Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Eric Sagonowsky (email) or Angus Liu (email) and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Alexion’s executive team undergoes major makeover
Alexion
Brian Goff will become CCO, and its current CFO, CCO, R&D head and HR chief will leave.
After former CEO David Hallal and former CFO Vikas Sinha hit the road last December amid an internal investigation of sales fraud, the C-suite makeover at Alexion just upgraded to a larger scale. David Anderson, who took over from Vikas as CFO, will resign at the end of August. EVP and Head of R&D Martin Mackay will retire at the end of 2017. Alexion has tapped SpencerStuart to help search for replacements for both positions. But the list didn’t end there. CCO Carsten Thiel will be replaced on June 1 by Brian Goff, who has previously served at Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Baxalta. Martin Mackay, EVP and human resources chief, will also leave at that time. By far, five of the nine Alexion executive team members have been replaced in the last six months. FiercePharma
Illumina’s interim CCO turns formal
Illumina
Mark Van Oene became CCO.
Last November, amid revelation of less-than-expected third quarter results of about $607 million in revenues, Illumina bid farewell to its former CCO. Stepping in as interim CCO was then-SVP of the Americas region Mark Van Oene. And after about seven months at the job, he has been named the company’s permanent CCO. During that period, Van Oene “has guided Illumina through two strong quarters, including the launch of NovaSeq, and laid the foundation for our future growth,” said Illumina President and CEO Francis deSouza. Van Oene joined the biotech in 2006 and has been moving upward since then. During his time as GM for the Americas region from 2014 to SVP in April 2016, the Americas compound annual growth rate exceeded 20%. Release
INC Research reveals executive team arrangement after inVentiv megamerger
INC Research
The new exec team was announced.
As CRO giant INC Research and inVentiv Health merged to form a new company valued at around $7.4 billion, INC’s CEO Alistair Macdonald is to become the CEO of the merged company, and inVentiv’s CEO Mike Bell the executive chairman. The entire executive team that consists of leaders from both companies was announced. Brandon Eldredge, currently SVP of corporate strategy and development at inVentiv, will retain that title, evaluating options for growth and M&A opportunities; INC’s CFO Greg Rush will retain his position; INC’s CCO Neil Ferguson will become CBO; inVentiv’s Mike McKelvey will be president of the entire clinical division; INC’s Chris Gaenzle will stay on as chief administrative officer and general counsel, responsible for legal, human resources, corporate services and operations. The new company has yet to decide whether it will change its name. SEC filing
> Akebia named Rita Jain, M.D., who was most recently AbbVie's VP of men’s and women’s health and metabolic development, to succeed Brad Maroni, M.D., as SVP and CMO. Release
> Summit Therapeutics has added the role of CMO to David Roblin, M.D., the company's current COO and president of R&D, to replace Ralf Rosskamp, M.D., who has resigned. Anne Heatherington, Ph.D., was appointed head of clinical development and quantitative sciences, and Dave Powell, Ph.D., was named head of research. Release
> Following a $51.7 million Series C, Spero Therapeutics, which is working to bring novel therapies for drug-resistant bacterial infections to market, hired Joel Sendek as the company’s new CFO. Release
> Asterias Biotherapeutics' CEO Steve Cartt will step down as president and CEO, and Michael Mulroy will succeed him; Katy Spink, Ph.D., was promoted to EVP & COO. Release
> Worldwide Clinical Trials appointed Karen Nowatkoski as VP of clinical operations and site management. FierceCRO
> Aldevron, a provider of contract plasmid DNA manufacturing, protein production and antibody discovery services, named Henry Hebel as COO. Release
> Greenphire, which focuses on automated clinical trial payment solutions, announced the appointment of Claudine Paccio as COO. Release