People Spotlight — January 2023

Richard Kensinger, PhD (left), and Kenneth Lee (right)

Matthew Stober has joined Abzena, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) as its new CEO. He was most recently CEO of therapeutic companies CastleVax and Istari Oncology. Earlier in his career, Stober held executive positions at Merck, GSK, and Novartis.

SK Bioscience has hired Richard Kensinger, PhD, former director and head of drug substance process development at Sanofi Pasteur, to join the company’s US branch as VP of R&D project management. He will be involved in strengthening the company's global competitiveness, mainly targeting the US market by improving the manufacturing process at the current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) level. The vaccine and biotech company additionally recruited Kenneth Lee, former head of commercial division, Americas of GenScript Probio, as its VP of biologic business development department at its R&D Center in Pangyo, South Korea. Lee will be in charge of developing new biopharmaceutical-driven strategies beyond the vaccine business, including a cell and gene therapy (CGT) field.

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) appointed Debbie Weitzman, CEO of pharmaceutical segment, Cardinal Health, and Rich Tremonte, EVP and president of US pharmaceuticals & animal health, AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC), to its executive committee and board of directors. Tremonte replaces Robert Mauch, ABC’s COO, on the executive committee and board. Also, HDA’s executive committee approved four new appointments to the HDA Research Foundation board of directors, including:

• Bob Fasola, VP, trade and distribution accounts, Takeda Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.
• Resa Gilmore, executive director, national supply and care delivery, Genentech (a member of the Roche Group)
• Clint Syvinski, Co-CEO/COO, Mutual Drug
• Heather Zenk, RPh, PharmD, president, US supply chain, ABC

Dentsu, who provides strategic media, creative, analytics, and consulting services for rare disease and specialty pharma, has appointed Greg Reilly as president of Dentsu Health. In his role, Reilly—who is also one of Dentsu’s cofounders—will continue to drive the growth of health marketing services across the company.

CREATION.co, a healthcare consultancy, has hired Mary Fletcher-Louis as both head of consulting and COO. She has been serving the pharmaceutical industry for more than 25 years providing consulting and strategic leadership to clients. The company notes that she has a deep understanding of the industry, and the value that digital insights can bring to diverse teams involved in product development and launch.

Mary Fletcher-Louis

Blue Matter, a strategic consulting firm that serves the life sciences industry, has hired Prasanna Sridharan as a partner in its San Francisco office. He will join the firm's West Coast regional team to lead and boost the firm's capabilities in data and analytics for life science clients. Sridharan brings nearly two decades of biopharma industry experience in marketing science, data strategy, and analytics.

Sam Libby joins EDP Biotech, an in vitro diagnostics lab, as the company's head of mergers and acquisitions, and corporate development. He will manage investments, drive merger and acquisition opportunities, and develop corporate relationships for the business. Libby joins the EDP Biotech team with almost a decade of experience in healthcare investment banking, experience in advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, public and private equity financings, and other strategic alternatives.

iuvo BioScience, a specialty contract research organization (CRO) that provides lab services, preclinical and clinical development services, and scientific consulting services to clients in the biopharma and medical device spaces, has hired David Kudla as VP of laboratory operations. He brings decades of experience in operational, quality, and general management assignments, including nearly 20 years at Celltech Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm.