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People in the News: Vincent Forlenza, Thomas Polen, Colleen Reitan, Lee Newcomer, More

Becton Dickinson: Vincent Forlenza, Thomas Polen

Becton Dickinson announced that Vincent Forlenza will retire from his position as of Jan. 28, 2020. Forlenza, who has been with BD for 40 years and has led the company as CEO since 2011, will continue to serve as executive chairman of its board of directors. Thomas Polen, the firm's chief operating officer, will take over as CEO. 


Myriad Genetics: Colleen Reitan, Lee Newcomer

Myriad Genetics has elected Colleen Reitan and Lee Newcomer to its board of directors.

Reitan has spent more than 32 years working in the Blue Cross Blue Shield system, most recently as president of plan operations for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a health plan covering 16 million lives. Prior to BCBS, Reitan held several roles of increasing responsibility including executive VP and chief operating officer for HCSC and president and chief operating officer of BCBS of Minnesota. She currently serves on the boards of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Cricket Health.

Newcomer is a board-certified oncologist who most recently served as senior VP of oncology and genetics for UnitedHealthcare. Previously, he was chief medical officer and senior VP of health policy and strategy at UnitedHealth Group. He also served as chief medical officer at Vivius. Newcomer currently serves on the board of Cellworks Group and Intervention Insights.


Oncimmune: Tariq Sethi, Matthew Luttrel, Cléa Rosenfeld

Oncimmune has appointed several members to the firm, including Tariq Sethi as CSO, Matthew Luttrell as chief commercial officer, and Cléa Rosenfeld as its head of investor relations.

Prior to Oncimmune, Sethi held the roles of chief physician scientist, VP of clinical discovery at AstraZeneca, and emeritus professor of respiratory medicine at King's College London. Prior to that, he served as VP of respiratory autoimmunity translational medicine unit at AstraZeneca, as well as professor of respiratory medicine and lung cancer at Edinburgh University. Sethi is also the founder of Galecto Biotech. He will also join Oncimmune's senior leadership team starting Oct. 1.

Before Oncimmune, Luttrell served in senior roles at Takeda. Prior to Takeda, has held roles at Novo Nordisk, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, and Shire. He will also join Oncimmune's senior leadership team starting Oct. 1.

Rosenfeld is a senior investor relations and corporate communications professional and was previously head of investor relations at Shire for 11 years.


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.

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