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People In The News: Jul 10, 2009

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Mark Lively has taken over the office of president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Lively is a professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest University and is director of the Molecular Genetics Program and of the Biomolecular Resource Laboratory. The post is a one-year appointment.

"This is a critical time for the biomedical sciences and for science policy, and FASEB will continue to provide a strong voice for working scientists," Lively said in a statement this week.

"While our primary focus remains educating policymakers about the importance of research funding, I expect we will be addressing a number of other important policy issues during my term, from challenges to the humane use of animals in research to development of conflict-of-interest regulations to biosecurity proposals related to select agents," he added.


Eurofins MWG Operon has named Helaman Escobar to be director of DNA sequencing. In the job, he will be responsible for managing and expanding the company's DNA sequencing services in the Americas. Helaman formerly was director of the DNA Sequencing and Genomics Core Facility at the University of Utah.


Dennis Winger has joined the board of directors at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and was elected to chair the company's audit committee. Winger retired from his post as senior VP and CFO at Applera last year, and he formerly was CFO and senior VP of finance at Chiron.


Steven Michael has been named VP and CSO at Covance. Michael has served as executive director of bioanalytical research, dynamics and metabolism at Pfizer Global, and he has 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.


Gyros has tapped Jack Johansen and Lars Eric Utterman to serve as non-executive directors on its board of directors.

Utterman is chairman of the board of Ludesi and Cellectricon and he has been an executive at GE Healthcare, Amersham, Pharmacia, and Boehringer Mannheim. Johansen is a consultant for life sciences and venture capital companies, and he was a founding CEO of Boston Biosystems and Boston Probes. He also was executive VP of science and technology at Millipore.


James Antal has taken an appointment to serve on GeneLink BioSciences' board of directors. Antal was CFO and CIO at Experian, and he currently serves as part-time CFO for Pathway Data.


Promoted? Changing jobs? GenomeWeb wants to know. E-mail [email protected] to appear in People in the News, a weekly roundup of industry comings and goings.

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