Krishna Kodukula has joined SRI International's BioSciences Division as senior director, systems biology, the company said Wednesday.
Kodukula is joining SRI from Sarnoff, an SRI subsidiary, where he was a technical lead. Prior to working at Sarnoff, Kodukula helped launch Small Molecule Therapeutics and co-found Pyxis Technology Solutions. He was also a senior research investigator at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute and a fellow at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Hoffman-La Roche.
He has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and botany from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar in India. He did postdoctoral work at the Indian Institute of Science, where he was a National Biotechnology Board Fellow.
Solexa's board of directors approved changes to the chief executive officer John S. West's bonus structure earlier this month, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. West is now eligible to receive one of two alternative one-time bonuses.
The board also approved an increase in West's annualized base salary to $367,500 per year retroactive to Jan. 1.
In the event that the closing price of Solexa's common stock goes above $27.60 per share for 25 consecutive trading days, West can receive a one-time bonus of 308,605 shares of Solexa common stock. Solexa reserves the possibility of paying an equivalent amount of cash to West instead.
In the event of a Change in Control, West will receive one percent of the amount received by stockholders that exceeds $150 million.
Clinical Data filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week for the newly appointed chief executive officer and president, Drew J. Fromkin, and executive vice-president and chief legal officer Caesar J. Belbel.
The employment agreements are effective as of May 12. Fromkin replaced Israel M. Stein, who resigned May 12 as CEO and president. Stein will be the interim chief financial officer., replacing Mark D. Shooman, whose resignation will take effect May 31.
Fromkin will receive a minimum annual base salary of $400,000 and a potential annual bonus equal to up to 200% of the base salary depending on performance. Fromkin's severance package will be the amount of his then current base salary for twelve months, a pro-rated bonus, and all premiums for health and other benefits for the year. If Fromkin leaves on his own, his outstanding unvested options become fully vested
Belbel will receive a minimum annual base salary of $260,000 and a potential annual bonus equal to up to 100% of the base salary depending on performance. Belbel's severance package will be the amount of his then current base salary for the twelve months, a pro-rated bonus, and all premiums for health and other benefits for the year. Belbel's outstanding unvested options will also be fully vested if he leaves on his own.
The board also granted 304,515 shares of common stock to Fromkin and 60,000 shares to Belbel. The stock options all have exercise prices of $18.55 per share and a term of 10 years.
The filing also said Kevin Rakin, a member of the board and former president and chief executive officer of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals received 70,000 shares of Clinical Data common stock. The company settled with Rakin the amounts he claimed were due under his agreement with Genaissance with a one-time lump sum of $100,000 and an additional aggregate amount of $472,406.25.
Fromkin was recently president and CEO of DoctorQuality before it was acquired by Quantros. He was also president and CEO of Endo Surgical Devices and vice-president, Business Development and Sales for Merck-Medco Managed Care, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co.
Jamie Cuticchia has been named director of the Duke Bioinformatics Group, a new collaboration between the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Cuticchia most recently served as director of bioinformatics at RTI International and founded the Ontario Center for Genomic Computing.
Genome Alberta's board of directors appointed David Bailey as the new president and CEO effective April 1st, 2006.
Bailey was a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and before becoming Research Centre Director and Director General.
Bailey obtained his PhD in Genetics and Animal Breeding at the University of Alberta in 1985.
Thomas Colatsky has joined the executive team a practice head at PharmaDirections, the company said last week.
Prior to joining the Cary-based company, he served as senior vice-president and chief scientific officer at Icoria, and as vice-president of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Colatsky received his Ph.D. in physiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Genstruct appointed Michelle Gordon-Savenor as director of Alliance Management, the company said last week. In this position, Ms. Gordon-Savenor will manage the alliances between Genstruct and its large pharmaceutical partners, including such companies as Schering AG and Pfizer.
Prior to joining Genstruct, Gordon-Savenor was an alliance manager for Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She spent two years at the Whitehead Institute for Biological Research as a visiting scholar for the Affymetrix, BMS and Millennium Consortium.
Betty Dragon has joined Sequenom as senior vice-president of research and development, the company said.
Dragon was at Roche Molecular Systems from 1990 to 2006. Her most recent position at Roche was senior vice-president of global standardization and vice-president of diagnostics development.
GE Healthcare announced new positions for two officers this week: Jean-Michel Cossery and Michael A. Jones.
Chief marketing officer Jean-Michel Cossery is now also vice-president. The former executive vice-president of global marketing at Amersham Health since 2000, he joined GE Healthcare after GE acquired Amersham in 2004.
Cossery has five post graduate degrees, including an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management. He received his PharmD in Pharmacology and PhD in Nuclear Chemistry & Neurology from University of Paris in 1987 and 1986 respectively. He received his Masters' in Organic Chemistry in 1984 and in Pharmacy in 1983, also from the University of Paris.
Michael A. Jones, is now vice-president, business development. He has been a general manager at GE since 1998. Prior to joining GE, Jones spent 10 years on Wall Street in a variety of M&A, private equity and investment banking roles.
DNAPrint Genomics appointed Tandy Herren and Neil Kabrun to executive positions in the computational biology division of its wholly owned subsidiary, DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals.
Tandy Herren is director of simulation technology. She was a scientist at Kenna Technologies prior to its acquisition by DNAPrint Genomics in 2005.
Neil Kabrun is director of biological modeling. He served as an independent consultant before joining DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals.
IntegraGen appointed Jorg Leenings as head of sales and marketing for its Competence Centre for MODY diabetes in Germany, the company said last week.
A German native, Leenings recently was group product manager and sales & marketing manager at BIO-RAD Laboratories GmbH in Munich. Jorg spent nearly 15 years at BIO-RAD and was previously at Abbott GmbH for six years.
Peter Rock joined Gene Network Sciences as chief financial officer, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said last week.
Rock has more than 15 years of experience with life sciences companies. He currently serves as chairman of the Business Solutions Advisory Board for BIO and previously held the post of co-chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council's Finance Committee. He previously spent five years as vice president and corporate controller of Dyax. Prior to Dyax, Rock held various financial management positions at Avery-Dennison, AEG Schneider Automation, and United Technologies.
Tom DiLenge was named vice-president and General Counsel, Biotechnology Industry Organization said last week.
DiLenge joined BIO in November 2005 as Deputy General Counsel and has served as Acting General Counsel since the end of February. Prior to joining BIO, DiLenge served as the Chief Counsel and Policy Director for the House Homeland Security Committee and a senior counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
DiLenge graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 1988 and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1993.
TLV Kumar has been appointed president of the Asia-Pacific operations at Applied Biosystems, Applera said on Tuesday. He will report directly to Applied Biosystems' president, Catherine M. Burzik.
Kumar comes to ABI from Philips Medical Systems, where he was chief operations officer for Asia Pacific.
David Molnar joined eGene as director sales, the company said on Wednesday.
Molnar was previously a national sales manager of Matsuo Electronic of America, a subsidiary of Japan's Matsuo Electric. Before that he was senior sales representative at Fisher Scientific, formerly Curin Matheson, and a sales manager at LabMart.
Invitrogen has formed a Flow Cytometry Scientifc Advisory Board, the company said Wednesday. Leonard A. Herzenberg will chair the board and Leonore A. Herzenberg will join the board as a member.
The two Stanford professors will guide Invitrogen's efforts to bring its product lines to bear on immunology, flow cytometry and cell biology.
As a part of the collaboration, the Herzenbergs will establish an Invitrogen Scientific Advisory Board for immunology and flow cytometry and design and endorse educational materials and courses to expand the usage of flow cytometry.