Newark, Ca., USA - June 24, 2014, Newark, Ca., USA - StemCells, Inc., a life science company, announced one promotion and three new appointments to the company's executive team.
Article continues below
Stephen Huhn has been promoted to the newly created position of vice president, CNS clinical research and chief medical officer.
Dr. Huhn joined StemCells, Inc. in January 2007 to direct the Company's preclinical and clinical development programs for CNS indications. Prior to joining the company, he was associate professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital.
Dr. Huhn earned his M.D. at the University of Arizona in 1987 and completed a residency in neurosurgery at the University of Maryland in 1993. He completed a fellowship in neuro-oncology at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco and pediatric neurosurgery at Northwestern University's Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Huhn is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery and is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He maintains an unpaid consulting associate professor appointment with the department of neurosurgery at Stanford University.
Joel Naor has joined StemCells, Inc. as vice president, clinical development, ophthalmology.
Dr. Naor brings more than 14 years of experience drug development for retinal conditions, and will be responsible for the development of cell-based products for retinal diseases, initially from the Company's proprietary HuCNS-SC platform technology. To that end, he will oversee the Company's planned Phase II trial in dry AMD.
Most recently Dr. Naor served as the vice president and head of global medical affairs at Santen Inc. Dr. Naor was previously vice president of drug development and new ventures at Ora Inc., chief medical officer of Macusight, senior director at Allergan, and a director at QLT. He also had key roles in the development of a Sirolimus formulation for intravitreal and subconjunctival administration, Ozurdex, Trivaris, and Visudyne.
Dr. Naor earned his M.D. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and following a residency in ophthalmology, he underwent cornea and external disease training at the University of Toronto where he also obtained an M.Sc. in epidemiology. He holds a M.B.A. from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.
Naymisha Patel has joined StemCells, Inc. as vice president, quality systems.
Ms. Patel has more than 18 years of experience in the field and was most recently executive director of quality assurance at Geron Corporation, where she was responsible for quality and regulatory affairs compliance strategy and implementation. She previously held roles of increasing responsibility at Nektar Therapeutics and Aerogen, Inc.
Ms. Patel earned a B.S. in zoology from Maharaja Sayajirao University in India, a B.A. in chemistry from California State University, Hayward, and an M.B.A. in Management from Northcentral University, Arizona. She is a certified quality auditor by the American Society of Quality and holds a regulatory affairs certification from Regulatory Affairs Professional Society.
Mohammad A. El-Kalay has joined StemCells, Inc. as vice president, process development.
Dr. El-Kalay has more than 25 years of operational and management leadership and was most recently co-founder, president and CEO of EyeCyte, Inc. an early stage company developing therapies to treat acquired and inherited retinal diseases. ■