Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Metabolic marketing master maneuvers to CEO
Prolynx
After three decades spent rising through the ranks of sales and marketing teams at major pharmas, Chris Boulton is taking the top spot at an obesity-focused biotech. Boulton has been named CEO of preclinical biotech Prolynx, where he’ll be heading up a company developing longer-acting drug candidates for obesity and related metabolic conditions. He most recently served as head of global marketing for the obesity therapy area at Amgen, a position he took in the spring of 2024 after prior stints on the marketing and commercial teams at Ardana, Sanofi and AstraZeneca. Story
Kyowa revamps leadership with historic CEO pick
Kyowa Kirin
Japanese pharma Kyowa Kirin is leaving its dual CEO/COO days behind in 2025, pivoting to the leadership of a single CEO in March 2026. Abdul Mullick, Ph.D., who assumed the newly created role of chief operating officer in March, is slated to take the reins as CEO while current chief Masashi Miyamoto, Ph.D., remains board chairman. Mullick and Miyamoto have been leading the company together as CEO and COO in order to allow a “transition period” for Mullick, who will be the first non-Japanese CEO in Kyowa’s more than 70-year history. After a year of preparing Mullick for the role, Miyamoto says that the incoming CEO has successfully “navigated the cultural differences between East and West” and has worked to balance the company’s heritage with the “pressing challenges we face as a pharmaceutical company,” while Mullick confirmed that he is “committed to nurturing” the company’s “unique and special culture.” Release
Rebranded biotech launches with Seres CEO at helm
PsiThera
Psivant Therapeutics has morphed into PsiThera, unveiling with a $47.5 million series A and former Seres CEO Eric Shaff at the helm. PsiThera’s goal is to develop oral “antibody-in-a-pill” medicines for immunology targets, and it already has several early-stage programs underway. Shaff previously spent close to 11 years at Seres, rising through the ranks to become CEO in 2019. There, he oversaw the successful FDA approval and launch of Vowst, the first oral microbiome drug, for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. Before Seres, Shaff served as corporate director at Sigilon Therapeutics and in finance leadership at Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Genzyme. Release
> Mark Manfredi, Ph.D., is shimmying over to Disco Pharmaceuticals, replacing founding CEO Roman Thomas, M.D., as the oncology-focused biotech closes on a 36 million euro seed funding round. Release
> Centessa Pharmaceuticals promoted the founder of its orexin receptor 2 agonist program, Alberto Accardi, Ph.D., to the CEO spot while current chief Saurabh Saha, M.D., Ph.D., will become advisor to the CEO upon the Jan. 1 transition. Release
> Enliven Therapeutics is signaling a new chapter as it moves toward a pivotal phase 3, swapping co-founder Sam Kintz to a new role as head of pipeline and bringing in experienced pharma leader Rick Fair to take over as CEO. Release
> Jubilant Therapeutics is through the roof with the appointment of Daniel O’Connor as CEO, who previously served as chief exec at Ambrx Biopharma. Release
> Just before presenting new data at last weekend’s American Society of Hematology annual meeting, K36 Therapeutics named a new chief medical officer in Shinta Cheng, M.D., Ph.D. Release
> Parkinson’s-disease-focused Serina Therapeutics has found a new lab partner in Vice President and Head of Chemistry Joshua Thomas, Ph.D. Release