Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Pfizer RNA leader runs to Replicate
Replicate Bioscience
Longtime Pfizer R&D chief Kathy Fernando, Ph.D., has left the Big Pharma behind to take on the role of chief business officer at San Diego biotech Replicate Bioscience. There, she’ll work to advance Replicate’s early-stage pipeline of assets built on self-replicating RNA technology. Fernando spent close to 12 years at Pfizer, most recently as senior vice president and global head of Pfizer Ignite, the drugmaker’s partnership program with biotechs. She’s also previously led Pfizer’s mRNA scientific strategy and worldwide R&D operations. Before joining Pfizer, Fernando served stints as a consultant at Deloitte and Campbell Alliance. Release
Hikma initiates CEO shuffle
Hikma Pharmaceuticals
Hikma Pharmaceuticals is heading into 2026 sans CEO Riad Mishlawi, who is stepping away from the company upon a “mutual agreement” with the board. In his place will sit Executive Chairman Said Darwazah to take on the CEO duties with “immediate effect.” Darwazah is the son of Hikma’s founder Samih Darwazah and is familiar with the CEO role, having most recently taken over as acting chief in 2022 before Mishlawi assumed the position in 2023. Mishlawi, who is opting to “move into retirement,” had been with Hikma since the 1990s and spent nearly two decades heading up the company’s injectables division until his promotion. Hikma will launch a CEO search “in due course,” Senior Independent Director Victoria Hull said. Release
Silence says goodbye to CEO
Silence Therapeutics
SiRNA specialist Silence Therapeutics is saying goodbye to President and CEO Craig Tooman, who “agreed by mutual consent” to depart the company Dec. 14. Tooman first joined Silence in January 2021 as chief financial officer before taking over the top spot in February 2022. He had previously served as president and CEO of Aratana Therapeutics and as chief operating officer and CFO of Vyome Therapeutics. Board Chairman Iain Ross will take over for Tooman in an interim capacity. In a statement, Ross thanked Tooman for his contributions to Silence while adding that the company “is in robust health both financially and operationally.” Release
> Gilead Sciences promoted 14-year company vet Keeley Wettan to the executive team, where she will take over as general counsel, legal and compliance following the abrupt departure of Deborah Telman last month. Release
> After months of leading PureTech as interim CEO, Robert Lyne is sticking with the position permanently and will quickly work to execute goals including securing funding for the hub-and-spoke company’s new subsidiary Celea Therapeutics. Release
> Sailaja Battula, Ph.D., will tinker with Ankyra Therapeutics’ expanding anchored drug conjugate-based pipeline as chief scientific officer. Release
> Mohamad Tabrizi is branching from the venture capital world back to biotech as he nabs the chief business officer role at cell and gene therapy maker Abeona Therapeutics. Release
> CytoAgents gifted leadership appointments to two new execs in highly acclaimed Chief Medical Officer Johannes Wolff, M.D., Ph.D., and seasoned Chief Scientific Officer Michael Howell, Ph.D. Release
> Lipid nanoparticle developer Axelyf has appointed Daniel Frímannsson, Ph.D., head of nucleic acid technologies and biology. Release
> Oncology outfit NanOlogy is bringing former Salarias chief David Arthur on board as CEO. Release
> Nadeem Sarwar, Ph.D., is now leading metabolic disease strategy at Enveda, which just dosed the first patient in a phase 1 trial of oral obesity candidate ENV-308. Release
> Encoded Therapeutics is advancing its lead genetic medicine for Dravet syndrome with the aid of neurologist Joseph Sullivan, M.D., who has joined the biotech as vice president of clinical development. Release
> Flagship Pioneering-backed ProFound Therapeutics has located two new leaders in Tom Chittenden, Ph.D., and Laurel Ostrom, who will serve as chief technology officer and chief human resources officer, respectively. Release