Pharma veteran Jeffrey Jonas takes top spot at Sage

Welcome to this week's roundup of hirings and firings throughout the industry. Please send the good word (or the bad) from your shop to Michael Gibney (email | Twitter) or Emily Mullin (email | Twitter) and we will feature it here each Friday.

Pharma veteran Jeffrey Jonas takes top spot at Sage

Former Shire ($SHPG) exec Jeffrey Jonas took the helm at Sage Therapeutics this week, taking over for Third Rock Ventures partner Kevin Starr, who led the two-year-old startup in the interim. Jonas was president of Shire's struggling regenerative medicine unit in San Diego, but he left on unfriendly terms, settling an age-discrimination lawsuit there. Along with Jonas, Sage also added ex-AstraZeneca ($AZN) exec Dr. Stephen Kanes as its chief medical officer and Kimi Iguchi, formerly of Biogen Idec ($BIIB) and Millennium, as its chief financial officer. More from FierceBiotech

Sage Therapeutics
Jeffrey Jonas is the new CEO at Sage.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Bob More joined the foundation as a senior adviser for venture investing.

Biotech

VC veteran Bob More took a position with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a senior adviser for venture investing. He was previously at Frazier Healthcare and Domain Associates. More

> Kelly Blackburn joined aTyr Pharma as the company's vice president of clinical affairs. Blackburn was formerly the vice president of clinical development operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($VRTX). Release

Florida Governor Rick Scott has appointed Bioheart ($BHRT) CEO Mike Tomas to serve on Workforce Florida's board of directors for four years. Release

Robert Shaw and Brian Hampson have joined NeoStem ($NBS) as the company's vice president of commercial sales and senior director of engineering and innovation, respectively. Release

Tekmira ($TKMR) brought on Dr. Mark Kowalski as the company's chief medical officer and senior vice president. Release

Australian veterinary biologic drug developer Nexvet Biopharma appointed Geraldine Farrell as its vice president of operations and general counsel. Release

> MacroGenics, of Rockville, MD, has appointed Dr. Jon Wigginton as senior vice president of clinical development. Wigginton most recently held dual leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) in clinical development and discovery research of its oncology programs. Release

Dean Mitchell will join the board of directors of Switzerland-based Covis Pharma Holdings S.a.r.l. as executive chairman. He replaces former executive chairman James Lenehan, who will continue to serve as a director of the company. Release

Lexington, MA-based Curis ($CRIS) has appointed Dr. Jaye Viner as chief medical officer and executive vice president, and Tania Chander as vice president of product development. Release

Seattle-based Omeros ($OMER) has hired Michael Jacobsen as vice president, finance and chief accounting officer. Most recently, Jacobsen was vice president of finance and chief accounting officer of Sarepta Therapeutics ($SRPT). Release

Zymeworks, based in Vancouver, Canada, has added Dr. Leonard Presta to its scientific advisory board. Most recently, Presta served as a distinguished fellow at Merck ($MRK). Release

Pharma

Actavis appointed James D'Arecca as the company's chief accounting officer. D'Arecca was formerly in a similar position at Bausch + Lomb, as well as the executive directer and business development controller at Merck ($MRK). Release

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories ($RDY) appointed Sripada Chandrasekhar as the company's president and global head of human resources. Chandrasekhar worked for IBM prior to Dr. Reddy's. Release

CRO

Anne Lindblad replaced Donald Stablein as president and CEO of EMMES. The promotion bumps Lindblad up from her role as executive vice president. Release

Former FDA Chief Information Officer Eric Perakslis has joined Bethesda, MD-based Precision for Medicine as senior adviser, bioinformatics and information technology. Release

Medical Devices

San Leandro, CA-based Mercator Medsystems has named Anthony Remington to the position of chief commercial officer. Remington has served as a strategic sales adviser for Mercator Medsystems since January 2013. Release

Laureen DeBuono has joined San Diego-based Cadence Pharmaceuticals' ($CADX) board of directors. DeBuono has been a partner of FLG Partners since October 2011. Release

R. Stephen Armstrong has join Winnipeg, Canada-based Imris' ($IMRS) board of directors. Armstrong has been executive vice president and CFO of Patterson Companies since 1999. Release

Pharma Manufacturing

Michael Valentine has been named vice president of North American sales at Baltimore-based Noxilizer. Most recently, Valentine served as director of Infection Prevention and Control Chemistries for Medivators. Release