Cepheid disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week that it has terminated the employment of Nicolaas Arnold, its executive vice president of worldwide commercial operations.
The firm offered no explanation for the firing, but it said that Philippe Jacon, EVP of emerging markets, will be responsible for all of Cepheid's international commercial operations. In addition, it said that it has commenced a search to hire an executive to lead Cepheid's North American commercial operations.
Arnold joined Cepheid as EVP of worldwide commercial operations in October 2009. Prior to that, he was regional vice president for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics in Northwest Europe, and before that, managing director of European sales for Siemens Medical Diagnostics. He has also served as vice president of global marketing and US sales at Diagnostic Products Corporation, a manufacturer of immunodiagnostic tests, which was acquired by Siemens Medical Solutions in 2006.
Biocartis said this week that Inge Basteleurs has joined the company as general counsel. Basteleurs will also be a director and member of the executive committee at the company.
Basteleurs joins Biocartis from UCB, where she was vice president legal and secretary general to the board. Prior to joining UCB, Inge worked at Bayer BioScience, where her role included global legal responsibility for and membership of the management committee of several of the company's business areas, including commercial transactions, M&A, intellectual property licensing and government affairs.
Seegene this week announced the appointment of Jon Hurrell as senior executive vice president. In this role, Hurrell will run Seegene's B2B business unit responsible for global licensing, OEM, and companion diagnostic deals, as well as widening the company's customer base within the clinical laboratory test market.
Hurrell most recently served as president and general manager of Focus Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics. Prior to that he served as vice president of business development at Quest. He also held numerous management positions at healthcare firms, including senior vice president and general manager at TriPath Oncology, a subsidiary of TriPath Imaging (now part of Becton Dickinson).
Fluidigm said this week that it has appointed Gerhard Burbach to its board and the board's audit and compensation committees.
Burbach currently serves as president, CEO, and director of Thoratec, a publicly traded company that develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices for circulatory support. Prior to this, he served as president and CEO of Digirad and served as a member of its board. He has also worked for Bacchus Vascular, Philips Nuclear Medicine, and ADAC Laboratories, now part of Philips. Burbach also spent six years with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Diffinity Genomics said that Joseph Marasco has joined the company as president.
Prior to joining Diffinity, Marasco served since 2007 as CEO and board member of Chiral Quest. He has also been employed by Dow Chemical, Beckman Coulter, and Kaneka. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Virginia.
Diffinity also said that Jeffrey Helfer will be stepping down from his role as CEO and member of the board of directors. He will continue employment with the company in a new product and business development role and as an executive advisor through the transition of leadership, Diffinity said.