Changing Faces: Pharma and biotech hires, September 2026

There was plenty of movement at the top of pharma and biotech in September, with leadership changes spanning some of the industry’s biggest names, as well as a broad crop of emerging drug developers.

Takeda began the search for a new R&D chief, while Chiesi, Bavarian Nordic, and Legend Biotech all settled on new permanent CEOs. September was a huge month for chief medical and chief finance officer appointments, with three companies filling both posts and another 15 slotting in one or the other.

Takeda prepares for R&D leadership change. Takeda’s long-serving R&D president Andy Plump is due to step down in June 2027, the company announced last month, remaining in the role and on the company’s board in the meantime as a successor is sought. Plump joined Takeda in 2015 and helped reshape its approach to R&D, including opening it up to more external collaborations and narrowing its focus to core therapeutic areas. His tenure also encompassed the $62 billion acquisition of Shire and the launches of Orzeyful (oveporexton) and Mimrylo (rusfertide).

Chiesi picks Flagship’s David Khougazian as CEO. Italian pharma group Chiesi named David Khougazian as its permanent chief executive, with the Flagship Pioneering executive due to take up the role on 15th October. Khougazian brings more than 25 years of healthcare and life sciences experience, including earlier senior roles at Sanofi, Aventis, and Rhône-Poulenc. He joins as Chiesi targeted annual revenues of at least €6 billion and expanded its pipeline and international presence. You can check out our full coverage here.

Bavarian Nordic turns to Sanofi veteran Tarja Stenvall. Bavarian Nordic selected Tarja Stenvall as president and CEO, with the Sanofi executive due to take over on 15th October following Paul Chaplin’s departure. Stenvall has held senior positions at Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer and most recently led Sanofi’s diabetes and cardiovascular diseases business. She arrived following the collapse of a proposed $3 billion private equity takeover and as Bavarian Nordic continues the international rollout of chikungunya vaccine Vimkunya. Read the full story on pharmaphorum.

Legend Biotech names Ingrid Zhang as CEO. Cell therapy developer Legend Biotech appointed former Novartis executive Ingrid Zhang as CEO, succeeding interim chief Alan Bash. Zhang most recently served as chief commercial officer for Novartis International and had previously led its China business and innovative medicines organisation. At Legend, she took charge as the company sought to expand Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel) into earlier lines of multiple myeloma treatment while advancing a broader pipeline of autologous, allogeneic, and in vivo cell therapies. Read more here.

Lift Therapeutics brings in a new CEO and clinical development head. London-based preclinical biotech Lift Therapeutics, formerly LifT BioSciences, strengthened its leadership team as it works on allogeneic cell therapies. Daniel Passeri joined as CEO, having previously served as CEO and a board member of Cue Biopharma from 2017 to 2025. There, he helped build teams spanning discovery, preclinical and clinical development and helped establish collaborations with Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Ono Pharmaceuticals. Lift also appointed Dr Eva Ehrnrooth as executive head of clinical development. Ehrnrooth brings experience from senior oncology development positions at IO Biotech, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Genmab.

Orikine builds out leadership team with three appointments. Barcelona biotech Orikine, which is developing treatments for immune-mediated diseases by selectively reprogramming the immune cells sustaining inflammation, made three senior appointments. Sabrina Kuttruff-Coqui became CEO after serving as chief financial officer of Aicuris through its $920 million acquisition by Asahi Kasei. She has also held several leadership positions at Immatics. Joining her is new chief medical officer Dr Andreas Muehler, previously CMO at Immunic, where he supported the company’s Nasdaq listing and guided several investigational therapies through development. Finally, Joachim Koch was appointed chief scientific officer and chief development officer. Koch previously served as vice president and head of discovery, research, and translational immunology at Affimed, helping define its scientific strategy and supporting multiple IND applications.

Three firms recruit new CEOs. Several more companies named new executives to the top job in September.

