Qiagen: Thierry Bernard
Qiagen said this week that it has named Thierry Bernard as CEO. Qiagen's board has also resolved to propose Bernard for election as CEO and managing director at the company's next annual meeting in June. Bernard, who is also senior VP and head of molecular diagnostics at Qiagen, has served as the company's interim CEO since October, when long-time CEO Peer Schatz parted ways with the company. Bernard joined Qiagen in 2015. Prior to that he was senior executive VP of worldwide commercial operations at BioMérieux, where he also managed investor relations for the greater China region.
Bernard is "an outstanding leader who has performed impressively while guiding Qiagen through a period of significant change since taking on this role on an interim basis in October 2019," Håkan Björklund, chairman of Qiagen's supervisory board, said in a statement. "He is a strong and proven leader with extensive industry expertise and deep customer relationships. Most important, he has shown the energy and skill to drive Qiagen forward and has been a key leader in achieving the agreement for Qiagen to be acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific in a transaction that remains on track for completion in the first half of 2021."
Myriad Genetics: Louise Phanstiel, John Henderson
Myriad Genetics' board of directors has nominated Louise Phanstiel as its new chair. Phanstiel has served as a director at Myriad since September 2009, has chaired the audit committee and been a member of the nominating and governance committee. She has held various positions at insurer Anthem, and was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Phanstiel has previously served on the boards of Verastem and Inveresk Research Group.
John Henderson, meanwhile, has resigned as chair of Myriad's board, but will continue to serve as a director. "This change in the leadership of the board is a reflection of the changing environment in which Myriad Genetics operates," Henderson said in a statement. "While the company remains focused on providing critical health care information for the patient, there also is a need to ensure optimization of the processes, which ensure efficient delivery of results, while managing business operations effectively."
Scipher Medicine: Slava Akmaev
Scipher Medicine has appointed Slava Akmaev as its chief technology officer, a role that includes overseeing the company's data science and technology teams, ensuring efficient data on-boarding, quality control, and rapid analytics across Scipher's pipeline of precision diagnostics.
Akmaev is a leader in applying high-throughput molecular technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analysis within the life sciences and healthcare industry, and routinely publishes in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Prior to joining Scipher, he was the senior vice president and chief analytics officer at Berg, where he cofounded and led Berg Analytics. Prior to that he helped commercialize four molecular diagnostic tests at Genzyme Genetics.
For additional 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.