Christine Bellon Appointed to Senior Vice President, Chief Legal
Officer
Susan O’Connor Appointed to Chief Human Resources Officer
Suzanne Fleming Appointed to Senior Vice President, Finance
Courtney Wallace Promoted to Senior Vice President, Head of Business
Development and Strategy
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Beam Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing precision genetic
medicines through base editing, today announced multiple leadership
appointments, strengthening the company’s management team. Christine
Bellon has joined as senior vice president and chief legal officer;
Susan O’Connor has joined as chief human resources officer; and Suzanne
Fleming has joined as senior vice president, finance. In addition,
Courtney Wallace has been promoted to senior vice president and head of
business development and strategy.
“In the past year, we have made tremendous progress in advancing the
research and preclinical development of our base editing platform and
pipeline. 2019 continues to be a year of significant growth for Beam,
and I am very pleased to welcome Christine Bellon, Susan O’Connor, and
Suzanne Fleming to the team to continue this momentum,” said John Evans,
chief executive officer of Beam. “I am also thrilled to share the
promotion of Courtney Wallace, a key early member of our management
team, to senior vice president and head of business development and
strategy. Together, these key appointments will be instrumental to Beam
as we continue to grow our organization and expand our investment in
base editing, a next generation technology in gene editing that may
offer important new treatment options for patients suffering from
serious diseases.”
Dr. Christine Bellon brings to Beam more than 25 years of experience in
the life science industry. Prior to joining Beam, she served as senior
vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Forma
Therapeutics, where she built and led a legal team, negotiated changes
to the company’s operating structure, and played a key role in
negotiations with Forma’s strategic partner. Prior to Forma, Dr. Bellon
was senior vice president of legal affairs for Relay Therapeutics, where
she helped obtain foundational partnerships for the company and
formulated its intellectual property strategy. Prior to Relay, she
served as vice president of legal affairs and corporate secretary at
Blueprint Medicines, where she was instrumental in building its global
IP portfolio, securing strategic partnerships and executing its initial
public offering. Earlier in her career, Dr. Bellon practiced law and
served in legal leadership roles at Hydra Biosciences and Infinity
Pharmaceuticals. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Yale University; a
Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, where she did research in the laboratory of K. Barry
Sharpless; and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. Dr. Bellon is a trustee
of the Boston Museum of Science.
Susan O’Connor is an accomplished executive with progressive and
diversified experience in the biotechnology sector. With more than 25
years of experience in human resources, she has made significant
contributions in building and leading companies from the initial startup
phase and scaling through commercialization. Her expertise includes
overall talent management, culture building, strategic recruitment and
selection, IPO planning and execution, leadership development as well as
board development and engagement. Prior to Beam, Ms. O’Connor launched
O’Connor & Associates, a strategic human resources consulting firm, in
2008. She has partnered with several venture capital firms, including
Third Rock Ventures, acting as the chief human resources executive for a
number of biotech companies, including Celsius Therapeutics, Relay
Therapeutics, Blueprint Medicines, Voyager Therapeutics and Fulcrum
Therapeutics, among others. Prior to launching O’Connor & Associates,
Ms. O’Connor was vice president, human resources at Johnson & Johnson,
where she also served as a board member for several operating companies
within the medical devices sector of the company. Ms. O’Connor holds a
bachelor’s degree from Providence College.
Suzanne Fleming brings to Beam more than 25 years of experience in
finance leadership roles in the life science industry. Prior to joining
Beam, Ms. Fleming was senior vice president, finance and treasurer at
Epizyme, Inc., where she was responsible for all finance and accounting
functions. Before Epizyme, she was vice president, finance at Foundation
Medicine, where she worked closely with Roche after their purchase of a
majority stake in the company. Ms. Fleming also held senior finance
positions at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Transform
Pharmaceuticals and Transkaryotic Therapies. She holds a B.S. degree in
accounting from Stonehill College and earned her CPA in Massachusetts.
Courtney Wallace joined Beam in 2018 as vice president and head of
business development and strategy. Prior to Beam, she was a senior
director of business development at Celgene Corporation, where she was
responsible for leading collaborations, licensing transactions, equity
investments, and mergers and acquisitions across a variety of
therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Celgene, Ms. Wallace was a
consultant with Easton Associates (now part of Navigant Consulting), a
boutique healthcare management consultancy. While with Easton, she
advised clients on general corporate strategy, pipeline and portfolio
planning, clinical development, sales and marketing activities, and
business development. Ms. Wallace holds an A.B. from Harvard College and
an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Beam Therapeutics
Beam Therapeutics is developing precision genetic medicines through base
editing, a next-generation gene editing technology. Founded by leading
scientists in gene editing, Beam is pursuing therapies for serious
diseases using its proprietary base editing technology, which can make
precise edits to single bases (A, G, C, T) in DNA and RNA. Beam is
headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For additional information, visit www.BeamTx.com.
Contacts
Media:
Katie Engleman
1AB
katie@1abmedia.com
Investors:
Monique Allaire
THRUST Strategic Communications
monique@thrustsc.com