Steven Kafka, Daniel O'Day, and more
Foundation Medicine announced four executive promotions and the hiring of a global marketing senior vice president. Additionally, it proposed changes to its board in connection to its strategic collaboration with Roche.
Those who were promoted include Steven Kafka, Jason Ryan, Elaine Labrecque, and Sarah Larson. Kafka has been promoted to president. He currently is Foundation Medicine's COO and will maintain that position. He joined the company in 2013 and was previously COO and CFO at Aileron Therapeutics.
Ryan was promoted to CFO. He joined Foundation Medicine in 2011 and was responsible for building the firm's public company financial infrastructure. He previously led the finance and strategic planning functions at companies that include Taligen Therapeutics and Genomics Collaborative.
Labrecque was promoted to senior VP of operations. She joined the company in 2013 as VP of laboratory operations from ConVerge Diagnostic Services where she was COO. She also was at Quest Diagnostics for 20 years.
Larson was promoted to senior VP human resources. She has been at Foundation Medicine for four years and was one of the company's first employees. She previously led the global human resources function at CombinatoRx.
Foundation Medicine also hired Matt Franklin to the new created role of senior vice president of global marketing. He will report to Chief Commercial Officer David Daly.Franklinwas most recently VP of global marketing for Boston Scientific's interventional cardiology division.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based cancer molecular diagnostics firm additionally proposed changes to its board, including expanding it to nine directors in connection to a $1.2 billion stake that Roche plans to take in Foundation Medicine.
As part of the expansion of Foundation Medicine's board, Roche can designate three candidates to the firm's board. This week, Roche identified the designees as Daniel O'Day, Sandra Horning, and Michael Varney.
O'Day is COO of Roche Pharmaceuticals. Horning is global head of product development and CMO of Roche/Genentech, and Varney is head of Genentech Research and Early Development.
Foundation Medicine's current board members are CEO Michael Pellini, Alexis Borisy, Evan Jones, David Schenkein, Krishna Yeshwant, and Brook Byers, who is expected to leave the board upon the completion of the Roche transaction, anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2015. The final board seat will be filled after the close of the deal with an independent director mutually agreed upon by Foundation Medicine and Roche.
James Hinrichs
James Hinrichs has been appointed by Alere as executive vice president and CFO, effective April 6. He takes over from David Teitel, whom the company previously said would transition to a new role. Hinrichs' responsibilities will include finance, procurement, information technology, and shared services.
He has more than 25 years of experience in financial and executive leadership roles in healthcare and was most recently CFO of CareFusion, which was acquired by Becton Dickinson earlier this month. He previously was senior VP for global customer support and senior VP, controller for CareFusion. Prior to joining that firm, Hinrichs was the CFO of the former clinical technologies and services healthcare supply chain services, and clinical and medical products segments at Cardinal Health.
Robert Goggin
Robert Goggin, who was elected to Vermillion's board in 2013 amid shareholder discontent, will be retiring from the board at the end of his current term, the company said in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
He will not stand for reelection to the board during Vermillion's 2015 annual shareholders' meeting and told the company that his retirement is not the result of any disagreement with Vermillion.
Googin was elected to the board two years ago as a candidate put forth by a trio of dissident shareholders that included himself in order to influence Vermillion's then-management team.
Juan Martin
Accelerate Diagnostics has named Juan Martin as executive vice president and head of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Martin has significant experience leading large, global healthcare diagnostics businesses. He joins the firm from Siemens, where he served as senior vice president of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics for Southwest Europeand general manager of Siemens Healthcare France.
For more recent items on executive appointments and promotions in the omics and molecular diagnostics industries, please see the People in the News page on our website.