Exagen Diagnostics Inc. – a life sciences company working to aid providers in the proper diagnosis, prognosis, and management of autoimmune conditions – has hired Dr. Debra Zack as the new Chief Medical Officer. Prior to joining Exagen, Dr. Zack served as VP of Clinical Development at Xencor and previously held leadership roles at Novartis Biotherapeutics and Amgen.  After obtaining her MD/PhD in Immunology Medicine, Dr. Zack also served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA Medical School. 

The search was successfully led by Julie McDonald for Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Science’s practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Savonix, a ground-breaking health technology innovator delivering a fully mobile, accurate, accessible and affordable tool for professional cognitive screening, has hired Andrew Pashman as Vice President of Global Sales based in San Francisco. Andrew previously held VP Sales roles at Medicity (acquired by Aetna) and BetterDoctor (acquired by Quest Analytics) as well as with Citi Group, as SVP of Payer and Provider Solutions. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Ithaca College and Executive Sales Management from Columbia University (Executive Program).

The search was successfully led by Andrea Tegstam for Westwood & Wilshire’s Advanced Technology practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Astex Therapeutics – a research and drug development biotech company focusing on discovering innovative solutions in oncology and CNS disorders – has hired Dr. Jason Taylor as the new Sr. Director of Clinical Research and Medical Monitoring.  Dr. Taylor was hired from CTI BioPharma where he served as an Associate Director of late phase programs.  Prior to, he was Associate Professor for twelve years at The Hemophilia Center at OHSU.  Dr. Taylor received an MD/PhD from UC Irvine, where he specialized in oncology and internal medicine. 

The search was successfully led by Gerard Danishek for Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Foundation Medicine -  a molecular insights company leveraging its next-generation genomic sequencing technology to target and treat solid tumors, hematologic malignances and sarcomas – has hired Dr. Ashley Ward as the new Senior Director of Clinical Development. Dr. Ward has joined from the FDA, where she had increasing levels of responsibility within the Oncology division. She has also developed industry experience during her time at Genetech. Dr. Ward has obtained her MD from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and her fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology from UC San Francisco.

The search was successfully led by Gerard Danishek for Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Flywire Acquires Simplee to Transform Healthcare Payments Experience

Congratulations to CEO Tomer Shoval and the team at Simplee! 

“The Simplee acquisition improves patient engagement and healthcare affordability and extends...(Flywire’s) capabilities to a broader customer base.” Mike Massaro, Flywire CEO

Over the years, Westwood & Wilshire has supported Simplee in building their executive team and we celebrate their acquisition by Flywire, a high-growth vertical payments company. We wish all the best to the Simplee and Flywire teams as they empower patients and providers to address the challenges of patient engagement and healthcare finance/affordability on their own terms.

https://www.flywire.com/news/flywire-acquires-simplee-to-transform-healthcare-payments-experience

Calico Labs – a Google-backed R&D biotech company that focuses on combating aging and associated diseases – has hired Dr. Joanne Lancaster as their new Head, Program Team Leader. Dr. Lancaster was hired from Eli Lilly and Company where she has worked for the past 21 years. She has served in a similar capacity in her latest role at Eli Lilly as the Senior Advisor and Leader of Clinical Pharmacology. Dr. Lancaster has received her PhD in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis.

The search was successfully led by Christopher Tillman for Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Acceleron, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics to treat serious and rare diseases, has hired Dr. Debashish Dey as the new Vice President of Pharmacovigilance. Dr. Dey has joined Acceleron from AveXis, Inc. where he served as the Vice President and Head of Global Patient Safety. Dr. Dey has a distinguished career starting in 2002 in Sweden first with AstraZeneca then Novartis as an epidemiologist before joining Eli Lilly in 2007 as a Medical Advisor. At Lilly, Dr. Dey took positions of increasing responsibility over 9-years, becoming Global Head of Patient Safety for multiple therapeutic areas by 2014. In addition, to Eli Lilly, Dr. Dey was the Global Head of Hematology Global Drug Safety at Shire. He is an MD PhD in Geriatric Medicine and has an MPH in Epidemiology.

