Top AstraZeneca exec bows out to helm a biotech

AstraZeneca's ($AZN) announcement early this year that Peter Greenleaf would be "promoted" from the head of MedImmune to the top job in the company's big Latin American division raised a few eyebrows around the industry. Promotions and retirements tend to happen frequently when large biopharma operations are being shaken up. And now it turns out that he never really wanted that job anyhow. "To be honest, I, as a leader, want to be with growth companies, smaller companies that are experiencing rapid growth, a little higher risk environments," Greenleaf told the Washington Business Journal. "Looking at going to manage a region for a large pharmaceutical company really wasn't what I was looking to do with my career." Instead, you'll find him running Waltham, MA-based Histogenics, a small regenerative medicine biotech developing a knee cartilage repair patch knit together out of a patient's cells. Story