Calgary, AB, Canada - July 24, 2014, Calgary, AB, Canada - Zenith Epigenetics Corp., a clinical stage biotechnology company, announced that it has appointed Julie Cherrington to act as the president and chief executive officer of Zenith Epigenetics Corp.
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Ms. Cherrington has an extensive background leading companies focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer therapeutics and is well-versed in the challenges of developing drugs and advancing them into the clinic and through to commercialization.
Her accomplished employment record includes past notable positions such as CEO of Pathway Therapeutics Inc., President of Phenomix Corporation, Vice President, Preclinical Research and Exploratory Development SUGEN/Pharmacia/Pfizer, and Director, Virology at Gilead Sciences. Notably, she was a key contributor to the successful development of multiple FDA approved products including anti-virals (Vistide, Viread, Hepsera) and anti-cancer agents (SUTENT, Palladia).
Donald J. McCaffrey, founding CEO, will assume the title of Chairman and Peter Johann will act as Lead Director.
Mr. McCaffrey is Chairman of the Board for Zenith Epigenetics Corp. He has held the same positions at Resverlogix Corp. since 2001. He has 34 years of experience in business management, capital markets and drug discovery & development and in the process has raised over $200 million in drug development capital. Mr. McCaffrey’s expertise in corporate operations has attracted an international team of R&D experts to Zenith.
Mr. McCaffrey’s career accomplishments have been recognized by the business community and peers, as he was nominated for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year twice. In 2008, he attended the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Switzerland as the CEO recipient of a Pioneer Technology of the Year Award Winner and returned to the WEF 2009 event as an invited guest speaker.
Dr. Johann is a Managing General Partner of NGN Capital. He was formerly the Division Head of Corporate Development at Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr. Johann has established a worldwide network in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry. His responsibilities at Boehringer Ingelheim included strategic planning, strategic projects, M&A, business development and licensing. He identified and evaluated several licensing, M&A and co-promotion deals.
Previously, Dr. Johann served at F. Hoffmann-La Roche as their Global Business Leader Oncology Products where he led global business teams and was responsible for global marketing of oncology products and evaluating pipeline products from internal and external sources. He joined Roche from Boehringer Mannheim where he was Head of Business Development and Marketing Molecular Medicine.
Besides marketing activities Dr. Johann was involved in setting up and managing joint venture companies as member of the supervisory board. He was also responsible for licensing activities in this field.
Prior to that position he had Marketing, Sales and Business Development responsibilities at Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals, among others, for collaborations in the field of Biopharmaceuticals. Dr. Johann has additional industry experience in Business Development and Marketing of pharmaceutical products with Kaneka in Japan and with Röhm in Germany in industrial enzymes. Dr. Johann obtained his Ph.D. from the Technical University Munich. ■