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People in the News: New Appointments at Biocept, Novacyt, Centogene, Illumina, More

Biocept: Linda Rubinstein, Antonino Morales, Samuel Riccitelli

Biocept has appointed Linda Rubinstein and Antonino Morales to its board of directors, effective immediately. The company also named Samuel Riccitelli as chairman of the board, succeeding longtime chair David Hale and interim chair Faye Wilson, both of whom remain directors.

Rubinstein has been a partner at FLG Partners, providing consulting services to life science and other companies such as Apexigen, ArmaGen, Five Prime, Kezar Life Sciences, Ingenuity Systems, iPierian, and True North. Previously, she was a principal at RDJ Advisors, and served as vice president and CFO at Solexa. Morales is a CPA who has worked with leading organizations such as Citibank, Bank of America, Arthur Anderson, and Mazda North America. Morales was president and CEO of Apoyo Financiero, a California-based community development financial institution.

Riccitelli was appointed to Biocept's board in October 2020 and currently serves as an independent consultant to healthcare companies and as a director of OrthoPediatrics.


Novacyt: David Allmond, Graham Mullis

Clinical diagnostics company Novacyt announced the appointment of David Allmond as CEO and a member of its board of directors, effective Oct. 18.

Allmond is chief business officer at Amryt Pharma, a rare and orphan disease drug company. He previously held sales and marketing roles at Amgen, Celgene, and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals.

Graham Mullis is retiring and will stand down as the company's CEO and board member.


Centogene: Patrice Denèfle

Centogene has appointed Patrice Denèfle as CSO, effective Aug. 16. He will succeed Phil Lambert, who decided to leave the company, which he joined in late 2019. Denèfle comes to Centogene from 4P-Pharma, where he was CSO. Prior to that, he was general manager of the Roche Institute for Research and Translational Medicine, and he held senior roles at Sanofi Aventis and Ipsen. He also served as CSO at rare disease biotech firm Genethon. Denèfle holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biotechnology from the Pasteur Institute.


Illumina: Luke Hickey

Illumina has hired Luke Hickey as VP of regional marketing. Hickey comes to Illumina from Pacific Biosciences, where he led strategic marketing, including the launch of the Sequel IIe system. He has more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, previously having worked at Affymetrix, Qiagen, Incyte Genomics, and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Hickey has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.


For additional recent items on executive appointments and promotions in omics and molecular diagnostics, please see the People in the News page on our website.

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