The search was successfully led by Gerard Danishek for Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Super, a home services innovator that is shaking up the home warranty industry with transparent, comprehensive home maintenance and repairs that can be managed digitally, has hired Nilanshu Raja as Chief Financial Officer. Nilanshu joins Super from Kidaptive, where he served as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver and has a distinguished career of more than 15 years of finance and operations leadership at Cylink, Microsoft, Anjan Group and Kidaptive, as well as founding his own start up, MediCorp (acquired).

The search was successfully led by Laura Wilson for Westwood & Wilshire’s Advanced Technology practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals – among the top pharmaceutical companies in the world and one of the fastest growing with a U.S. Hub in Massachusetts that includes the operational center for Takeda’s Global Vaccines Business Unit - has hired Dr. Long Wang as the new Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Vaccine in the North American division responsible for all assets in the Takeda Vaccines portfolio. Dr. Wang has joined from Merck where he served as the Senior Director, Global Regulatory Team Leader in the Vaccines & Infectious Disease program.

The search was successfully led by Tamir Halaban at Westwood & Wilshire of Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Intermedia, a leading Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and business cloud applications provider delivering easy-to-use and secure communication and collaboration solutions, has hired Gurwinder Gill as Senior Recruiter. Gurwinder joins Intermedia from AllyO, where she served as Enterprise Talent Acquisition Advisor. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from California State University East Bay and has worked in client relationships, sales management and recruiting at AT&T, Kforce Inc. and AllyO.

The search was successfully led by Yvonne Sommerfield for Westwood & Wilshire’s Advanced Technology practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals – among the top pharmaceutical companies in the world and one of the fastest growing with a U.S. Hub in Massachusetts that includes the operational center for Takeda’s Global Vaccines Business Unit - has hired Frederick de Brito as their new Global Regulatory Lead for the innovative Norovirus Vaccine program. Fredrick has joined from GSK Biologicals (formerly Novartis Vaccines) where he served as the Director of Global Regulatory Affairs and where he successfully managed the integration of legacy Novartis vaccines. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Biotest Pharmaceuticals, Shire, Amgen and Eli Lilly.

The search was successfully led by Tamir Halaban at Westwood & Wilshire of Westwood & Wilshire’s Life Sciences practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

The “Breaking Barriers to Psychological Safety” bi-annual meeting of The Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab featured an impressive keynote address by Amy Edmondson, Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard University.  Westwood & Wilshire was represented at this stimulating event by Kristin Speer, Managing Director of W&W’s Advanced Technology Practice.

The Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab’s Corporate Program brings together academics, researchers and senior executives who are enhancing opportunities for women in their own organizations.  Heads of Diversity and Inclusion and executives from companies around the country attended and were able to share their insights and challenges to inclusivity during Q&A sessions. 

Also featured was a showcase of successes where executives from companies such as Uber, Gilead and Mozilla shared their “Small Wins” in fostering safety.  By offering twice-yearly meetings to members, the Lab creates a dynamic forum for learning strategies for building more inclusive workspaces. 

For more information on Westwood & Wilshire, LLC, please visit our website.

Kristin Speer (Managing Director, Advanced TechnologyPractice) was an invited speaker at the Bulgaria Innovation Hub’s 2019 educational workshop and official launch in San Francisco, CA. The Bulgaria Innovation Hub (BIH) is a Bay Area-based non-profit organization that seeks to foster knowledge exchange and cross-cultural collaboration between technology start-ups and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and Bulgaria. 

Kristin presented lessons from many years of successful executive searches to leaders looking to expand management teams in the United States. They discussed the challenges to expect when recruiting at each stage of business development, such as where and how to present job opportunities, how to find and evaluate candidates, and compensation guidelines. Attendees were also educated on different approaches for defining what talent they need and options for sourcing the right person the first time.

For more information on Westwood & Wilshire, LLC, please visit our website.

