Abbott
Abbott has announced that Miles White will be stepping down as chief executive officer, following a 21-year tenure, and has appointed Robert Ford (pictured left) to succeed him in the role.
Ford currently serves as president and chief operating officer at Abbott, and will become the 13th CEO of Abbott. White is due to hand over the role on 31 March 2020, but will remain executive chairman of the board.
Starting off in Abbott’s Diabetes Care business, Ford has since served in many leadership roles within the company, including in the Nutrition and Medical Device businesses.
He worked as executive vice president of Medical Devices, in which he oversaw the integration fo St. Jude Medical – Abbott’s largest acquisition. He also led Abbott’s Diabetes Care business and the launch of the FreeStyle Libre. In October 2018, Ford was appointed president and chief operating officer.
“Robert is the right person for Abbott’s future. He is a proven Abbott leader with significant experience running Abbott’s global businesses. We’re confident he will continue Abbott’s outstanding legacy of success,” said William Osborn, lead director and chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee of Abbott’s Board of Directors.
Kite
Kite, a Gilead company, has appointed two new additions to its leadership team.
Charles Calderaro has been appointed as global head of technical operations, and joins the company from BioMarin. At BioMarin, he served as senior vice president, global manufacturing, where he oversaw the leadership of the company’s international operations network.
Prior to BioMarin, Calderaro was the vice president of technical product management at Genentech.
Also joining Kite is Ken Takeshita, who has been appointed as global head of clinical development. He joins Kit from Sorrento Therapeutics, where is worked as senior vice president, clinical research, and held responsibility for clinical development strategy in oncology.
Previously, he spent many years at Celgene, where he was corporate vice president for clinical R7D and the therapeutic area head for Lymphoma and CLL.
Arrakis Therapeutics
Arrakis Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of new-class small molecules medicines targeting RNA, has appointed Katrine Bosley (pictured below, right) as
chairman of its Board of Directors.
She has nearly 30 years of experience in the biotech industry as a leader of emerging companies. Most recently, Bosley served as the chief executive officer of Editas Medicine, and previously worked as CEO of Avila Therapeutics until its acquisition by Celgene.
“Katrine’s experience building dynamic, science-driven companies will serve as a critical resource for Arrakis as we realise our vision of targeting RNA with small molecules to unlock new ways to treat human disease,” said Michael Gilman, CEO of Arrakis.
“The breadth of her expertise and her track record of creating value through focused drug development and creative business strategy will be tremendously important to Arrakis as we enter a period of substantial growth in our pipeline and business,” he added.