Syngenta (Basel, Switzerland) has announced the appointment of J. Erik Fyrwald (right) as CEO, succeeding John Ramsay, who had served as interim CEO since November 2015. Fyrwald was most recently president and CEO of the US chemistry distribution company Univar. He previously served as president of EcoLab, chairman, president and CEO of Nalco, and group vice president of agriculture and nutrition at DuPont, and currently serves on the boards of Eli Lilly and the Society of Chemical Industry.

“After a rigorous search, the Board concluded that Erik's leadership and considerable experience in both agriculture and chemicals, along with his strong track record of success as a CEO made him the outstanding candidate for the role,” said Michel Demaré, Syngenta's chairman. “Erik has demonstrated throughout his career the ability to work successfully in different environments, designing and leading strategies which resulted in impressive value creation.”

Privately held Nurix (San Francisco) has made several executive and board appointments. Pierre Beaurang, who joined the company as vice president of business and corporate development in August 2014, has been promoted to chief business officer, and former interim CFO Hans van Houte has been named vice president of finance. David Lacey and Perry Karsen have been appointed to the board of directors. Lacey retired from Amgen after a 17-year career that included serving as head of discovery research and overseeing over 100 actively managed preclinical projects across multiple therapeutic areas. Karsen served as the CEO of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics from 2013 until his retirement at the end of 2015. He also served as executive vice president and COO at Celgene. Finally, Tim Kutzkey, a partner at The Column Group, has been appointed chairman of the board at Nurix.

Relmada Therapeutics (New York) has announced the promotion of Michael D. Becker to CFO. Becker joined Relmada in 2014 as senior vice president of finance and corporate development.

Michael Ehlers has been appointed executive vice president, R&D of Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA), overseeing the company's global research, drug discovery, clinical development and medical affairs functions. He joins Biogen from Pfizer, where he served as group senior vice president for biotherapeutics R&D and CSO for the company's neuroscience and pain research unit. Before that, until 2010 Ehlers was the George Barth Geller Professor of Neurobiology and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Duke University Medical Center.

Recombinetics (St. Paul, MN, USA) has named Ian R. Friendly as CEO and Tammy Lee Stanoch as chief corporate affairs officer. The company's previous CEO and founder, Scott Fahrenkrug, has been elevated to executive chairman of the board and will also serve as CSO. Friendly has over 30 years of executive leadership, most recently as General Mills' executive vice president and COO, US retail. Stanoch previously served as vice president of corporate affairs at global hospitality and travel company Carlson.

Vaximm (Basel, Switzerland) has announced the appointment of Jarl Ulf Jungnelius to the newly created position of chief medical officer. Jungnelius has over 30 years experience in medical practice and in the pharma industry. Most recently, he served as vice president oncology, global solid tumor development TA head at Celgene. Previously, he was at Pfizer and Eli Lilly.

Jan Lötvall has been named chief scientist at exosome biology company Codiak BioSciences (Woburn, MA, USA). He joins from Göteborg University in Sweden, where he has served as professor of allergy since 2002, and as chairman of the Krefting Research Centre.

Stephen R. Mascioli (right) has been named chief medical officer and Dana M. Alexander has been appointed COO at Anika Therapeutics (Bedford, MA, USA). Mascioli has 25 years of leadership experience, previously serving as CMO at both Terumo Americas Holdings and the vascular therapies division of medical device company Covidien. Alexander has spent the last 14 years in various leadership roles at Genzyme, most recently serving as senior director of biologics manufacturing operations. In addition, Anika has announced the appointment of Jean A. Bjerke, a 15-year veteran with Smith & Nephew and Depuy Orthopedics, as vice president of marketing.

Cancer immunotherapy developer Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has appointed David Mauro to the newly created position of chief medical officer. Mauro brings over 15 years of experience in early- and late-stage oncology drug development. He previously served as executive vice president and chief medical officer at Advaxis and has held senior level positions at Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

Richard Scheller, CSO and head of therapeutics at 23andMe, has been named to the board of directors at DiCE Molecules (San Francisco). He brings nearly 20 years of leadership in drug discovery R&D. Prior to 23andMe, Scheller spent 14 years at Genentech, most recently serving as executive vice president of research and early development.

Fate Therapeutics (San Diego) has announced that Chris M. Storgard has joined the company as chief medical officer. Storgard most recently served as vice president of clinical R&D at Ardea Biosciences.

Privately held molecular diagnostic company Mesa Biotech (San Diego) has named Tom Willardson CFO and John Monroe senior vice president of operations. Willardson has over 30 years of experience in both large global companies and early stage startups. He previously served as CFO at Sapphire Energy. Monroe was most recently director of operations and R&D at Alere.