Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Gabrielle Masson and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Lilly goes all-in on AI with new exec position
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly is ramping up its efforts to incorporate AI across its business by appointing Thomas Fuchs to the new role of chief AI officer, starting Oct. 21. In his new job, Fuchs will lead AI initiatives across Lilly’s drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing, commercial activities and internal functions. Fuchs has a long career in machine learning, having previously been dean and inaugural department chair for AI and human health at Mount Sinai. He’s held positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, and he also founded his own AI company, Paige AI. Release
Alnylam alums are City architects
City Therapeutics
A new RNAi biotech has broken ground with $135 million, and the founder and former CEO of Alnylam John Maraganore, Ph.D., holds the key to the city. Maraganore is the CEO of City Therapeutics, which hopes to build new RNA interference (RNAi)-based medicines by engineering the molecules that mediate RNAi, dubbed small interfering RNAs. Joining Maraganore in this effort are several other Alnylam alumni, including former Alnylam lead scientist Mark Keating, M.D., who helped found City, and Alnylam’s former senior director of research Tracy Zimmermann, Ph.D., now City’s chief scientific officer. Story
Black Diamond drops 2 execs in corporate restructuring
Black Diamond Therapeutics
Black Diamond Therapeutics is putting all of its weight behind its lead program with a corporate restructuring in order to conserve cash and focus its resources on developing the lung cancer candidate. In the shuffle, its chief business officer and chief financial officer Fang Ni as well as its chief people officer Elizabeth Montgomery are making their exits, with Senior VP of Finance and Principal Accounting Officer Erika Jones stepping up as principal financial officer. The total cost savings from the restructuring, which also includes the deprioritization of one of Black Diamond’s two lead candidates, is expected to be enough to fund the company through the second quarter of 2026. Story
> Harry Kleanthous, Ph.D., will oversee Apriori Bio’s artificial intelligence platform Octavia as its new chief scientific officer. Release
> Rare disease neonatology specialist Oak Hill Bio promoted co-founder Josh Distler to the CEO spot after former head Tauhid Ali stepped down in 2023, while Sharon Morriss, Ph.D., joined as chief operating officer and co-founder Ike Greenstein was promoted to chief business officer. Release
> Every Cure nabbed a new high-profile board member in Janet Woodcock, M.D., who recently hung up the FDA gloves after a nearly 40-year career at the agency in several senior level roles. Stat
> Retinal disease drug maker Opthea shook up its executive team with appointments that include a new chief medical officer in Parisa Zamiri, M.D., Ph.D. Release
> KSQ Therapeutics tapped 2seventy bio vet Anna Truppel-Hartmann, M.D., to advance its solid tumor candidates as chief medical officer. Release
> After leaving his post at GSK’s immunology research unit, Rab Prinjha, Ph.D., secured a new title as Curve Therapeutics’ chief R&D officer. Release
> Abalos Therapeutics looped in Gerben Moolhuizen, who just left the helm at ISA Pharmaceuticals, to replace Marcus Kostka, M.D., as CEO. Release
> Experienced banker and business Paul Parker has joined Flagship Pioneering as managing partner for capital solutions and value realization. Release
> Stéphane Altaba, Ph.D., a veteran of Sanofi and Nordic Pharma, is the new CEO of cancer vaccine company Oncovita. Release
> Phosphatase-focused Anavo Therapeutics is bringing Edward Holson, Ph.D., on board as chief scientific officer and president of Anavo US, where he will lead R&D in the USA and Europe. Release
> Phase Genomics is expanding its C-suite with its first ever chief business officer: Monod Bio co-founder David Shoultz, Ph.D. Release