Aastrom Biosciences (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has named Dominick C. Colangelo (right) president, CEO and a member of the board of directors. He joins Aastrom with over 20 years of biopharma management and corporate development experience. He was most recently president and CEO of Promedior, and prior to that spent over a decade at Eli Lilly.

“I am very pleased to have the opportunity to join Aastrom Biosciences, a leader in the cell therapy field, as the company continues to advance ixmyelocel-T through late-stage clinical development for the treatment of severe cardiovascular diseases,” says Colangelo. “Ixmyelocel-T, which is comprised principally of macrophage and mesenchymal stromal cells expanded from a patient's own bone marrow, utilizes cell populations that have been shown to play a key role in reducing inflammation and promoting angiogenesis and tissue repair. This multicellular approach has tremendous therapeutic potential to treat these debilitating diseases and significantly improve the lives of patients.”

Labrys Biologics (San Francisco) has announced the following key executive appointments: Marcelo Bigal, formerly head of the Merck Investigator Study Program at Merck, joins as chief medical officer; Michael Chang, previously vice president of R&D at Limerick BioPharma, joins as vice president of project management; Michele Bronson, formerly vice president of regulatory, quality and project management at Medivation, joins as vice president of regulatory and quality; Rafael Escandón, most recently a consulting vice president of clinical outcome services at ICON, joins as vice president of clinical operations; and Henry Stern, formerly at Genentech, joins as executive director of contract manufacturing.

Newly formed CoCo Therapeutics (London) has announced the appointment of Steve Butcher as COO. Butcher was a founder and scientific director of the Fujisawa Institute of Neuroscience, and more recently has served as CSO at BioImage and COO at TopoTarget.

Ali Fattaey has been named president and COO of Curis (Lexington, MA, USA). He spent eight years at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for multiple programs in partnership with Pfizer (then Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert) and Bayer HealthCare. In addition, Curis has announced that Kenneth Pienta has been named to the board. He currently serves as the Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology, professor of oncology, and pharmacology and molecular sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Cell Medica (London) has announced appointments to its senior executive team: Kurt Gunter, previously of Hospira, ViaCell and Transkaryotic Therapies, joins as chief medical officer; Jeff Hammel, previously CFO for the largest operating division of Orthofix International, joins as CFO; and Ross Durland, formerly senior director preclinical development at Valentis, joins as senior vice president development. The new members of the executive team will be based in Cell Medica's recently established US office in Houston. Also joining the Houston office are Cynthia Molina, senior director regulatory affairs, and Shannon Inman, director clinical operations.

Tom Klein has joined XOMA (Berkeley, CA, USA) as chief commercial officer, a newly created position. He brings over 25 years of successful brand commercialization leadership. He previously served as vice president, business unit head virology and specialty care at Genentech.

Argos Therapeutics (Durham, NC, USA) has announced the appointment of Jean Lamarre to its board of directors. Lamarre brings more than 15 years of experience in strategic planning and corporate financing for life sciences and information technology companies. He serves on the boards of Klox Technologies, Mispro Biotech Services and CQVB, among other companies.

CombiMatrix (Irvine, CA, USA) has named Mark McDonough CEO, succeeding the retiring R. Judd Jessup. McDonough joined the company as chief commercial officer in 2012 with more than 15 years of experience in sales and business development at EMC, Lab Corp., Ventana Medical Systems and Pathwork Diagnostics.

Zanna McFerson has been appointed chief business officer at Amyris (Emeryville, CA, USA). Previously, she was a vice president at Cargill, serving as director of its Truvia business unit.

Nucelis (New York) has named Sean P. O'Connor as president, CEO and a member of the board of directors. O'Connor has served in a number of senior business management roles at Chemtura, most recently as president of its petroleum additives business unit.

Frank Ternes (right) has been named to the position of chief business officer of Rentschler Biotechnologie (Laupheim, Germany). He brings over 25 years of experience from Boehringer Ingelheim, where he last served as senior vice president of biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing.

Dow Chemical (Midland, MI, USA) has named Marc van Gerwen (right) global business director for its Dow Pharma & Food Solutions unit, formerly known as Dow Wolff Cellulosics. Van Gerwen joined Dow in 2007 as the strategic planner for Rohm and Haas's European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. He succeeds Martin Sonntag, who is leaving the company.

Charles Walker has been promoted to CEO of Alchemia (Brisbane, Australia). He brings 20 years of international life sciences industry experience to the role, and had served as the company's CFO for the last two years.