Alameda, Ca., USA - April 15, 2014, Alameda, Ca., USA - BioTime, Inc., a biotechnology company, announced that it has appointed Deborah Andrews and David Schlachet to the board of directors.
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Mr. Schlachet serves as a director of several public and private companies. Mr. Schlachet is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Syneron Medical Ltd., an Israeli aesthetic medical device company, and he has served as a director of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Mr. Schlachet’s career also includes other senior executive management positions in the food industry, in venture capital, and in science and research, including serving as Vice President of Finance and Administration of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel’s premier post-graduate scientific research institute, and as Chief Executive Officer of its technology transfer company Yeda Research and Development Company, Ltd. Mr. Schlachet also serves as Chairman of the Board of BioTime’s subsidiary Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd.
Ms. Andrews, who will join the BioTime Audit Committee, is Vice President-Chief Accounting Officer of STAAR Surgical Company, an ophthalmic device company. Ms. Andrews joined STAAR in 1995 and served in positions of increasing responsibility over the next eighteen years, first as Assistant Controller, then as Vice President-International Finance, then as Global Controller and then as Vice President-Chief Financial Officer from 2005 until 2013.
Following her appointment as CFO in 2005, Ms. Andrews was a member of the senior executive team. Early in her career, Ms. Andrews served as a senior accountant and auditor for KPMG Peat Marwick, a major public accounting firm.
The appointment of Mr. Schlachet and Ms. Andrews to the BioTime Board of Directors fills two vacancies created by the resignations of Henry L. Nordhoff and Andrew von Eschenbach last week. Mr. Nordhoff and Dr. von Eschenbach subsequently resigned from the Board of Directors of BioTime’s subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc..
In addition, Michael D. West, who is BioTime’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of its Board of Directors, has replaced Thomas Okarma as President and Chief Executive Officer of Asterias.
Dr. West had been Asterias’ Vice President of Technology Integration, in which position he focused on opportunities to improve efficiencies in Asterias and BioTime product development programs through coordination of the companies’ respective technologies.
In other changes at Asterias, BioTime elected Richard LeBuhn, Robert W. Peabody, and Judith Segall to join the Asterias Board of Directors.
Mr. LeBuhn is Senior Vice President of Broadwood Capital, Inc., the investment manager of Broadwood Partners, L.P., a private investment fund. Mr. LeBuhn previously was Principal of Broadfield Capital Management, LLC, a private investment firm, and has held senior management positions with other private investment and financial advisory firms.
Mr. Peabody is Asterias’ Chief Financial Officer and is Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of BioTime. ■