Changing Faces

As usual, the one-two punch of ASCO and BIO set us a bit behind, but never fear – your June hires round-up is here at least before the end of July.

Read on for some of the key appointments of last month.

Bristol Myers Squibb adds two executive leaders. Bristol Myers Squibb made two significant additions to its executive leadership team in June. Dr Chris Shibutani joined the company as executive vice president and chief strategy officer, a newly created role. With a unique background that bridges medicine and finance, Shibutani brings 25 years of experience in the financial sector, following an earlier career as a physician trained in anaesthesiology and critical care medicine. In addition, Wendy Short Bartie has been named executive vice president of corporate affairs. Bartie previously held several senior roles at BMS, including senior vice president and general manager of multiple divisions.

Leadership overhaul at Oncolytics Biotech. Oncolytics Biotech, an American and Canadian clinical-stage biotech company developing the immunotherapeutic agent pelareorep, has brought in two seasoned executives who share a history at Ambrx Biopharma. Jared Kelly has been appointed CEO, following his instrumental role in orchestrating the $2 billion sale of Ambrx Biopharma to Johnson & Johnson. Joining him is Andrew Aromando, the new chief business officer. Aromando was previously chief operating officer at Ambrx, where he played a key role in the same acquisition.

Biotech taps Google vet to lead AI efforts. AI-driven drug discovery company Genesis Therapeutics has named Aleksandra Faust as its chief AI officer. Faust most recently served as director of research at Google DeepMind, where she oversaw foundational model learning and contributed to projects such as Gemini and generalist web agents.

Her career at the tech giant spans several pioneering roles: she co-founded reinforcement learning research at Google Brain, led task and motion planning in robotics at Google, and spearheaded machine learning for self-driving car planning at Waymo.

Ochre Bio promotes founder to CEO role. RNA therapeutics company Ochre Bio has promoted Dr Quin Wills to CEO. As the company’s founder and former chief scientific officer, Wills has helped shape the company’s approach to treating late-stage liver disease. Under his leadership, the company will now focus on advancing its drug candidates toward clinical trials, according to the company.

iOnctura adds two to C-Suite. Amsterdam-based precision oncology firm iOnctura has expanded its executive team with two key hires. Steven Scuito has joined as chief financial officer; he was previously vice president of finance at Neurogene Inc. And Michelle Tsai is in as chief operating officer. With over 20 years of experience in oncology and specialty pharmaceuticals, Tsai brings deep expertise spanning early pipeline strategy to launch execution. These appointments come as iOnctura continues to develop its pipeline of small molecules targeting hard-to-treat cancers.

New CFOs at Tenpoint Therapeutics and Galapagos. Two biotech companies have brought in new financial leadership to support their strategic goals. Melissa Epperly has joined Tenpoint Therapeutics as CFO, bringing more than 20 years of financial leadership experience in the biopharma sector, most recently serving as CFO at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. Tenpoint focuses on rejuvenating vision in the ageing eye. Meanwhile, Aaron Cox has taken on the CFO role at Galapagos. Cox was previously executive vice president and CFO at Horizon Therapeutics, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s $28 billion acquisition by Amgen.

Four more commercial and operational appointments. Several more biotechs made additions to their C-Suite in June.

Courtney Cuppleshas joined Abcuro, a clinical-stage biotech focused on autoimmune diseases and cancer, as chief commercial officer. Cupples began her career at Genzyme, where she spent over 11 years expanding the company’s enzyme replacement therapy business across Latin America. She later held senior commercial roles at Alexion Pharmaceuticals for nine years.
At Protara Therapeutics,William Conklinghas stepped into the chief commercial officer role. Conkling most recently served as president and CEO of Rafael Holdings, a company with interests in early-stage and clinical pharmaceutical ventures.
Andrew Smithhas been named chief operating officer at Medicus Pharma, a biotech and life sciences company focused on accelerating clinical development for disruptive therapeutic assets. Smith was most recently CEO of SR Asset Management (SRAM), where he led the firm until its sale in 2024.
Amsterdam-based VectorY Therapeutics, known for its work on vectorised antibody treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, has appointedJessica Atkinsonas chief business officer. Atkinson brings a wealth of experience from leadership roles at ImmuneID, Glympse Bio, and Foundation Medicine, and before that at Merck & Co.

STORM and Maxion strengthen development teams. Two UK-based biotech firms have added seasoned professionals to lead their development efforts. Dr Eric Martinhas joined STORM Therapeutics as chief development officer. With over 20 years in biotech, Martin has held senior roles at Kinnate Biopharma, Plexxikon, Ignyta, Pfizer Oncology, and Arpeggio Biosciences. His extensive background in oncology and RNA-based therapeutics aligns with STORM’s mission to pioneer cellular reprogramming through RNA modifications. At Maxion Therapeutics, new CDODr Stefan Härtle brings nearly two decades of pharmaceutical R&D experience, most recently serving as head of clinical pharmacology at MorphoSys, which was acquired by Novartis for $2.9 billion in early 2024. Maxion is focused on antibody-based therapies for ion channel and GPCR-driven diseases.

CMO appointments across oncology and rare disease biotechs. A wave of chief medical officer hires has swept through the biotech sector, with five companies announcing new clinical leaders.

Dr Dimitry S.A. Nuytenhas joined OnCusp Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma focused on cancer treatments. Nuyten previously served as CMO at Arcus Biosciences, Nektar Therapeutics, and Aduro Biotech, and held a key clinical development role at Pfizer in immuno-oncology.
Dr Robert Andtbackahas been appointed CMO at Repertoire Immune Medicines, a Flagship Pioneering-founded company developing programmable T cell-targeted therapies. He was most recently CMO at HiFiBiO Therapeutics, where he oversaw clinical and strategic development across immuno-oncology and autoimmune pipelines.
Dr Daniel Chunghas joined Beacon Therapeutics as CMO. Chung was previously CMO at SparingVision and led ophthalmology development at Spark Therapeutics, where he was heavily involved in the development of Luxturna – the first FDA- and EMA-approved gene therapy for a blinding genetic disease.
Dr Florian Voglhas taken on the CMO role at TOLREMO, a Basel-based biotech focused on preventing non-genetic cancer drug resistance. Vogl brings over a decade of oncology and clinical development experience, having served as CMO in Swiss and Australian biotech firms and held senior roles at Novartis and Amgen.

Tevard Biosciences names new CSO. Boston-based Tevard Biosciences has appointedDr Elisabeth Gardiner as chief scientific officer. A biotech veteran with more than 25 years of experience and 11 INDs to her name, Gardiner has held senior scientific roles at Alterome, Aravive, and Kinnate. Her deep expertise in mRNA-modulating therapies will support Tevard’s mission to develop tRNA-based treatments for a broad range of genetic diseases.

That’s it for our pharma and biotech hires for June, but stay tuned for our other hires round-ups and remember, you can send your own hires to editorial@pharmaphorum.com for inclusion in this column.