bit.bio expands senior team with four female hires

Today bit.bio announces 4 key hires as part of its senior leadership team as it builds up capability for cell therapies. The 4 all female hires will lead across strategy, portfolio, manufacturing and quality. They are: 

• Megan Doe: VP, Portfolio Strategy and Business Operations
• Melissa Pong: VP of Quality & Compliance
• Kathryn Golden: SVP Technical Operations and Cell Manufacturing
• Annie Wilcoxen: VP of Programme Management Office

The new hires and Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Corzo spoke exclusively with the Cambridge Independent about joining the company and their reasons for wanting to be part of the bit.bio team. 

The full feature is available here

“I’m excited to welcome our new female leaders to our expanding bit.bio team. Most people are primarily attracted to the company because bit.bio has a unique precision cellular reprogramming approach that enables us to manufacture any human cell with consistency at a commercial scale. 

Our workforce is diverse and our recruitment process aims to find the best person for the role. Our recent key hires are a demonstration of this. It’s important that we as a company contribute to closing the gender gap in leadership roles and open up opportunities to top talent regardless of background. I’m proud of the team we are building at bit.bio and of these latest strong hires.”

 

 

Kathryn Corzo
bit.bio COO 

 

Short biographies for the new hires: 

Megan Doe: Prior to bit.bio, Megan spent five years in strategy, operations, and analytics roles in larger biopharma, most recently as a Senior Director in the Cell Therapy Development and Global Portfolio Strategy teams at Takeda Oncology and earlier as a Director of Portfolio Analytics in Corporate Strategy at Sanofi. Prior to Sanofi, Megan spent six years in the Life Sciences Practice at L.E.K Consulting, where she specialized in portfolio prioritization and strategy, market landscape analysis, forecasting and valuations, and team and client stakeholder management across multiple therapeutic areas. Megan holds a B.A. in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Dartmouth College, where she conducted research into MYC-driven breast cancer tumorigenesis mechanisms.

Melissa Pong: Has 20+ years of extensive quality, compliance, and operational experience in biopharmaceutical industry. She is a leader with proven track record in establishing fit-for-purpose quality management systems and building/supporting a quality culture where everyone takes accountability in commitment to quality and compliance.

Kathryn Golden: Is an accomplished CMC executive with a track record of shepherding complex drug candidates from discovery stage to pivotal trials. Her expertise includes integrated process development, phase-appropriate quality and regulatory coordination, and management of contract manufacturing organisations.  She has been an early employee at six biotechnology start-ups, including Q32 Bio and Codiak BioSciences. Kathryn is particularly passionate about increasing access to transformative therapies and is a co-founder of Sunflower Therapeutics, a start-up utilising yeast manufacturing technologies to provide biologics at point of care to underserved populations. Kathryn received her S.B. in Chemical Engineering and M. Eng. in Bioengineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds an M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Annie Wilcoxen: Has over 18 years of experience advancing complex drug development programs at all stages of development, across large pharma (Eisai and Amgen) and smaller biotechs (Akebia, Wave Life Sciences and Q32 Bio). Her therapeutic expertise spans across multiple therapeutic areas, including: immunology, oncology, neurology, nephrology, metabolic diseases and CNS. During her career, Annie has developed a passion for Program Management as well as a deep and broad skill set in building out the project management function to ensure seamless execution of development activities related to pipeline programs from research stages through to commercial and other post-approval activities. She advocates establishing integrated program/project plans and leading strong cross-functional teams to build an operational structure that supports efficient Program and Project Management. Annie received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, where she conducted total synthesis of natural products which are associated with significant pharmacological activities.