Marvin Tancer to Leave Sirna Therapeutics, Five other Execs Promoted; Belinda Seto Named Deputy Director of NIBIB

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (GenomeWeb News) - Marvin Tancer, vice president of operations and chief financial officer and at Sirna Therapeutics, is leaving the company "to pursue other opportunities," the company said Dec. 23.

Meanwhile, the Boulder, Colo.-based company is promoting five other executives, including Naseem Usman, the current chief scientific officer and vice president, research and development, who will now be chief operating officer and senior vice president. Usman joined the company in 1992 and was made vice president of R&D in 2000. Prior to that, he was a post-doctoral fellow and staff scientist at the MIT departments of chemistry and biology.

Other executive promotions include that of Barry Polisky, who has been promoted from vice president, research to senior vice president research; Chandra Vargeese, who was formerly director of chemistry and now will be vice president, chemistry; Mark Egan, who was formerly director of manufacturing and is now vice president, manufacturing; and Patti Ketchner, who was director of finance and corporate controller, and is now vice president and corporate controller.

Belinda Seto has been named deputy director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health, the NIH said earlier this month.

Seto comes to the NIBIB from a nearly one-year term as acting deputy director for extramural research at the NIH, where she advised the NIH director on extramural policy and developed policies and procedures for extramural research. Seto also previously served as deputy director of the office of extramural research and the director of the OER's office of reports and analysis during a nine-year tenure at the OER. She has worked at the NIH since 1974, after receiving her PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University.