Clinical-stage regenerative medicine company BioTime (Alameda, CA, USA) has appointed Russell Skibsted (right) to the position of CFO, succeeding Robert W. Peabody. Skibsted has over 25 years of financial management and life sciences business experience. He was most recently CFO at Proove Biosciences and previously senior vice president, CFO and secretary of Aeolus Pharmaceuticals.

“The addition of Russell to our team is consistent with our commitment to evolve the management of BioTime as we prepare for later-stage clinical trials and future commercial operations,” said BioTime co-CEO Adi Mohanty. “I'm confident that his proven leadership and experience in a wide range of public and private life sciences companies will strengthen our team and help us to create more value for our shareholders.”

Promethera Biosciences (Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium) has named Jürgen Beck as vice president, clinical and medical affairs and Patrick Stragier as vice president, operations. Beck has over 20 years of experience in medical affairs and clinical research at companies including Boehringer Ingelheim, Synthélabo, Epigenomics and InterMune. Stragier has worked for biopharma companies such as Solvay, DSM-Biologics, Genzyme and Lonza, and is co-founder of MaSTherCell.

Tony Coles (right) has been elected to the board of directors of CRISPR Therapeutics (Basel, Switzerland). He is the founding investor and serves as chairman and CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics. Prior to founding Yumanity, he was chairman and CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Amgen in late 2013.

Decibel Therapeutics (Boston) has announced the appointment of Jeff Jonas (right) to the company's board of directors. Jonas has served as CEO of SAGE Therapeutics since 2013. Previously, he was president of the regenerative medicine division and senior vice president of pharmaceutical R&D at Shire.

Evofem (San Diego) has appointed Sandra Matsumoto vice president of global regulatory affairs. Matsumoto was previously senior director of global regulatory affairs for Vital Therapeutics.

Early-stage anti-infectives company Auspherix (Stevenage, UK) has appointed Neil Miller CSO. Miller was most recently senior director and head of chemistry, DMPK & external discovery for GlaxoSmithKline in Singapore. He also served as site head of GSK's Singapore R&D center.

Alana McNulty has joined eFFECTOR Therapeutics (San Diego) as CFO. She has managed finance and operations at the company on a consulting basis since 2012. Prior to eFFECTOR, McNulty served as CFO at Lumena Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Shire in 2014, and Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Pfizer in 2011.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Paris Panayiotopoulos as president, CEO and member of the board of directors. He joins the company from EMD Serono, where he had served as president since November 2013. Prior to that he was president of Merck Serono Japan, was head of its global COO office in Geneva and head of its Western Europe global business unit, fertility & endocrinology.

Medigene (Martinsried/Munich, Germany) has appointed Dolores Schendel as CEO, succeeding Frank Mathias with effect from February 1. Schendel joined Medigene as CSO in May 2014. She was co-founder of Trianta Immunotherapy, which was acquired by Medigene at the beginning of 2014. In addition, Dave Lemus, vice chairman of the supervisory board of the company, will assume the newly created position of COO, and CEO of Medigene's US subsidiary.

Gene therapy developer uniQure (Amsterdam) has named Dan Soland as its new CEO, succeeding Jörn Aldag. Soland has more than 30 years of industry experience, most recently serving as vice president and COO of ViroPharma. Previously he was president of Chiron Vaccines. Soland will also be nominated for appointment to uniQure's management board, subject to approval by shareholders.

Martin Shkreli resigned his position as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (New York) following his arrest for securities fraud. Turing announced that Ron Tilles, who has served as chairman of the board of directors for the company, will serve as interim CEO. Shkreli was also fired as CEO by KaloBios (S. San Francisco, CA, USA), less than one month after he was appointed.

Genome analytics company Bluebee (Delft, the Netherlands) has announced the appointment of Edmée van Dijk as CFO. She joins the company from Delft University of Technology, where she was responsible for the university's investment portfolio. She currently also advises the Dutch government in matters of early-stage financing.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals (New Haven, CT, USA) has appointed Frank Verwiel to its board of directors. Verwiel was formerly president, CEO and a member of the board of Aptalis Pharma.

Zenith Epigenetics (Calgary) has appointed Norman C.W. Wong to its board of directors, replacing Peter Johann. Wong is a co-founder of Resverlogix.

Jerome B. Zeldis has been named to the board of directors of Kalytera Therapeutics (Hermosa Beach, CA, USA). Zeldis serves as chief medical officer of Celgene and CEO of Celgene Global Health, which develops and distributes therapeutics for diseases of the developing world.