Dr. William Rastetter

We begin this week with German specialty chemicals company Evonik who has named company veteran John Rolando as its new President, effective as of this month.Rolando replaces Tom Bates who is retiring after 15 years with Evonik and was welcomed into the role by Evonik CEO, Klaus Engel: “John initiates change rather than reacts to it, and endeavours to motivate people to achieve their best and inspire them.”Evonik is the world’s third largest producer of amino acids and you can read about the company’s price hike last year here.Next up is news from processing solutions company Pall Corporation who has appointed Akhil Johri as its Chief Financial Officer, as of May 1.Currently Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for United Technologies Corporation’s (UTC) Propulsion & Aerospace Systems group, Johri “is a highly regarded and accomplished executive with a proven track record of financial leadership for global industrial technology and aerospace businesses,” according to his new CEO, Larry Kingsley.And Pall has been in the news today, announcing its new Centre of Excellence in the UK. See the article here.Sticking with new Chief Financial Officers, biopharmaceutical company Revance Therapeutics has appointed Lauren Silvernail. Silvernail, who succeeds David Styka in the role, will also serve as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development effective immediately and comes direct from the same title at ISTA Pharmaceuticals.“As an experienced Chief Financial Officer and executive in the biopharmaceutical field, Lauren has demonstrated strength in strategy and execution and she will be an instrumental member of the organization,” said Dan Browne, Revance’s President and CEO.Over to Regulus therapeutics now, and Chairman of the Board (and CEO of Alnylam) Dr. John Maraganore was pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. William Rastetter to the board.“Bill is an industry legend who has invented, developed and commercialized highly transformative therapies,” he said. “He will be a valuable resource as we continue to grow the company and develop first-in-class medicines targeting microRNAs.”Rastetter, who is also on the boards at Fate Therapeutics, Illumina, Neurocrine Biosciences and Receptos, has previously served as Executive Chairman of Idec since 1996, and then the Executive Chairman of Biogen Idec following the merger of the two companies in November 2003. Bind therapeutics now, and the company has announced Dr. Gregory Berk – an oncology veteran with over 20 years of experience – will serve as the new Chief Medical Officer.Berk comes from his role at Takeda acquired clinical stage company, Intellikine and the pleasure of this new appointment was announced by Bind’s CEO, Scott Minick, who added: “Greg’s clinical vision and proven leadership, as well as his extensive medical and research experience, will strengthen our clinical development efforts and support the future progress of our product pipeline.”And finally in this week’s job news, Avaxia Biologics has appointed Deborah Hartman as Vice President, Research.Dr. Hartman has over 20 years of experience in R&D leadership and most recently worked as Vice President of Projects at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, and previously has worked at Hoffmann-La Roche.“Debbie has a strong track record of delivering new drugs into the clinic and managing early clinical development,” said Avaxia CEO Barbara Fox. “In addition to leading research efforts on AVX-470, Debbie will expand our pipeline of gut-targeted oral antibody therapeutics through internal efforts and external collaborations.”

Dr. William Rastetter

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