Westwood & Wilshire has again sponsored and participated in the Alpha Club’s Annual Founders’ Summit, bringing founders, CEO’s and tech influencers from various industries together to learn from and collaborate with each other. Westwood & Wilshire was represented by Kristin Speer (Managing Director, Advanced Technology Practice) and Laura Wilson (Practice Director). 

The 8th Annual Founders’ Summit was held in Monterey, CA, and featured keynote speakers, breakout sessions and panels with executives from Lyft, Tech For Campaigns, LaunchDarkly, Moment, Insight Engines among others.  Breakout sessions included candid conversations about hiring in a competitive market, advice from tech leaders on scaling effectively, pitching to investors, promoting diversity and inclusion and build functional, high-performance leadership teams, and more.

Alpha Club is an invite-only networking organization that curates events for technology leaders. Founded in 2005, Alpha has over 1500 members in 7 different cities in the US and Canada and hosts 60 events per year. 

Super, a home warranty innovator that is shaking up the industry with transparent, comprehensive concierge home care and repair manageable from home or mobile devices, has hired Raman Naidu as their Vice President of Operations. Raman joins Super from Credit Karma, where he served as Senior Director of Member Support and Engagement. Raman holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from San Jose State University and has an accomplished history of customer support and experience leadership at Credit Karma, Yellow Pages.com, Yahoo!, Stata Labs, AOL and Apple, Inc.

The search was successfully led by Laura Wilson at Westwood & Wilshire of Westwood & Wilshire’s Advanced Technology practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Phiar, an auto AI/AR company seeking to enhance driving safety with a new form of navigation platform that combines intuitive wayfinding with AR visual display, has hired Nasser Iravani as their VP of Business Development & Strategy. Nasser joins Phiar from Here Technologies, where he served as Global Head of IoT Business Development and Partnerships. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from UCLA and has led business, product and market development teams at Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Here Technologies and Perceptronics.

The search was successfully led by Laura Wilson at Westwood & Wilshire of Westwood & Wilshire’s Advanced Technology practice.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Our firm has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, serving clients on a local, national and global basis.

Dr. Kim-Hien Dao has joined Astex Pharmaceuticals as the new Senior Director of Oncology. Dr. Dao is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University, where she has also served as Program Leader and Faculty Reviewer since 2015. In addition to a DO program at Michigan State University, Dr. Dao has completed a PhD program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The search was successfully led by Gerard Danishek.

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Based in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Silicon Valley, we serve clients on a local, national and global basis.

Dr. Antonio Nino has joined Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical as their new Vice President of Clinical Development - Metabolic/Bone. Dr. Nino has joined Ultragenyx from GlaxoSmithKline where he the Senior Director of Clinical Development since 2008. He graduated from Rosario University Medical School in 1992 and became an Associate Instructor in 1986. Dr. Nino has actively practiced in a private clinic. 

The search was successfully led by Michael Cane. 

Dr. Anne Borgman-Hagey has joined Jazz Pharmaceuticals as their new Vice President & Head of Hematology-Oncology Clinical Development. Dr. Borgman joined from Exelixis Biopharmaceuticals where she was the Vice President of R&D. Dr. Anne Borgman held senior executive level roles including CMO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, CMO of Talon Therapeutics and Global Project Head, Oncology at Abbott Laboratories.

The search was successfully led by Tamir Halaban. 

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Based in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Silicon Valley, we serve clients on a local, national and global basis.

Dr. Robert Charnas has joined Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as their new Vice President & Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Charnas joined from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served as their Vice President of Strategic Program Direction - Oncology. Dr. Charnas has held senior executive level roles in regulatory affairs at Amgen, Cougar Biotechnology and Janssen.

The search was successfully led by Tamir Halaban. 

At Westwood & Wilshire, we recognize that people are an organization's top asset. We are passionate about delivering premier talent to the world’s most innovative companies. We are particularly focused on companies ranging from VC-backed start-ups to mid-sized commercial entities and our assignments range from C-Suite to mid-management. Based in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Silicon Valley, we serve clients on a local, national and global basis.