ON Partners Recruits Chief Medical Officer for Sangamo Therapeutics
May 23, 2023 – Chief medical officers are typically cited as the senior government official designated head of medical services, sometimes at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical experts on matters of public health importance. According to recruiters, the role of the chief medical officer has evolved in recent years, and organizations are looking for leaders with broader skill-sets. This has kept search firms busy. Steve Cornacchia of ON Partners recently recruited Lisa Rojkjaer as chief medical officer of Sangamo Therapeutics in Brisbane, CA. She succeeds Bettina Cockroft, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Rojkjaer, an experienced physician, drug developer, and regulatory expert, to the Sangamo team,” said Nathalie Dubois-Stringfellow, chief development officer at Sangamo. “Her deep industry experience across all stages of clinical development will be pivotal for us as we advance our wholly owned Fabry program toward a potential Phase 3 trial, progress our industry-leading CAR-Treg program TX200 through Phase 1/2, and further develop our pre-clinical pipeline of epigenetic regulation for the central nervous system. Her leadership will be invaluable as we seek to create targeted potential genomic medicines for patients suffering from serious genetic diseases for which there are few or no available treatments today.”
Dr. Rojkjaer has over 20 years of global and regional clinical development, regulatory, and medical affairs experience, as well as an international clinical practice background. She has held several senior leadership positions in both clinical development and medical affairs in biotech and global pharmaceutical companies, having most recently served as chief medical officer at Viracta Therapeutics. She previously served in several senior positions focused on the development of small molecules and biologics for hematology and immunology indications, including chief medical officer at Nordic Nanovector.
Dr. Rojkjaer was the global clinical program head at Novartis Oncology, where she led development and supported the regulatory approval of Rydapt. Other previous roles include chief medical officer at Molecular Partners, and VP, head of clinical development at MorphoSys AG. Earlier, at Novo Nordisk, Dr. Rojkjaer served as director of clinical development, hematology in the U.S. and head, global medical affairs, biopharmaceuticals while based in Denmark.
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Sangamo Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a robust genomic medicines pipeline. Using ground-breaking science, including our proprietary zinc finger genome engineering technology and manufacturing expertise, Sangamo aims to create new genomic medicines for patients suffering from diseases for which existing treatment options are inadequate or currently don’t exist.
Experienced Recruiters
With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial, and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis. MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners was named one of the fastest growing search firms this year by Hunt Scanlon Media. The firm is now ranked as one of the 20 largest search firms in the nation.
The Trends and Changing Market for C-Level Executives
As we continue to navigate the post-pandemic world, the C-level and senior leadership job market is experiencing significant change and new trends. ON Partners, one of the fastest growing search firms this year, has released a new report that outlines some of the changes they have witnessed in the C-suite.
Mr. Cornacchia has over 20 years in executive search with over 200 placements in life sciences. He serves the bio/pharma, diagnostics, medical device, healthcare services and digital health sectors. Mr. Cornacchia is a commercial, research & development expert in life sciences sector with adjacent expertise in technology and digital sectors. He specializes in public, venture capital and PE-backed organizations.
Recent Search
Mike Lynch of ON Partners has recruited Uzi Sasson as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Meta Materials in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He replaces current CFO and COO Ken Rice, who is retiring. “We are excited to welcome Uzi to the executive leadership team,” said George Palikaras, president and CEO of Meta Materials. “He has extensive experience providing strategic financial and operational leadership to companies at various stages, which will prove instrumental in helping us execute on our growth strategy and financial objectives while creating sustainable, long-term value for our shareholders. I would also like to thank Ken Rice for all his contributions, and we wish him all the best in his retirement.”
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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
