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 Blankenship, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Rise, Sir Pangalos! AstraZeneca R&D lead knighted
AstraZeneca
R&D chief Mene Pangalos has been knighted by the Queen.
Not quite a hiring or firing, but Pangalos has been recognized for his “services to U.K. science,” having served at the British-based Big Pharma since 2010 and, after a few change-ups, is now executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at the company, which covers most trials outside of oncology. At the start of every year, the sitting U.K. government, via Her Majesty, can award traditional titles and knighthoods as a way of recognizing an individual’s services to a particular area such as science, television, charity work and so on. FierceBiotech
After $62M funding round, CRO Fountain Medical nabs new leader
Fountain Medical
Ling Zhen, J.D., MBA, has been tapped as CEO and chairman.
Zhen has spent a quarter of a century in life sciences, is a former alum of IQVIA (formerly Quintiles) in China and served stints at Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Ernst &Young in the U.S. He comes to Fountain Medical from being a partner at Draper Dragon Venture Group; as CEO, he will “speed up its global expansion and strategic build-up,” according to the company, which, since its founding in 2017, has been working on services include clinical operations, biostatistics, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, medical affairs and clinical monitoring. FierceBiotech
McCann Health taps Cannes Lion award-winning creative as new exec creative director
McCann Health
Tim Jones has joined as creative director.
Jones most recently worked at Area 23, a staple creative shop on pharma and healthcare award show stages every year. Before that, Jones worked on two teams that won Cannes Lions healthcare agencies of the year as the creative director at Havas Lynx (2018) and as art director at Langland (2015). He joined the healthcare side of the ad agency business in 2014 when he went to Langland in the U.K., but before that he worked in his native South Africa on consumer business. His work included alcohol brands, which he said left him lacking a sense of purpose. FiercePharmaMarketing