David Challen has been appointed to the board of directors of Amersham PLC, Amersham Biosciences’ UK-based parent company. Challen is currently vice-chairman of Citigroup’s European Investment Bank. Prior to this, Challan was co-chairman at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, after Schroder’s investment banking business — where he was chairman — merged with Salomon Smith Barney.
Story Landis has been appointed director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Landis, the current scientific director of the NINDS intramural program, will begin to serve as NINDS director Sept. 1. She will oversee an annual budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of over 900 scientists, the NIH said.
Landis has been at NINDS since 1995, when she joined as scientific director. Before that, she was chairman of the department of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University school of medicine. She also has held a position on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.
Landis received her BS in biology from Wellesley College, and a master’s degree and PhD from Harvard. She was also named president of the Society for Neuroscience in 2002.
Paul Ray, director of the Colorado Office of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, said earlier this week that the office had formed a board of advisors. The board members, who will advise Ray, include Dave Bengston, vice president of Colorado operations for Amgen; John Dill, a Denver policy and business consultant; Timothy Estep, vice president of hemoglobin therapeutics for Baxter Healthcare in Boulder; Jay Gershen, executive vice chancellor of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; Terry Knapp, CEO and chairman of PrivaComp; Caroline Kovac, general manager of IBM Life Sciences; Ned Scheetz, managing director of the VC firm Piper Jaffray; and Richard Williams, president and founder of health care and pharmaceutical consulting firm Connor-Thoele.