Three Additional Key Hires Strengthen Leadership Team
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sigilon
Therapeutics today announced the hiring of veteran banking and
finance strategist Glenn Reicin, MBA, as Chief Financial Officer. In a
significant expansion of its leadership team, Sigilon has also hired a
General Counsel and experts in product development and translational
medicine.
The new hires bring important skills to strengthen the team as Sigilon
advances its Shielded Living Therapeutics™ platform to develop
functional cures for chronic diseases such as hemophilia, lysosomal
storage disorders and diabetes.
Joining the company in addition to Mr. Reicin: Matthew Kowalsky, Senior
Vice President and General Counsel; Hozefa Bandukwala, Ph.D., Vice
President, Platform Innovation; and Susan Drapeau, Ph.D., Vice
President, Head of Device and Delivery Engineering.
“With these additions, we’re continuing to build an exceptionally
diverse leadership team with deep strengths and impressive track record
of developing products and creating value. That’s exactly what we need
as we work to pioneer a first-in category class of new medicines to
treat patients with chronic diseases,” said Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D., MBA,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Sigilon. “We are thrilled to
welcome Glenn, Matt, Hozefa and Susan to the Sigilon team.”
Glenn Reicin comes to Sigilon with a broad and deep background in
investment banking, private equity and venture capital. He previously
served as President and Founder of Greyrock Biomedical Advisors, which
advised companies on financial strategy and M&A. Prior to Greyrock, Mr.
Reicin was a Managing Director at Skyline Ventures, a venture firm
focused on healthcare therapeutics. Mr. Reicin also worked as Managing
Director at Morgan Stanley, heading their Healthcare Equity Research
team. His sell-side career spanned 18 years, including 15 years as a
top-three ranked analyst and six consecutive years in the top spot. Mr.
Reicin holds a B.A. in economics from Brandeis University and an MBA
from Harvard Business School.
Matthew Kowalsky brings a wide range of legal experience in the
biotech space to his leadership role at Sigilon. Most recently, he
served as Vice President of Legal and Corporate Secretary at Proteon
Therapeutics. Before that, he was Senior Corporate Counsel, Rare
Disease, at Sanofi Genzyme. Prior to Sanofi Genzyme, he was Associate
General Counsel at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. He has also held similar
roles at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and Lantheus Medical Imaging (formerly
Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging). Mr. Kowalsky started his career
in the corporate and intellectual property groups of Choate, Hall &
Stewart LLP. He holds a B.A. from University of Notre Dame and a J.D.
from Notre Dame Law School. Before attending law school, he served as a
surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.
Hozefa Bandukwala, an immunologist by training, has pioneered the
translation of advances in the emerging field of immunometabolism for
novel drug development. Before Sigilon, Dr. Bandukwala served as Head of
the Immunometabolism Laboratory at Pfizer and was the Senior Director
and Head of Discovery Biology at Rheos Medicines. Dr. Bandukwala earned
a B.S. in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology in
Bombay and a Ph.D. in immunology from University of Chicago. His
postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University focused on epigenetic and
metabolic regulation of T cell functions.
Susan Drapeau brings more than 20 years of experience in both
product development and business development across fields, including
cell therapy, tissue engineering and medical devices. Most recently, she
served as the Senior Director of Business Development and Strategy at
Vericel Corporation. Prior to Vericel, Dr. Drapeau spent 14 years at
Medtronic Spine running part of the biologics product development group.
Previously, Dr. Drapeau ran the bone product development team at Osiris
Therapeutics, focusing on allogeneic cell therapies in combination with
biomaterials. Dr. Drapeau is a Director and former Industry Chair of the
American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. She holds B.S.
degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry from Purdue University and
a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Rice University.
About Sigilon Therapeutics
Sigilon Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating functional
cures for chronic diseases using its Shielded Living Therapeutics™
platform. To create Shielded Living Therapeutics™ product, we engineer
novel human cells that we encase in a proprietary immune-shielding
matrix and place in the body. These Shielded Living Therapeutics™
products then produce therapeutic proteins in a programmable and durable
fashion, without generating fibrosis or immune rejection. Sigilon was
founded and created by Flagship Pioneering in conjunction with Daniel
Anderson, Ph.D. and Robert Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
Contacts
Stephanie Simon
Ten Bridge Communications
stephanie@tenbridgecommunications.com
(617)
581-9333