Nurix (San Francisco) has announced the appointments of Arthur T. Sands (right) as CEO and Pierre Beaurang (below right) as vice president, business and corporate development. Sands succeeds interim CEO Mark A. Goldsmith, who will continue as chairman of Nurix's board of directors. Sands previously co-founded Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and served as president, CEO and a director. Beaurang brings nearly 15 years of business and operational experience in the biotech industry, having served as as part of the founding team of Five Prime Therapeutics.

“I am delighted to join Nurix at this point in the company's evolution as it establishes a broadly applicable platform in drug discovery based on its innovative research on the selective modulation of ubiquitin ligases for breakthrough applications in cancer and other diseases,” says Sands. “Nurix has already built a strong foundation with world-renowned founders, collaborators and an outstanding scientific team.”

Alan Hirzel has been promoted to CEO of life science research tools supplier Abcam (Cambridge, UK), succeeding long-serving CEO and co-founder Jonathan Milner. Hirzel was most recently the company's chief marketing officer. Milner will continue to play an active role in the company as deputy chairman.

Aptose Biosciences (San Diego and Toronto) has appointed Stephen B. Howell as chief medical officer. A leader in the development of novel drugs and drug delivery systems for the treatment of cancer, Howell holds the position of distinguished professor of medicine, division of hematology-oncology, at the University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

Relmada Therapeutics (New York) has appointed Christopher W. James to the position of senior director of clinical development. James has established and led global clinical operations teams over the past 25 years, previously serving in management positions at Popsi Cube, eHealthcare Interactive, Cephalon and Adolor.

Dimension Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Annalisa Jenkins (right) as CEO, succeeding Thomas Beck. Jenkins brings to Dimension nearly 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industries. She was most recently executive vice president, head of global R&D for Merck Serono, where she also led global medical affairs and quality. Previously, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Donald R. Johns as vice president and head of the company's amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Innovation Hub (ALS iHub), a new unit dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of novel therapies for ALS. He joins Biogen Idec from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he held multiple positions over the past decade, including vice president and global head of Neuroscience Translational Medicine. Prior to working at Novartis, he held positions at the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Compugen (Tel Aviv) has named Ari Krashin CFO, with direct responsibility for all financial and legal functions of the company. Krashin has over 15 years of experience in finance, investor relations, M&A and business development. He previously served as CFO of Gilat Satellite Networks and CFO of Spacenet, a US subsidiary of Gilat.

Arthur D. Levinson has resigned from the Roche (Basel) board of directors to avoid any conflict of interest given his role as CEO at Google-backed Calico. Levinson had served on the board at Roche since 2010 and as chairman of Genentech from 1999 to 2014. Since 2013 he has served as CEO of Calico, which focuses on understanding the process of aging and developing therapies for age-related diseases.

NOXXON Pharma (Berlin and Boston) has named Don Munoz to the newly created position of CFO. Munoz was previously head of investment banking at Summer Street Research Partners.

Gene therapy company Voyager Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced that Steven Paul has been appointed CEO, succeeding interim CEO Mark Levin. Paul was most recently a partner at Third Rock Ventures. Prior to that he spent 17 years at Eli Lilly in such roles as executive vice president for science and technology and president of the Lilly Research Laboratories. Levin will become chairman of Voyager's board of directors.

Victor Sandor has been named chief medical officer of Array BioPharma (Boulder, CO, USA). He was most recently senior vice president for global clinical development at Incyte, and prior to that, served as vice president and chief medical officer for oncology at Biogen Idec.

Five Prime Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Robert Sikorski as vice president of global clinical development. He joins the company from AstraZeneca-owned MedImmune where he served as senior director, global oncology R&D.

Imugene (Melbourne) has appointed Charles Walker CEO. Walker has broad and successful experience in the biotech and life sciences industries, most recently serving as CEO as well as CFO of ASX-listed biopharmaceutical company Alchemia.

Donald A. Williams has been elected to the board of directors of Marina Biotech (Boston). He has 35 years of public accounting experience, having spent 18 years as a partner at Ernst & Young and the last seven years as a partner at Grant Thornton, where he served as the national leader of the firm's life sciences practice and the managing partner of its San Diego office.