The nonprofit Critical Path Institute (Tucson, AZ, USA) has announced that Carolyn Compton (right) has joined the organization as its new president and CEO, succeeding Raymond L. Woosley, C-Path's founder. Compton served most recently as the director of the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research and the executive director of the Cancer Human Biobank project at the National Cancer Institute at the US National Institutes of Health.

“Dr. Compton is a leader who is well known for her innovative ideas and collaborative style,” says Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. “As she works to fulfill the Critical Path mission to advance the science that will accelerate medical product development, we very much look forward to working together on these issues that are so important to public health.”

Exact Sciences (Madison, WI, USA) has named Maneesh K. Arora to the position of chief operating officer. Arora will continue in his role as CFO, which he has held since March 2009. Before joining Exact, he was senior vice president and CFO of Third Wave Technologies.

Rajesh Chopra has joined drug discovery and development company e-Therapeutics (Oxford, UK) as a non-executive director. Since 2009 Chopra has served as vice president of translational and early drug development at Celgene.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has named Adam R. Craig to the newly created position of executive vice president, development, and chief medical officer. Craig has over 15 years of experience in hematology, oncology and clinical development, most recently as chief medical officer of ChemGenex, which was acquired by Cephalon in 2011. In addition, Sunesis announced that Eric H. Bjerkholt has been promoted to executive vice president, corporate development and finance, CFO and that Steven B. Ketchum will transition from his executive role as senior vice president, R&D, to serve as a member of Sunesis' board of directors. Ketchum will transfer his executive responsibilities to Craig.

David M. Davidson has been appointed chief medical officer of bluebird bio (Cambridge, MA, USA). He previously served as a senior medical director at Genzyme, where he led the company's gene therapy and Pompe disease enzyme replacement therapy programs.

Renato Dulbecco, who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for his discoveries linking cancer with genetic mutation, died on February 19 at the age of 97 at his home near San Diego. The Italian-born virologist was a longtime professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, and also served as president of the Salk Institute for Biological Research. He received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1964.

Acella Pharmaceuticals (Atlanta) has announced the appointment of Allen Fields as vice president, head of R&D. He has more than 20 years of experience in clinical and regulatory affairs, holding senior positions at small and large pharmaceutical firms. In addition, he has been an independent consultant and a director at Quintiles International.

Mervyn L. Hamer has been appointed vice president of manufacturing at Novavax (Rockville, MD, USA). He has over 30 years of experience in pharma and biotech manufacturing, most recently serving as vice president of supply chain management and engineering at Intercell USA.

Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Alison Lawton to its board of directors. She is currently senior vice president, general manager biosurgery, at Genzyme (now part of Sanofi).

Anergis (Epalinges, Switzerland) has announced the appointment of Jacques-François Martin, chairman and CEO of vaccine company Mymetics, as chairman of the board of directors. Previously, Martin was CEO of Chiron Vaccines (now Novartis) from 1991 to 1993 and CEO of Pasteur-Mérieux (now Sanofi-Pasteur) from 1988 to 1991. He was the first president and CEO of nonprofit organization The Vaccine Fund from 2000 to 2005.

Ablynx (Ghent, Belgium) has named Andreas Menrad as its chief scientific officer. Menrad has over 20 years' experience in the pharma and biotech industry, most recently serving as general manager and vice president of antibody therapeutics at Genzyme. He previously held senior research positions with Schering.

Eric Rhodes has been named chief technical officer, gene targeting, of Horizon Discovery (Cambridge, UK). He has over 20 years' experience in technology development and senior executive roles, most recently as business development director for Sigma-Aldrich.

Molecular diagnostics developer Trovagene (San Diego) has named Charlie Rodi vice president and chief technology officer. Rodi previously served at G.D. Searle, where he was among the first to use nucleic acid biomarkers in the development of pharmaceuticals. He also served as director of the Monsanto Genome Sequencing Center and as executive vice president, genomics, at Sequenom.

Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) has announced the promotion of Michael Severino from vice president, global development, to senior vice president, global development, and corporate chief medical officer, replacing Sean Harper, who will become Amgen's executive vice president, R&D. Severino joined Amgen in 2004.

Joseph Truitt has been promoted to the position of senior vice president of business development of Achillion Pharmaceuticals (New Haven, CT, USA). Truitt will maintain his position as chief commercial officer.

Five Prime Therapeutics (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has appointed founder Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams as president and CEO and appointed Brian Atwood, cofounder and managing director of Versant Ventures, as chairman of the board of directors. Williams founded Five Prime in 2002. Atwood has served as a member of the board since May 2002.