Changing Faces: Digital health and pharma supplier hires from March 2023

For our final March hires roundup instalment, we have our “pharma-adjacent” roundup which includes CROs, clinical trial software companies, manufacturing organisations, suppliers, non-profits and professional organisations, and digital health companies. And we had a number of appointments across those categories.

New CEO in at Datapharm. Datapharm, which provides an up-to-date database of medicines information to patients and providers in the UK, tapped Rich Cooper as its new CEO, replacing outgoing CEO Simon Abrams. Cooper boasts a 25-year career in pharma that includes leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Abbvie, Otsuka, and IQVIA.

Immunovia announces new COO. Blood-based diagnostics company Immunovia has appointed Karl Stone as its new chief operating officer. Stone brings 25 years of experience in fields from industrial bioprocessing to genomics, including serving as the first operations director of Oxford Gene Technology.

Trio of appointments at new ValiRx subsidiary. Inaphea Biolabs, a new translational CRO owned by life sciences company ValiRx, announced three appointments: Dr Andrew Carnegie, head of strategic commercial development; Melissa Barr, lead scientist; and Dr Dominic Lowen, senior scientist. The new unit will offer “a wide range of pre-clinical and drug discovery testing services to academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical researchers”, according to a press release.

AutoCruitment builds out exec team at new site. Digital patient recruitment firm AutoCruitment has announced a new office location in Raleigh, North Carolina and is also adding two new faces to the executive team, both based in the new location. Eric Seltzer, previously of World Wide Technology, will serve as chief financial officer, while Kathy Twiddy, who’s coming from ChannelAdvisor, will serve as general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Leadership appointments at pharma suppliers. Some of the higher level appointments were in the supplier sphere.

• Virocell, a global viral vector supplier for novel cell and gene therapy clinical trials, named John A Dawson as chairman of its board of directors. The former CEO of Oxford Biomedica, Dawson received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (“CBE”) for services to UK Life Sciences last year from the Royal family.
• Pharma manufacturing supplier ACG announced that Richard Stedman, who served as CEO of engineering from 2017 to 2021, is returning to that role after two years away.
• Organ-on-a-chip company CN Bio has tapped Deepak Singh as its new VP of sales and marketing. Singh most recently headed up global commercial operations at PerkinElmer’s Horizon Discovery.

Two CDMOs name new execs. Two manufacturing organisations announced major leadership changes. Scorpius BioManufacturing, a Texas-based biologics CDMO, appointed Gary Welch as its interim president. Welch has 30 years of pharma manufacturing experience, including a stint at Abbvie.

Meanwhile, French CDMO ABL announced the appointment of Stéphanie Colloud as general manager and chief operating officer to lead European activities. A 20-year veteran of the space, Colloud has been at ABL since 2018.

Clinical research and clinical trial tech hires. In addition to AutoCruitment, several other clinical trial vendors and CROs made C-Suite and board announcements.

• Charlotte, North Carolina-based CRO Catawba Research tapped Andrew Silverman, PhD as its new chief operating officer. Silverman has a long career in the CRO space, most recently as VP of global operations at Syneos Health.
• Curavit Clinical Research, a virtual CRO out of New York City, added Jackie Kent to its Board of Directors. Kent is the first “external fiduciary, independent life sciences industry veteran” on the Board, according to the company, and brings more than two decades of experience at Eli Lilly and Company.
• eCOA/ePRO specialists uMotif, out of Boston, has named Adam Deutsch to its board of directors. Deutsch currently serves as an operating advisor to Revival Healthcare Capital. Before that, he was chief business officer and general counsel at Clario.

Digital health companies hire sales staff, make board appointments. We tracked several hires at digital health companies in March, including a number on the sales side.

• Elucid, which makes an FDA-cleared, high-powered AI analysis software for assessing cardiovascular disease, has hired Andrew Miller as its new chief technology officer. Miller previously served as CTO at Engooden Health.
• Spatially Health, a cloud-based tech company focused on the social determinants of health, brought on Michael Ward as its new VP of sales. Ward will draw on skills learned at companies including Athenahealth, DataRobot, and ClosedLoop.ai.
• AI-powered patient experience company Steer Health made two new hires in March: Greg Silvey joined as SVP of growth and Beth Fleming came on as VP of customer success. Silvey has leadership experience at Babyscripts and ZocDoc, and Fleming has worked on Beacon Healthcare Systems, Health First, Covenant Health, and Olive.
• Italian IoT biomedical platform maker Nano Tech Projects (NTP) named three new board members, including a new executive chairman. Dr Michael Lutz, former CEO of HepaReginiX, is the new chairman, and he’s joined on the board by Laura Ferro and Stephen Allen.
• AI drug discovery company BenevolentAI has also expanded its board, adding former Moderna chief digital and operational excellence officer Marcello Damiani. He will act as an independent non-executive director.

Non-profit and professional organisation hires. Finally, we tracked some hires and appointments with non-profits and other organisations.

• The Pistoia Alliance, a non-profit life sciences industry group, has hired Dr Hall Gregg as its new chief portfolio officer. She has held leadership positions at Merck, Amgen, Pfizer, the American Red Cross, and Quest Diagnostics. The Alliance also launched a 13-person Pistoia Alliance Pharma Innovation Council.
• CARb-X, a global non-profit partnership dedicated to supporting early-stage antibacterial R&D to address the rising threat of drug-resistant bacteria, has hired Dan Burgess, a serial entrepreneur and investor in the antibiotic space, as the first independent chair of its Joint Oversight Board, which oversees the strategy, scope, and budget of the non-profit.
• The Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA), a non-profit supporting the global adoption of DCTs, named Jane Myles as programme director. Myles was a founding member of DTRA’s leadership council and previously served as VP of clinical trial innovation at Curebase.
• ABPI, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, announced that Susan Rienow, UK country president of Pfizer, would serve as the association’s president starting in May. She has been serving in the role of vice president since September.
• CHPA, the Consumer Health Products Association, has named Lisa Paley as the new chair of its board of directors. Paley leads the North America Region at Haleon.

That’s it for this roundup. 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.