The board of directors of Karo Bio (Stockholm) has appointed Fredrik Lindgren (right) as president and CEO. He succeeds Per Olof Wallström, who announced his resignation in February. Lindgren has taken on positions of increasing responsibility at five Swedish companies in the corporate finance, consumer healthcare, medical device and biotech sectors, previously serving as CEO of Active Biotech and Biolin Scientific.

Leon Rosenberg, chairman of the Karo Bio board, says Lindgren “has the vision, experience and energy to lead Karo Bio as it addresses its many opportunities and challenges.”

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Office (EPO; Munich) has elected Benoît Battistelli as president of the EPO, breaking a deadlock that had lasted 6 months and 20 rounds of voting. Battistelli also currently serves as head of the French National Intellectual Property Institute and chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. He succeeds outgoing EPO president Alison Brimelow.

RNA-based drug developer AVI BioPharma (Bothell, WA, USA) has appointed its CFO J. David Boyle II to the additional role of interim president and CEO, after the resignation of Leslie Hudson as president, CEO and a director of the company. AVI's board plans to initiate a search for CEO candidates, which will include both external and internal candidates. AVI also announced that Anthony R. Chase has joined the board and its nominating and corporate governance committee, and K. Michael Forrest has stepped down from the board.

Xcellerex (Marlborough, MA, USA) has named Guy Broadbent president, CEO and a member of the company's board of directors. He succeeds Joseph Zakrzewski, who served as chairman, president and CEO, as part of an existing management succession process. Zakrzewski will remain as chairman. Broadbent was most recently senior vice president, corporate development at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Stephen R. Davis has been appointed executive vice president and COO of Ardea Biosciences (San Diego). Before joining Ardea, Davis was president, CEO and a director of Neurogen, which was acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals in December 2009.

Carel du Marchie Sarvaas has joined EuropaBio (Brussels) as director for agricultural biotech, taking over from Morten Nielsen, who has led the division team since September 2009. He brings to EuropaBio his experience as a senior public affairs and communications advisor in Brussels, The Hague and Washington, DC.

Jan Groen (right) has been appointed CEO of OncoMethylome Sciences (Liege, Belgium). He has more than 25 years of experience in the clinical diagnostic industry, previously serving as president of Agendia and vice president of R&D at Focus Diagnostics.

Alan Hulme has been elected chairman of the board of Karolinska Institute spin-off Oncopeptides (Stockholm). He has held senior positions at Idexx Laboratories, Affymetrix, Flow Laboratories, Molecular Devices and Endotronics.

BIO Ventures for Global Health (Washington) has named Donald R. Joseph COO and a member of the board of directors. He previously served in senior executive positions in both legal and business roles at Renovis and Abgenix, where he played a key role in its acquisition by Amgen, and also served as COO of the Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company.

Robert Lammens has been named chief technology officer at Atacama Labs (Helsinki) after a 23-year career in the field of solid dosage forms at Bayer. In addition, Lammens will continue as senior lecturer at the department of pharmaceutical technology of the University of Bonn.

Amyris Biotechnologies (Emeryville, CA, USA) has announced today the election of Arthur Levinson to its board of directors. Levinson serves as chairman of Genentech and is a director on the boards of Apple and NGM Biopharmaceuticals.

Varun Nanda has been named senior vice president of global commercial operations at Dendreon (Seattle). He most recently served as senior vice president and global head of oncology at Roche/Genentech.

John A. Orwin has joined Affymax (Palo Alto, CA, USA) as president and COO, a newly created position. Orwin has over 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industries, most recently as senior vice president of Genentech's bio-oncology business unit.

QLT (Vancouver) has announced that Dipak Panigrahi has joined the company as senior vice president, R&D and chief medical officer. Most recently, he was vice president, glaucoma development at Alcon Laboratories.

Sangamo BioSciences (Richmond, CA, USA) has named William R. Ringo (right) chairman of the company's board of directors. Ringo recently retired from Pfizer, where he served as senior vice president of business development, strategy and innovation. Before joining Pfizer in 2008, he was president and CEO of Abgenix.

Privately held Liquidia Technologies (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) has appointed Jonathan F. Smith as CSO. Smith is a co-founder and previously served as CSO of AlphaVax.

Robert M. Whelan has been appointed to the board of directors of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA). He has more than 35 years of corporate finance and investment banking experience, including leadership positions at Volpe Brown Whelan, Prudential Securities and Hambrecht & Quist.