• Radiopharmaceutical biotech Actithera appointed Steven Kelly as CEO. Headquartered in Oslo and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company is applying medicinal chemistry insights to the development of next-generation radioligand therapies. Kelly most recently served as president, CEO, and a director of Carisma Therapeutics. His earlier career included senior leadership roles at BioVex, Sanofi, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, and Amgen.
• Clinical-stage biotech Callio Therapeutics, which is developing dual-payload antibody-drug conjugates, appointed Zach Hornby as CEO. Hornby most recently served as CEO, president, and a director at Boundless Bio. Before that, he held chief financial officer and chief operating officer positions at Ignyta, where he helped lead the company’s IPO.
• Jeannette Jager-van Dijk became CEO of Arletta Pharma Solutions, the pharmaceutical company previously known as Freya Pharma Solutions. The business is focused on developing pharmaceutical therapies for FSIAD/HSDD. Jager-van Dijk comes in with experience from a series of senior women’s health positions at Organon and its successor companies.

Diasome makes twin additions to leadership. Clinical-stage biopharma Diasome Pharmaceuticals added two executives as it continues its mission to develop therapies designed to act in the liver, a central regulator of metabolism. New chief financial officer Linda Rubinstein previously held the CFO position at Adverum Biotechnologies, which was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2025, and at Nektar Therapeutics. Dr Sangeeta Sawhney, meanwhile, joined as chief medical officer after serving as SVP and head of R&D at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. She succeeds Dr Paul Strumph, who had led Diasome through its Phase 2b OPTI-2 trial and now moves into a senior medical advisor position.

Foventa adds finance and medical leadership. UK biotech Foventa, formerly known as Exonate, made two appointments as it developed non-invasive small-molecule treatments for retinal vascular diseases. Julia Jones became chief financial officer. A chartered accountant who qualified with PwC, Jones has built up experience supporting biotech companies in the US and Europe from start-up through to exit. Additionally, Dr Zaiba Malik joins as chief medical officer, bringing more than 20 years of experience in clinical ophthalmology and ophthalmic drug development across industry and academia. Malik most recently worked as global medical director and therapeutic area lead for ophthalmology at Medpace.

LB Pharmaceuticals strengthens C-suite with CFO and CMO. The third company to fill the CFO and CMO posts is New York clinical-stage biopharma LB Pharmaceuticals, which develops therapies for neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia. Joseph Miller joined as chief financial officer, having previously served as CFO of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals. LB also selected Dr Susan G Kozauer as chief medical officer. Kozauer most recently served as SVP and head of clinical development at Centessa Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly, where she led clinical development and strategy for its orexin agonist portfolio.

Q32 Bio adds development and medical chiefs. Clinical-stage Q32 Bio bolstered its leadership as it pursues therapies for alopecia areata and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Ellie Hershberger, a PharmD, became chief development officer. She previously held the same title at Adagio Therapeutics, now Invivyd, where she led its development organisation and advanced its lead monoclonal antibody from IND-enabling work through Phase 3 development. New chief medical officer Dr José Trevejo previously served as CMO and head of clinical pipeline strategy at AI-enabled drug discovery company Enveda Therapeutics.

CMO moves span antibodies, AI, oncology, rare diseases, and more. A particularly busy crop of appointments saw nine companies add new medical leadership across a broad range of therapeutic areas.

