Frederickson Partners Recruits HR Leader for Kyverna Therapeutics
September 8, 2023 – Global HR search firm Frederickson Partners recently assisted in the recruitment of Portia Serame as vice president of human resources at Kyverna Therapeutics, a clinical-stage cell therapy company with the mission of engineering a new class of therapies for autoimmune diseases.
Ms. Serame joins Kyverna Therapeutics from ReCor Medical, where she served as senior director of HR. In this position, she provided leadership and expertise for the full scope of HR functions. Previously, Ms. Serame was a senior director of HR at FUJIFILM Wako Diagnostics USA. Portia also brings HR leadership experience from GE Healthcare, Affymetrix, and Microchip Biotechnologies Inc.
In her role as VP of HR, Ms. Serame will help Kyverna scale the organization, building and developing a high-performance culture to attract and retain remarkable talent, and create programs to nurture employees and empower them to excel. She will report to Kyverna’s CEO, Peter Maag.
The Kyverna therapeutic platform combines advanced T-cell engineering and synthetic biology technologies to suppress and eliminate the autoreactive immune cells at the origin of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Kyverna’s pipeline includes next-generation chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapies in both autologous and allogeneic formats with properties well suited for use in B cell-driven autoimmune diseases. The company is headquartered in Emeryville, CA.
Kyverna recently closed an oversubscribed $60 million Series B financing round extension, bringing the total Series B financing round to $145 million. New investors, Bain Capital Life Sciences and GordonMD Global Investments LP, join existing investors Gilead Sciences, Westlake Village BioPartners, Vida Ventures, Northpond Ventures, RTW Investments, Insight Partners, CAM Capital, LYFE Capital, jVen Capital, and others.
Veteran HR Consultants
Founded in 1995, Frederickson Partners has completed over 2,500 HR executive searches and HR consulting engagements, according to the firm, maintaining relationships with more than 10,000 rising and established HR executives worldwide. Specializing in the placement of chief human resources officers/ chief people officers and their teams for high-growth employers, the firm also provides HR strategy, consulting, and thought leadership.
Related: Frederickson Partners Recruits VP of People for Sirona Medical
Based in Menlo Park, CA, the search firm is deeply rooted in the technology sector, with experience in biotech, clean energy, cloud and data storage, E-commerce, fintech, gaming, hardware, IoT, media, semiconductors, and telecommunications. Clients include Alphabet, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Fitbit, Gartner, Genentech, General Electric, Gilead, Intel, Intuit, Lyft, Neiman Marcus, Nubank, Pinterest, Qualtrics, Roche, SoFi, The Nature Conservancy, Uber, and Workday.
Frederickson Partners Fills Top HR Post for Academy of Art University
Frederickson Partners recently assisted in the recruitment of Ramin Daoud as vice president of human resources for Academy of Art University. Ms. Daoud joins the organization from the San Francisco Opera, where she served as HR director. There she was responsible for management of the HR department to enhance the organization’s strategic mission, vision and values, and the retention and development of employees.
Valerie Frederickson, the search firm’s founder and CEO, has helped hundreds of companies during the past 20-plus years build and improve their human resources organizations. HR executives and C-level executives often seek her guidance and counsel when reorganizing their HR functions. Ms. Frederickson has conducted confidential, replacement, and upgrade searches of HR executives, and placed heads of HR at companies such as C3 IoT, GE, Genentech, Mozilla, Qualtrics, and hundreds more.
Recently Acquired
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., one of the world’s largest consulting and risk management companies, recently acquired Frederickson Partners. “Frederickson Partners will expand Gallagher’s executive search capabilities across all industries and offers us significant opportunities for collaboration and growth,” said J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., chairman, president and CEO. “I am very excited to welcome Valerie and her team to our growing, global company.”
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, IL. The company has operations in 49 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.
Related: Frederickson Partners Recruits Chief People Officer for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
