The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR; Philadelphia) have elected Charles L. Sawyers (right) president-elect for 2012–2013. Sawyers chairs the human oncology and pathogenesis program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is also a professor in the cell and developmental biology program and the department of medicine at the Joan & Sanford Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. He officially becomes president-elect on April 2 at the AACR's annual meeting and will assume the presidency in April 2013.

Forestry biotech ArborGen (Ridgeville, SC, USA) has named Andrew Baum as president and CEO, replacing the retiring Barbara H. Wells. Baum joined Calgene in 1981, helping launch genetically engineered cotton and vegetable oil products. He also served as CEO of Sembiosys Genetics.

Roch Doliveux, CEO of biopharmaceutical company UCB and member of the board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), has been appointed chairman of the governing board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI; Brussels), a public-private partnership between the European Union and the EFPIA. UCB has been a member of IMI since its initiation, and Doliveux has been a member of the IMI governing board since May 2010.

Patrick H. Griffin has joined privately held ImmusanT (Cambridge, MA, USA) as chief medical officer and senior vice president of development. Michelle Hipwood has also joined the company as director of finance and operations. Griffin was most recently head of external innovation for Sanofi's immuno-inflammation therapeutic strategy unit. Hipwood was executive director and COO at The Capital Network.

Carin Heringa has been promoted from head of global medical affairs to the position of senior vice president and scientific director of Gentium (Villa Guardia, Italy). Before joining Gentium in November 2011, Heringa was medical director of the integrated hospital care franchise at Novartis Pharma.

Novavax (Rockville, MD, USA) has named John A. Herrmann III to the position of vice president and general counsel. In addition, he will continue as the company's corporate secretary. Herrmann joined Novavax in April 2010 from Ore Pharmaceuticals, where he served as vice president and general counsel.

Aastrom Biosciences (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has named LaVonne Lang as head of regulatory affairs. Lang has over 20 years of industry experience, most recently serving as a consultant on various investigational drugs and biologics for United BioSource. Previously, she was a therapeutic area regulatory lead at Pfizer.

Peggy Mulligan has been appointed to the board of directors of MethylGene (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). She most recently served as executive vice president and CFO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (formerly Biovail).

Rohan Palekar has been named to the position of senior vice president and chief commercial officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals (Aliso Viejo, CA, USA). He has over 20 years of experience in the biopharma industry, most recently as chief commercial officer for Medivation.

Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Alan B. Sachs as head of global R&D. He has over 20 years of experience as a research scientist and a leader in developing innovative scientific platforms, most recently serving as vice president, exploratory and translational sciences at Merck Research Laboratories.

Dvorit Samid has been named vice president of medical affairs at Synta Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA, USA). She brings three decades of oncology research and drug development experience, having served as section chief at the National Cancer Institute and had a leading role in medical affairs at Roche, ImClone and Abraxis Oncology.

Privately held Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (Los Angeles) has announced the appointment of Elisabeth Sandoval as chief commercial officer. She brings more than 25 years of pharmaceutical and medical device experience, including two decades at Allergan, where her roles included vice president of global strategic marketing for Allergan Medical.

The board of directors of The Hastings Center (Garrison, NY, USA) have elected Mildred Z. Solomon, senior director for implementation science at the Association of American Medical Colleges and associate clinical professor of medical ethics in the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and the department of anesthesia at Children's Hospital Boston, as the fifth president of the 43-year-old Hastings Center, effective July 2012. She will succeed Thomas H. Murray, who last year announced his plans to step down after 13 years. Murray will continue his affiliation with Hastings as president emeritus and senior research scholar.

Conformetrix (Manchester, UK) has appointed Sam Williams as CEO. Williams, previously a nonexecutive director of the company, takes over from Andrew Almond, one of the company's founding scientists, who becomes chief technology officer. Williams has over 10 years of experience in healthcare and finance, serving as an analyst with Robertson Stephens and Lehman Brothers. He will combine his duties at Conformetrix with his role as CEO of Modern Biosciences, a virtual drug development company.

Alain Thibault has joined arGEN-X (Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Ghent, Belgium) as chief medical officer and Jacobus (Koos) Rasser will serve as the new intellectual property (IP) counsel. Thibault served most recently as therapeutic area head of oncology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Before joining arGEN-X, Rasser was a senior partner at the global IP law firm Howrey and founder of its London practice.