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.
Change continues at Biogen with Koppel’s departure; John Cox named CEO of spinoff
Biogen
Adam Koppel stepped down.
Biogen’s ($BIIB) strategy head Adam Koppel departed this week as the Big Biotech additionally announced it'll spin off its hemophilia business. Koppel, who joined Biogen in 2014, returns to his former employer Bain Capital; he's set to depart Biogen on June 2. Meanwhile, Biogen plans to tap EVP of pharmaceutical operations and technology John Cox to run the yet-to-be-named spinoff. At Bain Capital, Koppel will serve as a managing director tasked with growing capital through life sciences investments. Biogen CEO George Scangos, EVP of R&D Michael Ehlers and CFO Paul Clancy will handle his duties. Just last week, Biogen poached Ehlers from Pfizer ($PFE) to head up R&D. Report | More
Apple taps robotics expert Matsuoka for healthcare projects
Apple
Yoky Matsuoka will lead healthcare projects.
Yoky Matsuoka, a co-founder of Google’s X lab and former technology exec at Nest, is heading to Apple ($AAPL) to lead up some healthcare projects on the iPhone. The move comes as Apple seeks to advance its healthcare push with the ResearchKit, HealthKit and CareKit programs. Matsuoka, who also spent a decade in academia at Carnegie Mellon University and at the University of Washington in Seattle as a robotics professor, will work with Apple COO Jeff Williams to flesh out the company’s healthcare ambitions. The hire comes a year after Apple reported that three leading U.S. medical centers would use its ResearchKit to collect clinical data in the areas of autism, epilepsy and melanoma. Story
Kenneth Parks selected for CFO job at Mylan
Mylan
Kenneth Parks was named CFO.
Mylan ($MYL) has named former Wesco CFO Kenneth Parks to the same position at its company, tapping a financial vet with 30 years of experience. As part of the move--which sees Park join Mylan’s executive team--he will assume all responsibilities for Mylan's global finance functions, financial planning and analysis, investor relations, treasury and tax. At Wesco, a provider of electrical, industrial and communication products, Parks held a similar role and was responsible for all financial functions. “In addition to his strong experience and leadership capabilities, Ken brings to Mylan deep functional expertise and technical knowledge and we believe he will be a great asset to our business and finance team,” Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said in a statement. Parks spent the majority of his career at United Technologies in various roles before moving to Wesco. Release
LabCorp ($LH) target INC Research posts strong Q1, 175 posts axed. Story
Clovis ($CLVS) hatchets 35% of staff and buries lung cancer drug roci. Story
Biotech
> Applied DNA ($APDN) tapped former Pfizer exec Bob Miglani to head business development. Release
> Baxter ($BAX) brought on Giuseppe Accogli as interim president of its renal business. Release
> Tiziana Life Sciences appointed Robert Evans as vice president of clinical sciences. Release
> Medtronic ($MDT) named Karen Parkhill as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Release
> Eric Cornut retired from Novartis ($NVS) as its chief ethics and compliance officer. Release
> Eiger Biopharma ($EIGR) brought on Debra Odink as its senior vice president of technical operations. Release
> Orexigen ($OREX) appointed Brian Longstreet as its senior vice president of global market access and development. Release
> Tara Moore joined Avellino Labs as its R&D director. Release
> Atreca named Norman Greenberg as its chief scientific officer. Release
> Clive Dix has been appointed chief executive officer of C4X Discovery. Release
> Bicycle Therapeutics has appointed Michael Skynner as vice president of operations, Alan Watt as vice president of therapeutics, and Gillian Langford as head of clinical and project management. Release