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.
Bayer radiology head takes top U.S. pharma spot
Bayer
(Bayer)
After a career-long tenure at Bayer, Nelson Ambrogio has climbed the ranks to the top of the pharma heap as newly appointed president of the German conglomerate’s U.S. pharmaceuticals division. The executive will officially take over on May 1, leaving his current post as president of Bayer’s global radiology business to join the company’s worldwide markets leadership team in his new role. Sebastian Guth, who has been heading up Bayer’s U.S. business since 2023 and transitioned into a dual role in 2024 with the additional title of worldwide chief operating officer, will continue on as COO and as U.S. president of the Bayer Group.
Ambrogio started his career at Schering AG back in 1998, before Schering’s 2007 merger with Bayer. Since then, his work at Bayer has spanned across several different regions and territories and multiple therapeutic areas, including women’s healthcare and oncology. His new role should help the company “accelerate the strong performance and growth of its key pharmaceutical products in the U.S.,” Bayer said. Release
Restructuring Evotec taps AI vet as commercial chief
Evotec
As Evotec undergoes a strategic transformation that includes sweeping layoffs, the company is putting an executive with robotics and artificial intelligence experience in charge of a unit that is essential to its new vision. As chief commercial officer, Ashiq Khan, Ph.D., will lead an expanded commercial team and help build a drug discovery and development engine around high-value services and capabilities, according to CEO Christian Wojczewski. Khan previously worked as chief business officer at Iktos, an AI-driven drug discovery company that he joined in September. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Proteros Biostructures and Schrödinger. Story
Cue lines up interim CEO
Cue Biopharma
Cue has lined up industry veteran Lucinda Warren as its interim president and CEO. Warren joined the company in 2024 as chief business officer and has been serving as chief financial and business officer since February. Warren succeeds Usman Azam, who stepped down as president and CEO on March 26.
Cue is a clinical-stage company developing T-cell biologics to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Warren has played a key role in the company’s efforts to regain worldwide development rights to its lead asset, CUE-401, which it aims to advance into the clinic by the end of the year. She also helped secure Cue’s collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim for CUE-501, as well as a licensing agreement with Immunoscape to develop a cell therapy for solid tumors.
With more than 30 years of experience in the biopharma industry, Warren previously served as vice president of business development for neuroscience and Japan at Johnson & Johnson. She also led business development and managed transitions at Janssen Cilag Australia and Janssen Biologics. Release
> Vaccine specialist Novavax has a new R&D leader in Robert Walker, M.D., who replaces the outgoing Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, M.D., Ph.D. Release
> The National Institutes of Health has named Elisabeth Armstrong as chief of staff in the Office of the Director, after she previously served at the FDA as Director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat. Release
> Selwyn Ho has signed on as CEO of Signadori Bio, a preclinical in vivo cell engineering outfit. Release
> Proxygen is looking to propel its molecular glue degraders into the clinic with the help of new Chief Scientific Officer Chiara Conti, Ph.D. Release
> Antibody maker Ichnos Glenmark Innovation has morphed Lida Pacaud, M.D’s interim CEO title into a permanent post as president and CEO. Release (PDF)
> Seasoned dealmaker Tim Foley’s next endeavor is at Deep Origin, where he will spearhead the AI-driven drug discovery company’s commercial operations as chief commercial officer. Release
> Alloy Therapeutics is bringing in renowned AI expert Alexander Titus, Ph.D., to lead a newly formed AI-centered biosecurity strategic initiative called the Vigilance Division. Release
> BioXcel vet Vince O’Neill, M.D., will form the next piece of Mosaic Therapeutics’ leadership team as head of research and development. Release
> Rajani Dinavahi, M.D., is pivoting from her most recent role as chief medical officer at Atara to the same position at Ardelyx. Release
> Philip Lao is now the senior vice president of business development at retinal disease biotech AAVantgarde Bio. He previously led business development at Adverum Biotechnologies, which Eli Lilly purchased in December 2025. Release
> Regenerative biologics company Pranax Corporation has named Richard LeConey, M.D., as chief medical officer. LeConey founded Anitage Medspa in Houston and will guide Pranax’s exosome product portfolio. Release
> Giulio Draetta, M.D., Ph.D., is the new chief strategy officer of precision medicine company Orionis Biosciences. Draetta previously served as chief scientific officer and director of MD Anderson’s NCI‑Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Release
> Harmony Biosciences has appointed Peter Anastasiou as chief operating officer. He previously served on the company’s board and was the CEO of Capsida Biotherapeutics. Release
> Respiratory disease-focused Clarametyx Biosciences has named Veronica Hall, Ph.D., as both chief development officer and head of R&D and appointed Brendan Doran as chief operating officer. Release
