Horizon Discovery Group (Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointments of Susan Galbraith (right), senior vice president and head of oncology innovative medicines at AstraZeneca, and Susan Searle (far right), co-founder and ex-CEO of Imperial Innovations Group, as nonexecutive directors on the company's board. Galbraith has over 20 years' combined academic and industry experience, previously serving as vice president of oncology and clinical biomarkers at Bristol-Myers Squibb before joining AstraZeneca in 2010. Searle co-founded Imperial Innovations Group and served as CEO from 2002 to 2013, during which time the firm invested over $205 million in startups including bioscience companies Abingdon Health, Circassia, CellMedica, Psioxus and Respivert.

“We are delighted that both Susan Galbraith and Susan Searle have agreed to join Horizon's board of directors. Both have established highly successful careers in their chosen fields and also have proven leadership and advisory success. We believe each will be an invaluable asset to Horizon, and look forward to benefitting from their counsel,” says Darrin Disley, CEO of Horizon Discovery Group.

Monoclonal antibody developer Kymab (Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointments of Steve Arkinstall as CSO and Nigel Clark as vice president and head of business development. Arkinstall brings overs 25 years' experience across biopharmaceutical R&D, most recently as head of the Serono Research Institute in Boston as well as head of global technologies and external innovation at Merck Serono. As CSO he replaces founder Allan Bradley, who will serve as chief technology officer and continue as a member of Kymab's board of directors. Clark was previously chief business officer at Syntaxin, where he negotiated the sale of the company to Ipsen Pharma for $215 million. Prior to Syntaxin, he was head of business development at Vernalis.

Domain Therapeutics (Strasbourg, France) has named Youssef L. Bennani to its board of directors and as chairman, succeeding Sam Eletr who has held the position since 2008. Eletr remains a contributing shareholder. Bennani currently serves as site head and vice president of R&D at Vertex Pharmaceuticals' site in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Previously, he was vice president of drug innovation at Vertex.

G. Steven Burrill, founder and CEO of biotech investment bank Burrill & Co. (San Francisco), has been removed from control of a $283 million venture capital fund, according to documents filed in a recent lawsuit. The documents show that Burrill stepped down in March after it was alleged that he diverted almost $20 million from the Burrill Life Sciences Capital Fund III to various private entities as prepayment for management fees and unauthorized loans. In addition, he failed to make at least $450,000 of capital contributions that were required under a partnership agreement with the fund's investors.

Late-stage gene therapy company Spark Therapeutics (Philadelphia) has announced the appointments of Lars Ekman, former president of R&D at Elan, and Vin Milano, former president and CEO of ViroPharma, to its board of directors. Anand Mehra, general partner, Sofinnova Ventures, also joined the Spark board at the close of the company's Series B financing.

Regado Biosciences (Basking Ridge, NJ, USA) has named Drew Fromkin to the company's board of directors. Fromkin most recently served as president and CEO of Clinical Data, Inc., prior to its acquisition by Forest Laboratories.

James Gilbert has been appointed chief medical officer of True North Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA). He brings more than 25 years of biopharma industry and medical experience, most recently serving as CMO at Cardioxyl and Archemix. Previously, he served as senior vice president of clinical development for cardiovascular and inflammation at Millennium.

Steven Mills has been elected to the board of directors of Elevance Renewable Sciences (Woodridge, IL, USA). Mills held positions of increasing responsibility at Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, culminating in his post as senior executive vice president of performance & growth. Most recently, he served as CFO of Amyris.

Scioderm (Durham, NC, USA) has named Ronald Nardi as its first CSO. Nardi brings more than 35 years of experience in drug discovery, development and regulatory affairs and was most recently the executive vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance at International Partnership for Microbicides. Previously he served as CSO for Ferring Pharmaceuticals and BioValve Technologies.

Harold Swerdlow has joined The New York Genome Center (New York) as vice president of technology innovation, responsible for developing cutting-edge technologies to be used in genomics research and ultimately in clinical applications. He most recently served as head of R&D at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Prior to that, he was chief technology officer at Dolomite Ltd. and senior director of research at Solexa.

Keith E. Wilson has been appointed CSO of Oxford BioTherapeutics (Oxford, UK and San Jose, CA, USA). He brings over 20 years' experience of life sciences R&D specializing in oncology and immunology. He joins Oxford from AbbVie, where he was the company's global leader for antibody drug conjugates.

Brian Zambrowicz has joined Nuevolution (Copenhagen) as a director and senior scientific advisor to the board of directors. He is one of the co-founders of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and has served the company as executive vice president and CSO since 2007.