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.
Founding Scholar Rock CEO returns to helm as Kingsley departs in quick fashion, yet again
Scholar Rock
Nagesh Mahanthappa, Ph.D., is back at the helm of CEO as Tony Kingsley departed the top spot after 12 months in the job.
It's a familiar leadership time frame for Kingsley, who was previously CEO and president of Taris Bio, now a Johnson & Johnson company, for about a year. Before that, he was president and chief operating officer of The Medicines Company, now a Novartis business, for less than two years. Mahanthappa was founding CEO and left the spot to Kingsley almost a year ago to the day. Fierce Biotech
Gilead's oncology chief heads to IGM Biosciences as CMO
IGM Biosciences
Chris Takimoto, M.D., Ph.D., joins IGM Biosciences as chief medical officer.
Takimoto leaves Gilead, where he was oncology chief, to lead a pipeline of early-stage cancer assets. Takimoto came to Gilead after the Big Pharma acquired Forty Seven, where he was also CMO, for $4.9 billion last year. He replaces Daniel Chen, M.D., Ph.D., who left for unknown reasons but will continue in a "consulting capacity." Chen led initial dose escalation for a phase 1 trial of a non-Hodgkin lymphoma therapy and launched a phase 1 trial for a solid and liquid tumors asset. Fierce Biotech
Arch Oncology continues hiring spree with AbbVie, BMS, Xencor vets for medical, clinical leadership
Arch Oncology
Louie Naumovski, M.D., Ph.D., joins the immuno-oncology biotech as its first chief medical officer.
Naumovski was previously group medical director for AbbVie's oncology early development. He led phase 1/2 clinical trials while part of AbbVie's oncology and immunology units. His hire comes in conjunction with the additions of Senior Vice President of Clinical Development Amit Agarwal, M.D., Ph.D., and SVP of Clinical Operations Steve DeMattos. Agarwal comes from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he managed a CAR-T portfolio. DeMattos held a similar VP role at Xencor. Fierce Biotech
> Merck's former chief strategy and business development officer will join gut-brain biotech Kallyope as president and CEO. Jay Galeota, who was more recently CEO of Nektar Therapeutics spin out Inheris Biopharma, will replace founding CEO Nancy Thornberry by Oct. 1. Fierce Biotech
> Josh Hoffman stepped down as CEO of Zymergen and left the board immediately this week following grim outlook on severe setbacks to its commercial pipeline. The biomanufacturing outlet went public just a few months ago but said it would no longer make any money this year, so it instated former Illumina CEO Jay Flatley as acting CEO. Fierce Biotech
> Former BARDA Chief Medical Officer Robert Walker, M.D., joined biotech Meissa Vaccines as CMO. Walker helped work on clinical development for the federal government's COVID-19 Operation Warp Speed program and will now lead development for Meissa's RSV and COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Release
> T-cell receptor biotech T-knife Therapeutics named Peggy Sotiropoulou, Ph.D., as its chief scientific officer. She comes from Celyad Oncology, where she was head of R&D and led multiple autologous and allogenic CAR-T drug candidates. Release
> EQRx will add Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., the former principal deputy FDA commissioner, to its board. Serial biotech founder Alexis Borisy will move from CEO to executive chairman. To complete a trifecta of moves, Melanie Nallicheri was promoted from president and chief operating officer to CEO. Release
> Preclinical neuroscience biotech Delix Therapeutics named Brigitte Robertson, M.D., its chief medical officer. She was previously in the same position at Yumanity Therapeutics. Robertson has also held posts at GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. Release
> Frederic Ors stepped down as CEO of clinical-stage biopharma IMV and is being replaced temporarily by Chief Business Officer Andrew Hall. The company has begun a search for a new CEO, and the shake-up comes a month after IMV hired Chief Scientific Officer Jeremy R. Graff, Ph.D. Release
> A month after announcing a $2.4B SPAC deal, HeartFlow snagged John Farquhar as chief operating officer. He joins the AI-powered heart disease test maker from Medtronic, where he was vice president and general manager of the company's aortic business. Release
> Stuart A. Arbuckle officially became chief operating officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals after expanding his chief commercial officer role earlier this year to include the duties. Arbuckle was also named an executive vice president of the cystic fibrosis and other serious diseases biotech. Release
> Personalized dermatology medicine company Mindera named Ann Deren-Lewis as chief commercial officer. Lewis joined from Zerigo Health, where she was senior vice president of corporate development. Release
> Pascal Qian was named China general manager by LianBio. He joins from Eli Lilly China, where he was vice president and head of the oncology business unit. Qian previously held oncology roles at Novartis and Pfizer. Release
> Genetic medicines biotech AroBiotherapeutics named three new executives, including the promotion of Chief Business Officer Scott Greenberg to the role of chief operating officer. Jeffrey Staiger joins the biotech as SVP of finance and business development from Bristol Myers Squibb. And Michael Tortorici joined from CSL Behring to be VP of clinical pharmacology and nonclinical development. Release
> Carter Barnhart became Charlie Health's CEO. She joins the virtual mental health player that she helped co-found from Newport Healthcare, where Barnhart was chief experience officer. Release
> Contract research organization PHASTAR named Charles Gelb its chief commercial officer. He joins the specialist biometrics CRO from Cytel, where he was vice president and head of North American sales. Release
> Brok Weichbrodt joined Genezen Laboratories as vice president of operations. He comes to the cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization from Catalent, where he was director of commercial operations. Release
> Windtree Therapeutics named Randall White, Ph.D., its vice president of clinical program management. White joins the biotech and medical device maker from Daiichi Sankyo, where he was executive director and global team leader of quizartinib. Release
> Life science company MiRus named Angela Coldwell its chief financial officer. Coldwell joined the spine, orthopedic and structure heart disease-focused company from Curant Health, where she was senior director of finance for the specialty pharmacy. Release
> Healthcare marketplace Zocdoc named Edward Liu its chief financial officer. Liu was previously head of Americas technology banking for Morgan Stanley. Release
> Todd R. Patrick retired from his role as CEO of Armata Pharmaceuticals effective this week. Patrick will remain on the board and serve as a special advisor to the bacterial infections-focused biotech through at least 2022. President and Chief Development Officer Brian Varnum, Ph.D., will replace him. Release
> Craig M. Mooney was named vice president of science for Calyx, an eClinical and regulatory solutions provider. Mooney joins from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he was director of interactive response technology, a position he held for nearly 10 years. Release
> Paul Donnelly joined decentralized clinical trials company Curebase as senior vice president of enterprise strategy. Donnelly joined from Datacubed Health, where he worked on the startup's clinical trial platform. Release