Precision genetic medicine company Akouos has announced the appointment of Rabia Gurses Ozden (photo) as chief development officer. Ozden brings over 15 years of clinical development, operations and medical affairs experience, most recently as chief medical officer at Nightstar Therapeutics, which was acquired by Biogen in June. Previously, she held leadership positions at Applied Genetic Technologies and GlaxoSmithKline.

“As we advance our industry-leading pipeline of gene therapies for hearing disorders, Rabia is a key addition to the Akouos leadership team, bringing tremendous experience and expertise in clinical development of gene therapies for rare genetic disorders,” said founder, president and CEO Manny Simons. “Rabia will be instrumental as we work to bring our lead program, AK-OTOF, into clinical trials and as we continue building the company to translate our research pipeline into gene therapies with the potential to address a wide range of hearing disorders.”

Eli Lilly and Company has announced the retirement of Enrique Conterno, senior vice president and president of Lilly Diabetes and Lilly USA, after 27 years with the company. He will be succeeded by Mike Mason, who currently serves as senior vice president, connected care and insulins.

Andrew Dickinson has been appointed chief financial officer of Gilead Sciences, taking over from the retiring Robin Washington. Dickinson was most recently executive vice president, corporate development and strategy.

Biogen has announced the departure of global head of R&D Michael Ehlers. He will become CSO and a venture partner at Apple Tree Partners, as well as CEO at gene therapy startup Limelight Bio. Biogen’s current chief medical officer Alfred Sandrock will take on the additional role of executive vice president, R&D.

Rheos Medicines has announced the appointment of Barbara S. Fox as CEO, succeeding interim CEO Abbie Celniker, who will remain chairman of Rheos Medicines’ board of directors. Fox has over 25 years of biopharma leadership expertise, most recently at Tilos Therapeutics where she served as CEO and led the successful acquisition of the company by Merck in June.

Industry trade organization Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has announced that CEO Jim Greenwood will leave his post after the 2020 US election. A former member of the US House of Representatives, Greenwood became BIO’s second CEO in 2005, succeeding Carl Feldbaum. He said he would help transition a new leader to represent the biotech industry, saying in a statement, “This is a critical moment for our industry as our companies take a beating in the court of public opinion. I will continue my full-throated advocacy to ensure our elected officials do not kill innovation in a populist furor and prevent our scientists from delivering a new generation of genomic cures.”

Ascletis Pharma has announced that Handan He has joined the company as CSO. She was a former global head of computational, biopharmaceutics and translational PK/PD at Novartis and managed scientific teams across Novartis global sites in the United States and Switzerland during her 22-year tenure.

Steffen Heeger has been appointed chief medical officer of NBE-Therapeutics. He has over 15 years of industry experience in clinical development of targeted cancer therapies and has held senior medical positions at Merck-Serono, MorphoSys and most recently as chief medical officer at Selvita.

Early-stage Pyxis Oncology has named Ronald Herbst CSO. Herbst was most recently MedImmune’s vice president of research and head of oncology R&D, and previously held positions at Schering-Plough Biopharma and DNAX.

Jonathan Lim (photo) has joined the board of directors of Maze Therapeutics. Lim is founder and managing partner at City Hill Ventures, a venture partner at ARCH Venture Partners; co-founder, chairman and CEO at Erasca, and co-founder and chairman at Boundless Bio. Previously, Lim’s most recent operational role was with precision oncology company Ignyta, which he co-founded in 2011 and served as chairman, president and CEO until its acquisition by Roche in 2018. In conjunction with his appointment, City Hill has made an undisclosed investment in Maze.

David Meline has announced his retirement as CFO of Amgen at the end of 2019. Succeeding Meline will be Peter Griffith, who came from private equity and advisory firm Sherwood Canyon Group. Before that, he spent about 22 years as a partner with Ernst & Young, most recently as global vice chair of corporate development.

Aridis Pharmaceuticals has named former Takeda Vaccines, MedImmune and Merck executive Paul Mendelman as interim chief medical officer. Mendelman succeeds Wolfgang Dummer, who resigned for personal reasons.

Merdad Parsey has been named chief medical officer of Gilead Sciences. He was most recently president of early clinical development in the Genentech Research and Early Development group.

Alice Shaw has been tapped to lead the translational clinical oncology group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. She was most recently director of thoracic oncology and attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.