Kura Oncology appoints John Farnam as chief operating officer
Staff Writer |
La Jolla, Ca., USA - Kura Oncology, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced the appointment of John Farnam to the newly created position of chief operating officer, effective July 1, 2018.
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John Farnam has served as Vice President of Business Operations at Celgene Receptos since September 2015, where his responsibilities include clinical operations, quality assurance, finance, facilities and professional leadership development.
Previously, Mr. Farnam served for 26 years as an officer in the Marine Corps, serving as an FA-18D Squadron Commanding Officer and as the Commanding Officer of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where he oversaw operations of the installation and its 2,500 personnel.
He retired from the Marine Corps as a Colonel in 2015.
Mr. Farnam earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at San Diego State University and his master’s degree in national strategy from the National War College.
In addition, industry veterans Bridget Martell and Blake Tomkinson have joined the company as Vice Presidents of Clinical Development.
Bridget Martell joined Kura with more than 18 years of experience in clinical development, regulatory and medical affairs.
Dr. Martell has served in leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, Purdue Pharma and Juniper Pharmaceuticals, where she contributed to a number of product approvals.
Dr. Martell earned her B.S. in microbiology from Cornell University, her M.A. in molecular immunology from Boston University and her M.D. from the Chicago Medical School.
She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine and was an internal medicine chief resident and RWJ Faculty Clinical Scholar at Yale University.
She is board certified in both internal and addiction medicine.
Blake Tomkinson has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, with research and clinical development experience in virology, immunology and oncology.
Most recently, Dr. Tomkinson served as program leader at EMD Serono after more than a decade in project direction and strategy and portfolio management for Sanofi.
Dr. Tomkinson received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and did his post-doctoral research in molecular biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. ■