Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Kyle Blankenship, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Childhood cancer-focused Day One snags Gilead alum Bender for CEO
Day One Biopharmaceuticals
At Gilead, Bender oversaw the company’s acquisitions, partnerships and investments, working on more than 40 transactions totaling more than $10 billion in upfront value. Before that, he held similar roles at smaller biotechs, including Tizona Therapeutics, Sutro Biopharma and Allos Therapeutics. It’s a skill set that will be important to Day One, which aims to build its pipeline by acquiring or partnering on assets. Its lead asset, a RAF inhibitor dubbed DAY101, was licensed from Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, which previously licensed it to Takeda. Fierce Biotech
Flagship Pioneering's 2-becomes-one biotech nabs ex-Pfizer CSO as research lead
Repertoire Immune Medicines
Coyle comes to Repertoire after founding and leading Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Pandion, which is fresh off an IPO. He left last July before the company went public. Coyle helped the biotech set up shop with its so-called TALON platform to create better treatments for autoimmune conditions, in which the immune system “forgets what the self is” and attacks its own tissues and organs. Before this, he was senior vice president and CSO at Big Pharma Pfizer for seven years, between 2010 and 2017, as it weaned itself of Lipitor sales and reemerged as a more heavily cancer-focused operation. He also had long stints at MedImmune and Takeda. Fierce Biotech
Viral vector manufacturer Vibalogics adds CEO to lead expansion, COVID-19 response
Vibalogics
Tom Hochuli has been tapped as global CEO.
Hochuli, the former cell and gene therapy operations head at Lonza's Houston area site, will come on board at a crucial time as Vibalogics navigates the early days of its COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing pact with Johnson & Johnson and goes house hunting for its new plant. During his two-year stint at Lonza's 300,000-square-foot facility, Hochuli oversaw a workforce expansion of around 400 employees and had a chance to get intimate with the cell and gene therapy space. Fierce Pharma
> Houston-based Aravive has named Reshma Rangwala, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer. Rangwala most recently served as VP of medical at Genmab. Release
> Emeryville, California-based Nutcracker Therapeutics has tapped Madhavan “Madhu” Balachandran as chief operating officer. Balachandran is the former executive VP of operations at Amgen. Release
> Boston-based Decibel Therapeutics has appointed Elisabeth Leiderman, M.D., as chief financial officer. Leiderman most recently served as chief business officer for Complexa. Release
> Inivata has named Peter Collins as chief business officer. Collins most recently served at Guardant Health and was previously CBO with Yourgene Health. Release
> Ashley Kline has been promoted to global biotech head for Dompé Farmaceutici and Dompé U.S., a role that she will hold in addition to her responsibilities as the general manager for Dompé U.S. and secretary of the board of directors of the U.S. affiliate.
> Ireland's ERS Genomics has tapped Michael Arciero as VP of intellectual property and commercial development. Arciero was most recently director of technology commercialization and new ventures for the USC Stevens Center for Innovation.
> Princeton, New Jersey-based WCG has tapped Carsten Henke as senior VP of Europe and managing director of Germany. Henke joins WCG from MediWound, where he was chief commercial officer of Europe and managing director of the company’s operations in Germany and Europe. Release