Changing Faces: Board of Directors and Advisory Boards, February 2026

Boardrooms and advisory panels across pharma, biotech, medtech, and digital health were busy last month, with a string of appointments bringing deep commercial, scientific, and regulatory expertise to bear. Here’s the round-up:

AmerisourceBergen, Humana vet takes chair at Inceptua Group. Seasoned healthcare executive Kurt Hilzinger was appointed Chairman of the Board at Inceptua Group, the global provider of clinical trial services, supplies, and early access programmes. Hilzinger previously served as president, chief operating officer, and Board Director of AmerisourceBergen – now Cencora – and has also spent the past 12 years as Chairman of Humana.

Former Pfizer CMO joins Board at Helus. Dr Freda Lewis-Hall has joined the board of directors of Helus Pharma, a clinical-stage company developing proprietary novel serotonergic agonists to treat mental health conditions, where she will also chair the Scientific Committee. Lewis-Hall brings extensive biopharmaceutical leadership to the role, having spent more than a decade on Pfizer's executive leadership team as executive vice president and chief medical officer.

Drug discovery non-profit ELRIG expands its board with two new members. Two new directors were appointed to the board of ELRIG, the not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation dedicated to the global drug discovery community. Dr Kelly Gray has led open innovation programmes, including the Innovative Health Initiative portfolio at AstraZeneca, building high-impact global collaborations throughout her career. Dr Elaine Duncan, who worked at Charles River Laboratories, is a committed STEM ambassador and has created award-winning public engagement initiatives.

Five biotechs add board members with scientific experience. A cluster of biotech companies bolstered their boards this month with some impressive names:

• Dr Niall Martin joined the board of Link Biologics, a biotech developing novel TSG-6-based therapies with anti-inflammatory, tissue-protective, and tissue-reparative properties. Dr Martin previously served as head of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, the AstraZeneca subsidiary where he co-invented first-in-class PARP inhibitor Lynparza (olaparib).
• Enara CEO Kevin Pojasek was appointed to the board of VectorY Therapeutics, an Amsterdam-based company creating vectorised antibody treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. He has led Enara since 2018 and advanced its vision of T-cell engager therapies against novel solid tumour targets.
• Michele Holcomb joined the Board of Compugen, an Israeli immunotherapy company specialising in computational target discovery. She brings more than 30 years of healthcare experience spanning biotech, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare services, including leadership roles at Cardinal Health and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
• At Amber Therapeutics, a medical technology company developing next-generation bioelectrical therapies for peripheral nervous system disorders, Dave Amerson joined up as an independent board member. He previously served as president and CEO of NeoTract through its $1.1 billion acquisition by Teleflex, and as Chairman of the Board at Palette Life Sciences through its $600 million Teleflex acquisition.
• Tim Walbert was appointed an independent director at Crystalys Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company addressing the significant unmet medical needs of people living with gout. Most recently, Walbert served as chairman, president, and CEO of Horizon Therapeutics from 2008 to 2023, steering its transformation into a leading rare-disease organisation and guiding its acquisition by Amgen in a transaction valued at approximately $28 billion.

Evogene recruits two computational chemistry authorities to its Scientific Advisory Board. Evogene, a computational chemistry company using AI to discover and design novel small molecules for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications, made a pair of Scientific Advisory Board appointments. John Irwin, an adjunct professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF and a globally recognised leader in ligand discovery and virtual screening, joined alongside Dan Major, a professor of chemistry at Bar-Ilan University and a leading expert in multiscale molecular modelling.

SeaBeLife adds international AMD expert to its scientific committee. Prof Eric Souied joined the scientific committee of SeaBeLife, the biotechnology company developing drug candidates intended to block cellular necrosis. Souied heads the ophthalmology department at the Intercommunal Hospital of Créteil and at Henri Mondor Hospital in France, and is an internationally recognised expert in age-related macular degeneration, maculopathies, and ophthalmic surgery encompassing both retinal and cataract procedures.

Novo Nordisk UK veteran joins Reset Health Advisory Board. Reset Health, a digital health company delivering end-to-end management of chronic conditions, tapped Pinder Sahota for its Advisory Board. Sahota most recently served as general manager and corporate vice president at Novo Nordisk UK, and has previously held a variety of senior roles at GSK, AstraZeneca, and Smith & Nephew.

Richmond Pharmacology establishes Advisory Board. Richmond Pharmacology, a UK CRO founded in 2001 and specialising in first-in-human studies and adaptive clinical trials for gene editing and gene silencing therapies, announced two founding appointments to its new Advisory Board. Dr Lisa Campbell, director of regulatory strategy at the company and a former senior medical assessor at the MHRA, was named chair, whilst James Rickard, chief scientific officer of the Richmond Research Institute, will serve as vice chair.

That wraps it up for our February Changing Faces series. You can always send your own hires and appointments to editorial@pharmaphorum.com for inclusion in this column.