and supplier hires, but stay tuned for our Boards round-up and remember, you can send your own hires to editorial@pharmaphorum.com for inclusion in this column.