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.
AI firm Xaira powers up C-suite with pharma vet
Xaira Therapeutics
Billion-dollar biotech startup Xaira is expanding its C-suite with some top pharma talent. After wrapping up a 16-year tenure at Roche in June, Paulo Fontoura, M.D., Ph.D., is set to become Xaira’s chief medical officer in early 2025. His most recent role at Roche was as a global head and senior vice president overseeing neuroscience, immunology, ophthalmology and more. Joining Fontoura is Xaira co-founder Hetu Kamisetty, Ph.D., a machine learning expert who is getting a promotion from senior vice president to chief technology officer effective immediately. The company will continue its mission of using AI to develop medicines from a new headquarters in South San Francisco. Release
Genesis shakes up leadership to advance AI platform
Genesis Therapeutics
AI drug discovery company Genesis Therapeutics has bulked up its management team as the company advances its GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space) AI platform. Shifeng Pan, Ph.D., joined the company in April as chief scientific officer after most recently heading up discovery at Odyssey Therapeutics and spending 22 years at Novartis before that. Alla Ivanova pivoted to Genesis as senior VP of engineering last month after holding leadership roles at several tech companies including Uber, Google Cloud and Netflix, while Paul A. Friedman, Ph.D., is continuing as chairman of the board. Release
Restructuring Carisma cuts execs loose
Carisma Therapeutics
In addition to a 34% workforce reduction, which includes 23 full-time employees across R&D, manufacturing, finance and corporate activities, the Philadelphia biotech is saying goodbye to its chief financial officer Richard Morris, its senior vice president of human resources Terry Shields and its general counsel Eric Siegel, who are all slated to leave Dec. 31. The firm is also discontinuing its only clinical asset, a CAR-M cell therapy for solid tumors. Story
> Klaus Wagner, M.D., Ph.D., and Neil Abdollahian are stepping down as chief medical officer and chief business officer, respectively, of Boundless Bio, with James Freddo, M.D., stepping in for Wagner as interim CMO while a permanent replacement is sought. Story
> As part of a pivot to in vivo gene editing, Editas Medicine is laying off 65% of its workforce over the coming six months, including Chief Medical Officer Baisong Mei, M.D., Ph.D. Story
> Ian Walters, M.D., will hang up the CEO and board chairman gloves at Portage Biotech, leaving Justin Stebbing, M.D., Ph.D., as chairman of the board. Filing
> CDR-Life appointed industry vet Sarah Holland, Ph.D., as chief business officer as the Swiss drugmaker moves forward with its innovative M-gager platform. Release
> InCarda Therapeutics found its next CEO in Myles Greenberg, M.D., who joins the company as it advances its orally inhaled atrial fibrillation candidate. Release
> Amgen's China leadership is undergoing a major makeover, with the branch’s general manager, Irene Hsu, and the two China business unit leaders responsible for the cardiovascular and bone franchises, Harry Wu and Eddie Fan, all leaving the company. Story
> CorriXR Therapeutics’ founder and chief scientific officer, Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., is taking over as CEO after previous chief Deborah Moorad hit the exit. Release
> Amsterdam-based Kling Biotherapeutics brought on Alessandra Michaela Villa, Ph.D., to head up platform development and tapped Rob Roovers, Ph.D., as director of preclinical development. Release
> Kyverna Therapeutics enhanced its management team with a new chief business officer in Dan Maziasz, who recently spent six years in the same role at Atara Biotherapeutics, and a new head of communications and corporate affairs in Kite Pharma vet Tracy Rossin. LinkedIn
> Chris Joyce will craft the business development strategy at drug discovery company Talus Bioscience as its new VP of business development. Release
> Investment firm Frazier Life Sciences pulled in Amgen vet James Li, M.D., as a venture partner after he previously founded cell therapy company JW Therapeutics. Release
> Merck KgaA’s U.S. and Canada healthcare business EMD Serono has a new president in Miguel Fernández Alcalde, who previously served as the firm’s COO for the last 18 months. Release
> Sarah Alspach is taking flight from bluebird bio to become the new executive vice president and chief communications officer of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Release
> Mirvie is looking to commercialize its predictive RNA test for pregnancy complications with the help of new Senior Vice President of Growth Aimee Corso. Release
> Paul Schwichtenberg is changing roles at Assertio Holdings, leaving his chief commercial officer job to Mary Pietryga as he takes over the newly formed transformation office as chief transformation officer. Release
Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify the timing of Genesis' leadership changes.