Changing Faces: Pharma and biotech hires, November and December 2025

R&D
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In our final batch of Changing Faces columns for 2025, we’re detailing a flurry of senior leadership appointments in recent months, with companies across the spectrum in experienced executives to guide their strategic direction.

These moves reflect the industry's continued evolution, particularly in emerging fields such as radiopharmaceuticals, AI-driven drug discovery, and engineered cell therapies.

PureTech makes interim CEO permanent. PureTech Health, a clinical stage biopharma company with a large pipeline both internally and through its spinout companies, appointed Robert Lyne as CEO. The former CEO of Arix Bioscience had been serving as interim CEO at PureTech since July of last year, before being confirmed in the permanent role.

Two new CEOs fresh off Sanofi acquisitions. A successful exit almost always opens doors, and two newly appointed CEOs recently sold companies to the same French vaccines giant. AdvanCell, a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing innovative targeted alpha therapies for cancer, named Philina Lee as its new CEO. Lee joined from Blueprint Medicines Corporation, which was recently acquired by Sanofi for approximately $9.5 billion, where she served as chief commercial officer. Draig Therapeutics, a Cardiff clinical-stage company with a mission to transform treatments in neuropsychiatry, appointed Dr Magovčević-Liebisch as president and CEO. She recently served as president and CEO of Vigil Neuroscience, a company she founded, built, and led until its acquisition by Sanofi in August 2025.

American and German firms welcome new leaders. It was a busy couple of months at the top of the C-Suite for pharma and biotech companies.

  • Sonoma Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech out of San Francisco developing engineered regulatory T-cell (Treg) therapies to treat serious autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, brought in Stephen Dilly as president and CEO. Most recently, he served as the Chairman, CEO and president of Codexis Inc, and continues to serve as Chairman of the Codexis Board. Prior to Codexis, Dr Dilly served as president and CEO of Sierra Oncology through its sale to GlaxoSmithKline.
  • RVL Pharmaceuticals, a New Jersey pharma whose lead product helps adults with acquired ptosis manage their symptoms, named Lori Deo as CEO. Deo is a healthcare executive with general management experience at world class companies including Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. RVL Pharmaceuticals also brought in Amy Shah as chief growth officer. Shah spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson working on consumer experience and engagement.
  • Tacalyx, a privately held Berlin biotech company focused on the discovery and development of Tumour Associated Carbohydrate Antigen (TACA) antibodies to treat cancer, appointed Jean Engela as CEO. He most recently led NBE Therapeutics as CEO, and before that led drug development at Boehringer Ingelheim.
  • DISCO Pharmaceuticals, a German biotech advancing a differentiated pipeline of highly selective, surfaceome-targeted therapies for hard-to-treat tumours, brought in Mark Manfredi as CEO. He most recently served as CEO of Ikena Oncology, before which he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture.

AI and technology leaders join drug discovery companies. ProFound Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA biotech discovering proteins hidden within the expanded human proteome to uncover novel protein drugs and drug targets, named Tom Chittenden as chief technology officer. Chittenden is a recognised leader in AI-driven drug discovery with more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of data science, computational biology, and translational medicine.

Meanwhile, Genesis Molecular AI, a California AI-focused biotechnology company leveraging its generative and predictive AI platform for small molecule drug discovery, appointed Sergey Edunov as SVP of Foundation Models. Edunov was a key research leader on Meta's Llama 2 and Llama 3 AI teams.

Finance chiefs appointed across the sector. Zelluna, a Norwegian biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic 'off-the-shelf' T-cell receptor-based natural killer (TCR-NK) cells for the treatment of cancer, named Geir Christian Melen as chief financial officer. He brings extensive senior leadership experience across the Norwegian biotech and life sciences sector, including multiple CFO and CEO roles.

And Medicus Pharma, a biotech/life sciences company focused on accelerating the clinical development programmes of novel and disruptive therapeutic assets, appointed Carolyn Bonner as chief financial officer. Bonner had been serving as acting chief financial officer since 12th September 2025, in addition to her responsibilities as president, providing continuity and leadership during the medical leave of departing chief financial officer Jim Quinlan, who formally resigned for health reasons.

Clinical development expertise strengthens medical leadership. After CEO, the C-Suite title that saw the most action in November and December was chief medical officer.

  • Domain Therapeutics, a French and Canadian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing highly differentiated therapeutic strategies targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), appointed Dr Jean-Marie Cuillerot as chief medical officer. He has held senior leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and EMD Serono, as well as several smaller biotechs.
  • Syndeio Biosciences, an Indianapolis-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapies to restore and enhance synaptic health in CNS disorders, named Dr Aaron Koenig as chief medical officer. He most recently served as CMO at Delix Therapeutics and previously held roles at Sage Therapeutics and Biogen.
  • Nuvig Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering precisely engineered Fc-based therapeutics to redefine the treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, brought in Dr Celia JF Lin as chief medical officer. Lin is a physician-scientist and rheumatologist with nearly 15 years of experience leading clinical development for immunomodulating therapies in autoimmune, inflammatory, and fibrotic diseases across biotechnology and large pharmaceutical organisations.
  • Actithera, headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, appointed Dr Darshan Dalal as chief medical officer. The radiopharmaceutical biotech company is translating medicinal chemistry insights into next-generation radioligand therapies (RLTs). Dalal is an internationally recognised radiopharmaceutical leader with over 15 years of global oncology and haematology leadership experience, including roles at AstraZeneca and Novartis.

Growing biotech fills top HR role. ProFound Therapeutics appointed Laurel Ostrom as chief human resources officer. She recently served as chief human resources officer at Anthos Therapeutics, where she built the HR function to support the company's clinical-to-commercial transition and later led people integration efforts following its acquisition by Novartis.

Boston's Ratio taps Novartis vet. In more radiopharma news, Ratio Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech focusing on new approaches to targeted radiotherapy, named Marcel Reichen as chief strategy officer. Reichen brings deep radiopharma expertise from his time at Novartis and Advanced Accelerator Applications (a Novartis company), where he helped shape strategy and partnerships in radioligand therapy.

Scientific leadership elevated and expanded. November and December also saw a pair of chief scientific officer appointments.

Strand Therapeutics, a Boston biotech developing next generation programmable mRNA therapies, promoted Prashant Nambiar to chief scientific officer from SVP in recognition of his leadership across Strand's Discovery, Non-clinical, Translational, and Data Science teams. Strand Therapeutics also brought in Ethan Cash as senior vice president, head of portfolio management and programme development. Cash joins with over two decades of biotech experience, most recently as VP and head of programme leadership at Mural Oncology.

And Mosaic Therapeutics, a Cambridge, UK precision oncology therapeutics company, appointed Dr Stephen Shuttleworth as chief scientific officer. Shuttleworth has over 30 years' experience as a pharmaceutical scientist, senior executive, entrepreneur, and investor.

California biopharma brings on regulatory expertise. MediciNova, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in California, developing a broad late-stage pipeline of novel small molecule therapies for inflammatory, fibrotic, and neurodegenerative diseases, appointed Dr Christopher Breder as clinical and regulatory advisor. Breder brings more than 20 years of experience across FDA and pharma, including key roles in reviewing and helping advance approvals for therapies in ALS, myasthenia gravis, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Specialty pharma adds new commercial lead for US. ALK, a global specialty pharmaceutical company focused on allergy and allergic asthma, appointed Edward Jordan as EVP & head of commercial operations in North America. Jordan brings more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical leadership, including major contributions to Claritin, Clarinex, and Viaskin.

That’s it for our pharma and biotech hires for 2025, 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.