Quintiles names Jack Greenberg its next chairman

Nov 13, 2015 8:13am

Chutes and Ladders

Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word--or the bad--from your shop to Eric Sagonowsky (email) or Amirah Al Idrus (email | Twitter), and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

Quintiles names Jack Greenberg its next chairman


	Quintiles Jack Greenberg was named incoming chairman.

Effective Jan. 1, Jack Greenberg will assume the chairmanship at Quintiles ($Q), the world's largest CRO, as founder and current chairman Dennis Gillings is set to relinquish his position and become a director. The transition marks the end to 33 years in charge of the North Carolina company for Gillings, who stepped aside as chief executive in 2012; Tom Pike now holds that position. Greenberg has served as a Quintiles director since 2004; he's also served as chairman of Western Union ($WU) and global marketing supply chain company InnerWorkings ($INWK). He's been chairman and CEO of McDonald's ($MCD) and a director at Allstate ($ALL) and Hasbro ($HAS). What is now Quintiles grew out of Gillings' work as a contract researcher when he was a biostatistics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill back in 1974. With Gillings as its CEO, the company incorporated in 1982 and went public in 1994. It took a private equity buyout in 2003 and, under Gillings' leadership, returned to Wall Street in 2013 with an IPO worth nearly $1 billion. Now, Quintiles is a Fortune 500 company with more than 35,000 employees around the world and more than $4 billion in revenue each year. Story | Release

Aveo's Tuan Ha-Ngoc steps aside as chairman


	Aveo Oncology Chairman Tuan Ha-Ngoc stepped down.

Aveo Oncology ($AVEO) chairman and former CEO Tuan Ha-Ngoc left his chairman post at the Cambridge, MA, company this week, ending a 13-year tenure there. Over that time, Aveo saw three clinical failures and two FDA rejections for its cancer therapy tivozanib, all of which contributed to its sharp decline in value as it additionally saw Astellas and Biogen ($BIIB) cut all ties. Ha-Ngoc served as CEO until the board removed him from that position in January, appointing him chairman in place of former Genzyme chief Henri Termeer. Now, with Ha-Ngoc out, Termeer returns to the chairman role. Release

BeiGene names Du its SVP, head of chemistry and manufacturing controls


	BeiGene Zhengming Du was named SVP and head of chemistry and manufacturing controls.

BeiGene has appointed former Roche Pharmaceuticals China exec Zhengming Du to the position of senior vice president and head of chemistry and manufacturing controls. In his position at the Beijing-based biotech, he'll be responsible for overseeing local and global chemistry and manufacturing controls regulations, assisting in preparing drug applications, and interacting with both the U.S. FDA and China FDA to ensure BeiGene meets regulatory requirements. Prior to his position as head of process research and synthesis at Roche's ($RHHBY) China outfit, Du served as vice president of a R&D center for Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals and held multiple roles with Novartis ($NVS) in the U.S. "I am excited to join the BeiGene team and to direct the development and implementation of our CMC strategies to help advance our pipeline of immuno-oncology and combination therapeutics," Du said in a statement. Release

Roche is cutting 1,200 jobs in a major shift in producing drugs. Story

Almac is creating 180 new jobs at a facility in Northern Ireland that once belonged to AstraZeneca. Story

Biotech

> Asana Medical named Christine Sapan as president. Release

> Mela Sciences ($MELA) promoted Christina Allgeier to chief financial officer. Release

> Viamet appoints Dr. Volker Herrmann as chief commercial officer. Release

> Otic Pharma appoints Catherine Turkel as chief development officer. Release

> Epirus Biopharmaceuticals hired Vincent Aurentz as its chief business officer. Release

> Greenphire appointed Jim Murphy as its CEO. Release

> Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals named Dr. Nezam Afdhal as its chief medical officer. Release

> John Johnson joined VirMedica as executive chairman of its board of directors. Release

> Ocular Therapeutix ($OCUL) brought on W. James O'Shea as a member of its board of directors. Release

> Kurt Graves joined Seres Therapeutics' ($MCRB) board of directors. Release

Pharma

> Merck's ($MRK) Patrick Magri has been elected to be the chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Council's board. Release

Med tech

> Isowalk appointed Roderick de Greef as chief financial officer and Raymond Cohen to its board of directors. Release

> Covalon Technologies named Danny Brannagan as CFO. Release

> AliveCor appointed former Google executive Vic Gundotra as CEO. Release

Diagnostics

> Roka Bioscience ($ROKA) appointed Lars Boesgaard as chief financial officer. Release