Coulter Partners Recruits Chief Scientific Officer for Sonata Therapeutics
April 21, 2023 – Life sciences recruiting specialist Coulter Partners has assisted in the recruitment of Francesco Marincola as chief scientific officer of Sonata Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in Boston. “Throughout his successful career across academia and industry over the last few decades, Franco has stood at the forefront of discovery and drug development,” said Volker Herrmann, president and CEO of Sonata. “Having been a pioneering contributor to our collective understanding of the role of tumor microenvironments, his unique expertise in that field and in the development of cell therapies will be invaluable as we pursue strategies to reprogram entire cellular networks. We look forward to leveraging his vast experience and deep insights to help propel Sonata into the next phase of its exciting journey.”
“I truly enjoyed collaborating with the entire team at Coulter Partners,” Dr. Herrmann said. “They provided an excellent selection of candidates with very thorough background research, making it easy for us to choose Franco as our new, exceptional CSO.”
Dr. Marincola most recently served as senior vice president and global head of cell therapy research at Kite Pharma, where he led the research efforts for the organization across hematologic malignancies and solid tumor indications. Prior to that, he held numerous industry roles, including president and chief scientific officer at Refuge Biotechnologies, distinguished research fellow in immune oncology at AbbVie, and chief research officer at Sidra Medical and Research Centre. Before joining the biopharma industry, Dr. Marincola spent more than two decades at the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, where he served as the chief of infectious disease and immunogenetics.
Dr. Marincola is the former president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and currently serves as editor-in-chief for multiple peer-reviewed publications and the prominent Cancer Immunotherapy Principles and Practice textbook. Throughout his career, he has authored more than 600 peer-reviewed publications. He received his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Milan, Italy, and completed his residency at Stanford University.
“I am incredibly excited to join the Sonata team,” said Dr. Marincola. “The company’s strategy represents the first systematic approach to reprogramming diseased multicellular networks to deliver holistic therapeutic solutions for cancer and a broad range of diseases. Sonata’s vision to transform drug development from a trial-and-error process to one guided by actionable insights into how cellular networks propel biological dysfunction could shift the paradigm of our industry. I look forward to working with the Sonata team to pioneer this new approach to drug development.”
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A Flagship Pioneering company, Sonata designs single therapeutics that reprogram diseased cells to become the coordinators of cure. The company’s machine learning-based platform takes the guesswork out of drug discovery by providing upfront knowledge to identify novel insights, targets, and therapeutics across a wide range of disease areas.
Life Sciences Focused Recruiters
Coulter Partners is a board- and senior-level global executive search specialist focused exclusively on life sciences. The firm works closely with those at the cutting edge of innovation in the industry to understand their challenges. With an extensive global network and expertise gained over 25 years in the sector, Coulter Partners have become trusted advisers on leadership in the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology, diagnostics, health tech, CRO, and services sectors. The firm also works closely with the global investor community, hiring for their own teams as well as building the boards and executive leadership teams of their portfolio companies. Its team of 95 completes over 260 assignments a year working from 14 offices across the U.K., EMEA, the U.S., and APAC.
As Investors Retreat, Healthcare/Life Sciences Sector Stays Resilient
Healthcare and life science organizations are facing an increasingly complex landscape, with rapid technological advancements, changing regulatory environments, and heightened public scrutiny. As a result, these companies have been turning to executive search firms more than ever to acquire world-class leadership. The most pressing challenge has been finding high-impact, innovative leaders who can navigate this complex terrain and drive meaningful change.
CEO Bianca Coulter founded Coulter Partners in 2003 and has 25 years’ experience of board and C-level global search, building the leadership teams of early stage, mid-cap and global multinationals in over 20 countries. Through appointing leadership, Ms. Coulter channels her judgement and expertise to impact patient benefit and assist those at the cutting edge of life science to achieve their goals.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
