Xencor (Monrovia, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Jade R. Brown (right) as vice president of business development. Mr. Brown brings more than 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as chief business officer at Cell Therapeutics. Prior to that, he served as vice president of business development and marketing at Nastech Pharmaceuticals.

“Jade's breadth of knowledge and diversity of transactional experience will be a great asset to the company as we move into the clinic this year, and as we forge additional partnerships that extend the value of our technology platform,” says Bassil Dahiyat, president and CEO of Xencor.

Leslie Alexandre is stepping down as president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) at the end of the month. The board of directors for the nonprofit center, which provides support for biotech research, business and education across the state, will conduct a national search for her replacement. Ms. Alexandre has headed the center since 2002.

Kevan Clemens has been elected chairman of the board of Chelsea Therapeutics International (Charlotte, NC, USA). Dr. Clemens succeeds Michael Weiser, who has held the post since the company's inception in 2004 and who will continue to serve as a member of Chelsea's board of directors. Dr. Clemens, formerly executive vice president, business director of Hoffmann-La Roche, has been a board member since 2004.

Exelixis (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Carl B. Feldbaum to the company's board of directors. From 1993 until his retirement in January 2005, Mr. Feldbaum served as president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

Martin Gertsch (right) has been named CFO of ESBATech (Zurich), replacing Thomas Loeser, who stepped down in December 2006 to enter the healthcare venture capital sector. Mr. Gertsch has more than 20 years of financial and operational experience, most recently as CFO of Straumann Group. In addition, he chairs the audit committee of the board of directors of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding.

Neal Gutterson has been promoted to the position of president and CEO of Mendel Biotechnology (Hayward, CA, USA), succeeding Chris Somerville as CEO. Mr. Somerville, who remains as chairman of the board, will focus his attention on academic interests. Mr. Gutterson has served as Mendel's president and COO since December 2005.

Advanced Cell Technology (Alameda, CA, USA) has appointed Pedro Huertas (right) chief development officer, with responsibility for overseeing the development of the company's programs to create novel stem cell-based therapeutics. Dr. Huertas was most recently chief medical officer at both StemCells, Inc. and Novazyme Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Huertas positioned and developed the program that was the focus of Novazyme's $185 million acquisition by Genzyme.

Enigma Diagnostics (Porton Down, UK) has named Christopher Lowe as a nonexecutive director. Prof. Lowe is director of the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was recently awarded the title of “Most Entrepreneurial Scientist of the UK” by UKSEC and has cofounded seven spinout companies including ProMetic BioSciences, Purely Proteins, Cambridge Sensors, Smart Holograms and Psynova.

Elixir Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Gregory D. Perry to the newly created position of CFO. Mr. Perry last served as CFO of Domantis, which was recently acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. Previously, he was senior vice president and CFO at Transkaryotic Therapies.

BioProcessors Corp. (Woburn, MA, USA) has appointed Jonathan Rennert president and CEO. He succeeds company founder Andrey Zarur as CEO, but Dr. Zarur will remain on the board of directors. Mr. Rennert most recently served as vice president and general manager, analytical sciences at PerkinElmer.

Avicena Group (Palo Alto, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Uri Sagman to its board of directors. Dr. Sagman is cofounder and executive director of the Canadian NanoBusiness Alliance, as well as several companies including C Sixty, a Canadian nanomedicine company.

YM BioSciences (Mississauga, ON, Canada) has announced the resignations of Gail Schulze, president and CEO of YM BioSciences USA and John E. Bennett, vice president, corporate development, YM BioSciences USA. Ms. Schulze will remain a director of the company.

Joseph L. Turner has been elected to the board of directors of NovaCardia (San Diego). Mr. Turner brings over 25 years of experience in the pharma industry to NovaCardia's board, most recently as senior vice president of finance and administration and CFO at Myogen.

David U'Prichard has been elected to the board of directors of CoGenesys (Rockville, MD, USA), which was spun out of Human Genome Sciences in June 2006. Dr. U'Prichard is a venture partner with Red Abbey Venture Partners and also at Care Capital. He was previously president and chairman of R&D at SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline.