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 ($BIIB) and Millennium, as its chief financial officer. More from FierceBiotech
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Biotech
> VC veteran Bob More took a position with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a senior adviser for venture investing. He was previously at Frazier Healthcare and Domain Associates. More
> Kelly Blackburn joined aTyr Pharma as the company's vice president of clinical affairs. Blackburn was formerly the vice president of clinical development operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($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