Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA, USA) has appointed two leading neuroscientists to its management team. Christopher Henderson (right) joins the company as vice president, neurology, and Richard Ransohoff (below right) joins as senior research fellow, neuroimmunology. Henderson currently heads Target ALS, a privately funded consortium focused on finding new treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was most recently the Gurewitsch and Vidda Foundation Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine at Columbia University and previously, he was a co-founder of Trophos. Ransohoff joins Biogen Idec from the Cleveland Clinic, where he was director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at the Lerner Research Institute, professor of molecular medicine at the Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research.

Life sciences industry veterans Joseph A. Akers and James McNab Jr. have been appointed to the board of directors of Titan Pharmaceuticals (S. San Francisco, CA, USA). Akers was formerly president of Bayer HealthCare's hematology and cardiology business. McNab was chairman and co-founder of Curis and currently serves as CEO and chairman of Palmetto Pharmaceuticals, executive chairman of FirstString Research and chairman of JT Pharmaceuticals.

Michael Grey has joined the board of directors of Mirati Therapeutics (San Diego). He currently serves on the boards of directors of BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Horizon Pharma and Selventa. He is also chairman and CEO at Reneo Pharmaceuticals and a venture partner at Pappas Ventures.

Tocagen (San Diego) has announced the appointment of Faheem Hasnain as chairman of the board of directors. Hasnain is president and CEO of Receptos as well as chairman of the board of Sente.

Maria Teresa (Tessa) Hilado has joined Actavis (Dublin) as chief financial officer, succeeding R. Todd Joyce. Hilado brings more than 26 years of global finance experience to the position. She was most recently senior vice president, finance and treasurer at PepsiCo, and previously served as vice president and treasurer for Schering-Plough.

Alchemia (Brisbane, Australia) has announced the departure of Thomas Liquard as CEO. Current non-executive director and former CEO Tracie Ramsdale will be assuming the role of interim executive director role until a permanent successor for Liquard is found.

John C. McKew has been appointed vice president, research of aTyr Pharma (San Diego and Hong Kong). He brings more than two decades of expertise in translational research, most recently serving as the acting scientific director of the Division of Preclinical Innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition, aTyr has announced that Fred Ramsdell (right) has joined the company as vice president, immunology. His previous positions include head of the discovery immunology group at Novo Nordisk's Inflammation Research Center, associate director of antibody target discovery at ZymoGenetics and senior director of discovery biology at Celltech.

InVivo Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, US) has announced the appointment of Ann Merrifield to its board of directors. Merrifield most recently was president and CEO at PathoGenetix, and before that spent 18 years at Genzyme where she served as senior vice president, business excellence and president of Genzyme Biosurgery.

Atterocor (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) has named Pharis Mohideen chief medical officer. Mohideen was most recently vice president of clinical development at Shionogi. Previously, he was global clinical program head at Novartis Oncology.

NewLink Genetics (Austin, TX, USA) has named Thomas P. Monath chief scientific officer and chief operations officer of its wholly owned subsidiary BioProtection Systems. Monath is a world-renowned virologist and vaccinologist with over 25 years of experience as an industry executive. He has served as chief technology officer at PaxVax, as a partner in the Pandemic and Biodefense Fund at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and as chief scientific officer and executive director at Acambis.

Lion Biotechnologies (Los Angeles) has announced that CEO Manish Singh will resign for personal reasons, effective December 31. He will also step down from the board of directors. The company intends to intends to appoint a new CEO prior to Singh's departure.

Philippe Van Holle has been appointed to the board of directors of Argos Therapeutics (Durham, NC, USA). Most recently, he was senior vice president of human resources for Celgene.

Regeneus (Sydney) has announced that Graham Vesey will step down as CEO and take up the position of chief scientific officer, effective immediately. He will be succeeded by John Martin, who steps down as executive chairman to take on the role of CEO. Non-executive director Roger Aston has been appointed as chairman. Finally, the company has named John Bird chief financial and operations officer. Bird was previously CFO at ASX-listed AWA and iCash Payments Systems and held senior business development roles at TAB.

Bone Biologics (Edison, NJ, USA) has named Deina Walsh chief financial officer. Walsh was previously a partner at EFP Rotenberg and most recently founded her own accounting firm.