• UK-based Alchemab Therapeutics appointed Dr Ben Porter-Brown as chief medical officer. He began his pharma career at Roche, ultimately serving as global head of infectious diseases for late-stage development, before moving to Kymab and remaining as VP and global project head following its acquisition by Sanofi. He later became CMO of MoonLake.
• Dr Sumeet Ambarkhane joined Cytospire Therapeutics as CMO as the UK biotech develops differentiated multispecific immune cell engager antibodies. With more than 20 years of experience across clinical medicine, drug development, regulatory strategy, and commercialisation, he most recently served as CMO at Pathios Therapeutics.
• AI-first biotech insitro named Hideo Makimura as CMO. Makimura most recently held the same position at Affinia Therapeutics and previously spent six years at Johnson & Johnson. San Francisco-based insitro is focused on metabolic disease and neuroscience.
• Barcelona-based ADC developer Ona Therapeutics tapped Dr Aleix Prat as CMO. He brings expertise in breast cancer, precision oncology, biomarker development, and drug development and has served as director of the Clínic Barcelona Comprehensive Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, co-founder of Reveal Genomics, and author of more than 350 peer-reviewed publications.
• New Jersey-based Polaryx Therapeutics appointed Dr Will Charlton as CMO. Charlton previously served as CMO of Spruce Biosciences and held senior clinical development roles at Tyra Biosciences, 89bio, Ascendis Pharma, and Allergan. Polaryx is developing small-molecule and gene therapies for rare orphan lysosomal storage disorders.
• UK clinical-stage biotech RedX Pharma, working on small-molecule targeted medicines for fibrotic disease, named Dr Mei-Lun Wang as CMO. Wang comes with 12 years of drug development experience across big pharma and smaller biotechs, including leadership of immunology and inflammation programmes through early-stage trials and post-approval commitment studies.
• Remepy appointed Dr Eran Harary as CMO. He joined the New York biotech and technology company, which combines traditional drugs with personalised AI-driven therapeutic apps, from Teva Pharmaceuticals, where his roles included SVP and global head of specialty R&D.
• Amsterdam-based Scenic Biotech selected Dr Judith Walker as CMO as it develops modifier therapies for severe diseases. Walker previously served as CMO of ARTHEx Biotech and led its lead neuromuscular programme from preclinical development into first-in-human studies.
• Engitix appointed Dr Sonia Quarantino as EVP and chief medical officer. The London early-stage biotech, which has programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours, gained an executive who most recently served as EVP and CMO at Innate Pharma and has previously been CMO of Georgiamune and Kymab.

Four biotechs and pharma companies bolster their finance teams. Though not quite as busy as the CMO space this month, there were also a handful of chief financial officer appointments.

• Alterome Therapeutics appointed Johanna Mylet as chief financial officer. The clinical-stage precision oncology biotech is developing alteration-specific therapies against validated oncogenic drivers. Mylet previously served as CFO at Poseida Therapeutics through its acquisition by Roche.
• At Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Rebecca Hall was named CFO. Hall joins the UK-based global generics group from ViiV Healthcare, where she served as senior vice president and chief financial officer.
• Boston-based targeted cardiometabolic therapeutics company Sparrow Pharmaceuticals, meanwhile, appointed George Eldridge as CFO. He has more than two decades of biotech financial leadership experience and most recently served as CFO of Abcuro, having previously helped take companies including Aerovate Therapeutics, Proteon, Targanta Therapeutics, Curis, and Boston Life Sciences public.
• Finally, CNS drug developer Tortugas Neuroscience brought in Ramzi Benamar as CFO. The biotech finance veteran has previously served as CFO at Bellus Health, DBV Technologies, and Elucida Oncology and joined Tortugas from Apnimed, where he had also held the CFO role.

Three more C-Suite appointments round out the month. Finally, here’s a few more C-Suite additions from September:

• Biopharma Crystalys Therapeutics appointed DeAnne Reid as chief administrative officer as the company works to address unmet needs among people living with gout. Reid was a co-founder of Crystalys and previously served as executive director of operations and business development. Before that she was senior director of operations and business development at Aristea Therapeutics, which she also co-founded.
• Massachusetts-based RNA medicines specialist Wave Life Sciences brought in Dr Monika Vnuk as chief business officer. Vnuk previously served as SVP and global head of partnering and business development at Sanofi, leading global licensing, equity investments, and alliances, and before that was a managing director at Blackstone Life Sciences.
• Last but not least, precision peptide specialist MBX Biosciences appointed Jeff Held as chief legal officer. Held previously served as CLO at Zenas Pharma and as SVP and general counsel at Deciphera Pharma. MBX is a clinical-stage biopharma developing precision peptide therapies for endocrine and metabolic disorders.

That’s it for our September life sciences hires, 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.

This round-up is prepared by a human editor with assistance from AI.