People Spotlight — April 2023

David Stevens

Abzena, a CDMO, has appointed Sean O’Brien as SVP and site head at its San Diego facility. He will be responsible for leading and managing all site operations, applying his knowledge across areas including regulatory approval and manufacturing process improvements to benefit customer programs. O’Brien joins Abzena with over 20 years of experience in the pharma industry, including time spent with Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Amgen.

Recipharm has appointed Joaquim Mascaro as its CFO. He has worked for various organizations in the pharma, biotech, and healthcare industries, across the US, Asia and Latin America. His experience in building and developing strong teams—the company notes—will be essential in supporting the company through its next phase of growth.

David Stevens has joined Kindeva Drug Delivery—a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on drug-device combination products—as its global CCO.. Stevens will spearhead the commercial, business development, and research and development activities for the business. He has more than 20 years of international operations and commercial experience across both the CDMO and contract research organization (CRO) sectors.

KBI Biopharma, Inc. (KBI) and Selexis SA, both JSR Life Sciences companies, have selected J.D. Mowery as CEO. He will leverage his global biopharma industry experience in operations, manufacturing, tech transfer, facility construction, business development, employee growth, and investor relations. Previously having worked on both sides of the industry with companies such as Genentech, Celgene, Juno, and most recently, Treadwell Therapeutics, as well as CDMOs Lonza and AGC Biologics, he has acquired experience across various modalities including small molecule, biologics, and cell and gene therapy (CGT).

Ricky Hopson, who had been serving as the Catalent’s president and division head for clinical development & supply since July 2022, will assume the role of the CDMO’s interim CFO, which became effective April 14, following the departure of Thomas Castellano as the company’s SVP and CFO the day before. Prior to that, Hopson served the company for more than 20 years in various finance roles, most recently as its VP and chief accounting officer.

Rentschler Biopharma, a CDMO for biopharmaceuticals, has appointed Thomas aus dem Siepen as global head digital manufacturing and automation, effective April 1. He is a member of Rentschler Biopharma's global leadership team and is responsible for the alignment of digitalization and automation, from research and development to production. Before joining Rentschler Biopharma, he worked for more than 16 years in various management positions at Roche Diagnostics.

Biogen appointed of Adam Keeney, PhD, as EVP, head of corporate development. He will be a member of company’s executive committee, reporting to Christopher A. Viehbacher, president and CEO. Keeney brings more than 20 years of experience leading R&D, business development, and strategy organizations at businesses within biotech and large pharma.

CluePoints, a risk-based quality management (RBQM) and data quality oversight software provider, has brought on Amit Patel as its new CFO. He has experience building and scaling software as a service (SaaS) companies through go-to-market expansion and corporate development via mergers and acquisitions, where opportunities arise. CluePoints’ former VP of people, Celine Daubresse, will be promoted to chief people officer, reporting to the CEO to provide increased focus on all people aspects as the company evolves and grows. Francois Torche will lead a single, consolidated product, engineering, and research organization to execute the product vision, strategy, and direction as the company’s chief product & technology officer.