PEOPLE Andrew Mearns Spragg (left), founder and CEO of Aquapharm experience, most recently as senior vice presi- Biodiscovery (Oban, UK), has been named as the winner of this dent of development at Inspire Pharmaceuticals. year’s Ernst & Young Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year in healthcare. Previously, he held positions at Glaxo Wellcome, Aquapharm was spun out of research at St. Andrews University in Sepracor and Ciba-Geigy. 2000, when Mearns Spragg was just 28, using grant money as he completed his PhD and postdoctoral research. He has raised more Active Biotech (Lund, Sweden) has appointed than $12 million in private equity and grant financing to date. Tomas Leanderson president and CEO effec- Mearns Spragg will represent Scotland in the national finals of tive September 1, replacing Sven Andréasson. the Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 program, to be announced in Leanderson has served as chief scientific offi- October. He comments: “I am delighted to have received this award, which is a reflection cer at Active Biotech since 1999. not only on my own passion and belief in the company but also the commitment and experience of the growing team. It has been an exciting year for us with the expansion of AstraZeneca (London) has announced the our management and scientific advisory boards and the ongoing development of our novel resignations of the CEO and research chief of anti-infective compounds which are derived from marine microorganisms.” biotech unit MedImmune. CEO David Mott and president of R&D James Young resigned http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology in July, a year after AstraZeneca paid $15.6 bil- William F. Brinkerhoff has joined the board board of Hygeia Therapeutics. King is presi- lion to acquire MedImmune. of directors of Velcura Therapeutics (Ann dent and COO at Tercica and was previously Arbor, MI, USA). Brinkerhoff is the founder executive vice president of commercial opera- Beat Neukom has been named CFO of Kuros and COO of Cerenis Therapeutics and was tions at Kos Pharmaceuticals. Biosurgery (Zurich). Neukom has over 17 previously vice president of business devel- years experience in finance and account- opment for Esperion Therapeutics. Exelixis (S. San Francisco, CA, USA) has ing. Before joining Kuros, he was worldwide named Frances K. Heller as executive vice finance director for DePuy Mitek, Johnson & Taligen Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) president of business development. She Johnson’s sports medicine/arthroscopy busi- has announced the appointment of Abbie brings more than 15 years of pharmaceutical ness unit. Celniker as CEO. She succeeds Woodruff and biopharmaceutical industry experience Nature Publishing Group Group Nature Publishing 8 Emlen, a cofounder of the company who to Exelixis, most recently as head of strategic Illumina (San Diego) has announced the remains president. Before joining Taligen, alliances at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical appointment of Stephen Pentoney as vice 200 © Celniker was global head of Novartis Biologics Research, the global research organization for president of array biochemistry in the com- and also held senior R&D leadership posi- Novartis. She was previously vice president pany’s life sciences business unit. Before join- tions with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, of corporate development and legal affairs at ing Illumina, he held multiple positions at Wyeth BioPharma (Genetics Institute) and Signature BioScience. Beckman Coulter, most recently as director Genentech. of technology management for the molecular Oramed Pharmaceuticals (Jerusalem) has diagnostics business center. Privately held Bio- named Nobel Prize laureate Avram Hershko energy (Minneapolis, to its scientific advisory board. He currently XenoPort (Santa Clara, CA, USA) has MN, USA) has serves as distinguished professor in the bio- announced the appointment of David A. announced the chemistry unit of the B. Rappaport Faculty Stamler as senior vice president and chief appointment of of Medicine at the Technion. His honors medical officer. He brings to the company over Raj Khankari (left) include the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 15 years of clinical development experience, as CEO. Khankari with Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose for most recently as the chief scientific officer joins Bioenergy from the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein and head of drug development for Prestwick CIMA Labs, a subsid- degradation, the Israel Prize for Biochemistry Pharmaceuticals. iary of Cephalon, where he served as general (1994), the Gardner Award (1999), the Lasker manager, and vice president for worldwide Prize for Basic Medical Research (2000), the Silence Therapeutics (London) has drug delivery technologies. Wolf Prize for Medicine (2001) and the Louisa announced that Jeffery Vick has resigned as Gross Horwitz Award (2001). group CEO for personal reasons. To replace Daniel Grau has been appointed CEO and him, nonexecutive chairman Iain Ross has vice chairman and Richard King has been Donald J. Kellerman has been named to been named full-time chairman and group named as a director of Cortria (Boston). Grau the position of senior vice president, clini- CEO. Additionally, Jeremy Curnock Cook, was most recently COO at CombinatoRx and cal development and medical affairs at MAP a nonexecutive director of the company, has currently serves on the product advisory board Pharmaceuticals (Mountain View, CA, USA). been appointed senior independent nonex- of Concert Pharmaceuticals and the advisory Kellerman has more than 25 years of clinical ecutive director. 952 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2008 NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY.