Ambit Biosciences (San Diego) has announced the appointment of Wendell Wierenga (right) as executive vice president of R&D. Dr. Wierenga has been a member of Ambit's board of directors since 2005. “Wendell's 30-year track record of successfully discovering and developing drugs—as evidenced by the 50 INDs [investigational new drug applications] and 10 NDAs [new drug applications] that teams he's led have produced—make him invaluable as an existing board member,” says Scott Salka, CEO of Ambit. “As we begin clinical trials with AC220 and advance a promising pipeline of small-molecule kinase inhibitors toward the clinic, we are very excited to have Wendell's undivided attention as a member of our senior leadership team.”

Dr. Wierenga previously served as executive vice president of R&D at Neurocrine Biosciences. He currently serves on the board of directors at XenoPort and Onyx Pharmaceuticals as well as the scientific advisory board at Concert Pharmaceuticals.

NitroMed (Lexington, MA, USA) has named Kenneth M. Bate president, CEO and a member of the board of directors. He succeeds Jerry Karabelas, who has served as interim CEO since March 2006, when Mr. Bate joined the company as CFO and COO. He also currently serves as a director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Coley Pharmaceutical Group. Dr. Karabelas will continue to serve as chairman of the board. In addition, James G. Ham III has been promoted from vice president of finance to CFO.

Hana Biosciences (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has promoted Gavin S. Choy from senior director of clinical operations to vice president, clinical operations and Alex Tkachenko from senior director, business development and operations planning to vice president, corporate development and strategic planning.

John E. Crawford has been named CFO of NovaCardia (San Diego). Mr. Crawford is a 25-year industry veteran, serving most recently as CFO of Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Pharmion last November for $105 million and was a spinout of Conforma Therapeutics. Before that, he was CFO of Conforma Therapeutics, where he facilitated its $250 million acquisition in May 2006 by Biogen Idec.

Trellis Bioscience (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has appointed Brian C. Cunningham as CEO. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industries, formerly serving as president and COO of Rigel and counsel at the law firm of Cooley Godward Kronish, where he headed the life sciences, healthcare and patent groups.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County has appointed David J. Fink (right) as director of entrepreneurial services at its on-campus technology incubator and accelerator, techcenter@UMBC. Mr. Fink has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, including service as vice president of business development for Osiris Therapeutics, a researcher and research manager at Battelle, and an executive officer in six startup biotech companies. In his new role, Mr. Fink will coordinate business services, including identifying funding sources for companies and connecting them to UMBC's academic resources.

Thomas Finneran has resigned as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (Boston) after pleading guilty to obstructing justice during a voting rights redistricting lawsuit. Mr. Finneran, who was formerly Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts legislature, resigned from his position in 2004 and became president of MBC shortly thereafter. In June 2005, he was indicted for lying during his testimony in the lawsuit, which claimed a 2001 law that drew up new legislative district boundaries discriminated against blacks and other minority voters in Boston while protecting incumbents, including Finneran. Mark Robinson, MBC's COO, will serve as acting president during a search for Finneran's replacement.

ArQule (Woburn, MA, USA) has named Michael D. Loberg to its board of directors. Dr. Loberg served as president and CEO of Nitromed from 2003 to 2006, and as CEO of that company from 1997 to 2003. Previously, he served in a number of senior management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) from 1979 to 1997. He is also currently a director of Advanced Magnetics, Kereos and Inotek.

Exelixis (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has promoted Michael Morrissey, formerly executive vice president of discovery, to president of R&D, and Lupe Rivera has been promoted to senior vice president of human resources and communication. In addition, the company has announced the resignation of Jeffrey Latts, executive vice president of development.

Philip L. Padou, a longtime member of the board of directors at Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, CA, USA), passed away in January. He was 72. Mr. Padou joined Bio-Rad's board of directors in 1980. He served as vice president and CFO of Ozier Perry and Associates, a risk assessment software and consulting company, until his retirement in 1991.

Tapestry Pharmaceuticals (Boulder, CO, USA) has appointed Donald Picker president. Mr. Picker has over 25 years of drug development experience, most recently serving as vice president for R&D at Callisto Pharmaceuticals.

Anadys Pharmaceuticals (San Diego) has announced that John Z. Sullivan-Bolyai has been hired as vice president, clinical affairs. Dr. Sullivan-Bolyai, who brings more than 17 years of clinical R&D experience, had been assistant vice president, R&D for Valeant Pharmaceuticals since 2005.

Michael Watson has been named executive vice president, R&D and an executive director of the board of Acambis (Cambridge, UK). He joins Acambis from Sanofi Pasteur, where he served as executive director-clinical and epidemiology, Europe.