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 LaHucik, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Pfizer to lose 2nd 3-decade veteran executive in early 2022
Pfizer
Rod MacKenzie, Ph.D., will retire in early 2022 from his post as chief development officer.
The 35-year Pfizer employee becomes the second three-decade veteran to retire in the beginning months of next year following group president John Young. MacKenzie's career is bookended by an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that has been delivered to tens of millions of people and awaits multiple more approvals. He also holds the title of executive vice president. Fierce Biotech
National Institutes of Health Director Collins to retire by year-end
NIH
Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., will retire from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the end of this year.
After leading the NIH for a dozen years and under three presidents, Collins will depart because he said "no single person should serve in the position too long." The physician-geneticist was first appointed by former President Barack Obama in April 2009, and he will continue to lead his research lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute focusing on Type 2 diabetes. Fierce Biotech
Sanofi poaches Gilead cancer lead Valeria Fantin as global head of oncology research
Sanofi
Valeria Fantin, Ph.D., will be the new global head of oncology research at Sanofi.
Fantin joined the French Big Pharma this week after 12 months in the role of vice president of oncology research at Gilead Sciences.She's also held roles at Zai Lab, Pfizer and ORIC. The executive will lead a large pipeline of cancer treatment hopefuls, including two recently gobbled up via pacts with Tidal Therapeutics and Eureka Therapeutics. Fierce Biotech
> Joanne Chang, M.D., Ph.D., is jumping from head of global medical affairs for Novartis' ophthalmology unit to become chief medical officer of Oculis. Fierce Biotech
> Jeffrey Humphrey, M.D., will be chief medical officer of Magenta Therapeutics after holding the same post at Constellation Pharmaceuticals. Fierce Biotech
> Harold Bernstein, M.D., Ph.D., is ditching his post as vice president of global medicines development at Vertex to be chief medical officer of BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Fierce Biotech
> Gemini eliminated 20% of its staff, including Chief Scientific Officer Walter Strapps, Ph.D., and Chief People Officer Precillia Redmond, and promoted Avner Ingerman to chief development officer. Fierce Biotech
> GlaxoSmithKline's digital data leader Stephen Pyke exited to Parexel, where he'll be executive vice president for clinical data and digital services. Fierce CRO
> Olaf Christensen, M.D., becomes chief medical officer of Orum Therapeutics after leading oncology clinical development at EMD Serono. Release
> J&J and Eisai veteran Rhea Williams steps into the head of regulatory affairs and quality assurance role at Skye Bioscience, and Varun Khurana, Ph.D., leaves GSK to be senior director of R&D. Kaitlyn Arsenault becomes CFO. Release
> After being VP of regulatory affairs and quality at OncoSec Medical, Robert Ashworth, Ph.D., becomes vice president of regulatory affairs at aTyr Pharma. Release
> Paul Tebbey, Ph.D., joins Heat Biologics as senior vice president of product development and portfolio strategy after leading U.S. medical affairs for biosimilars at Fresenius Kabi. Release
> Long Trinh is the new chief financial officer of Clairvoyant Therapeutics after leading Decibel Cannabis through a reverse takeover. Release
> Mary Margaret Huizinga, M.D., is the new chief medical and development officer of Rafael Pharmaceuticals after heading up U.S. oncology medical for Novartis. Release
> Mike Weinstein is the new chief financial officer of Caris Life Sciences after being senior vice president of strategy at Medtronic. Release
> Lisa Perez was promoted to general manager and vice president of marketing for Bayer's nutritionals division, and David Ball was elevated to the general manager and vice president marketing role for its digestive health unit. Release
> Daniel Clark adds interim CFO to his role of vice president of finance of Kiromic BioPharma after Tony Tontat resigned. Release
> Gitanjali Jain will be vice president of investor relations and external affairs for Kezar Life Sciences after serving as a managing director at Solebury Trout. Release
> Khoso Baluch resigns from his post as CEO and board member of CorMedix and EVP John Armstrong also retired. Matt David, M.D., was promoted to interim CEO and will retain his CFO role. Release
> Novavax named J&J's Denny Kim, M.D., its first chief safety officer and promoted Raburn Mallory, M.D., to head of clinical development and Marco Cacciuttolo, Ph.D., to SVP of process and analytical development. Release
> Freespira named Karin Bultman as SVP of marketing, Shawn Irwin as VP of sales and Camille McMullen as director of government accounts. Release
> Matthew Kwietniak will be chief commercial officer of Avid Bioservices after head of drug product sales at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Release
> Christopher Recknor, M.D., be senior EVP of clinical operations and Nitya Ray, Ph.D., will be chief operating officer of CytoDyn. Release
> David Easson is the new chief manufacturing officer of Solarea Bio and Rachel Raymond was named chief business officer. Release
> Hassan Kotob is the new CEO of Brain Scientific, which merged with Piezo Motion. Kotob was previously CEO and founder of North Plains Systems. Release
> Mittie Doyle, M.D., leaves the role of VP and global head of immunology at CSL Behring to be CMO of Aro Biotherapeutics. Release
> Morgan Molloy joins Atalanta Therapeutics as chief corporate development officer and the biotech also hired Stefan McDonough as VP and head of neuroscience and Garth Kinberger as VP of chemistry. Release
> Matthew Hill joins PDS Biotech as CFO after holding the same role at Strata Skin Sciences. Release
> Hans Bitter, Ph.D., joins MOMA Therapeutics as SVP and head of data science after holding the post of chief data officer for oncology at bluebird bio. Release
> Steve Smith will be chief commercial officer of seqWell after serving as a VP at Abcam. Release
> Louise Modis, Ph.D., will be chief scientific officer of Mogrify after being VP of immunology research at GSK. Release
> Vanessa Moll, M.D., Ph.D., will be chief medical officer of Potrero Medical. Release
> Lowry Barnes, M.D., is the new medical director of MicroPort Orthopedics after being chair of orthopaedics at the University of Arkansas. Release
> Mark Bouck departed the CEO and president posts at TrialCard and Scott Dulitz was promoted to the president and chief strategy officer roles. Release
> Carlo Iavarone, Ph.D., will be senior director of nonclinical research at Celsion, Beth Llewellyn joined as director of clinical operations and Subeena Sood, Ph.D., was promoted to senior manager of biology and preclinical studies. Release
> David Grainger, Ph.D., is the first chief innovation officer at Centessa Pharmaceuticals after serving as co-founder and chief scientific adviser of Medicxi. Release
> Drayton Virkley is the first chief commercial officer of Certara after spending a decade at IQVIA, most recently as VP and global head of sales for the real world solutions unit. Release
> Mohammad El Khoury becomes chief commercial officer of Quotient after heading up global sales of molecular diagnostics at Qiagen. Release
> Theresa Heggie becomes chief commercial officer of ProQR Therapeutics after being CEO of Freeline Therapeutics. Release
> Christine Guico-Pabia, M.D., is the new CMO of Nabriva Therapeutics. Release
> Amir Inamdar left AstraZeneca to be the new CMO of Cybin's European unit and Geoff Varty becomes head of R&D. Release
> Corinne Pankovcin was promoted to president and Thomas Farley was promoted to CFO. Release
> Kumar Dhanasekharan, Ph.D., joins Renovacor as SVP of technical operations after serving as VP of technical operations at SwanBio Therapeutics. Release
> Sam Backenroth becomes CFO of VBL Therapeutics, which also set up U.S. operations in New York. Release
> Enthera Pharmaceuticals named Antonio Speziale as CMO after he was translational medicine leader at Galapagos. Release