Opthea announces executive leadership changes and senior hires

Opthea announced executive leadership changes in Commercial and Finance as well as senior hires for Biometrics, Clinical Operations and Market Access. Daniel Geffken, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Danforth Advisors, will assume the role of interim CFO reporting to CEO Frederic Guerard, effective September 9. Geffken has served as CFO, strategic consultant and board member to dozens of life science companies. Daniel Geffken succeeds Peter Lang who decided to leave the company for personal reasons effective September 9. Mike Campbell has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer. During his tenure at Genentech, he served in commercial leadership roles through the lifecycle of Lucentis and also contributed to the pre-launch commercial planning of Beovu in wet AMD at Novartis. Campbell most recently served as SVP and Head of Commercial at Viatris Eye Care. Mike Campbell succeeds Judith Robertson who will leave the company on September 9 to pursue other opportunities. Dayong Li has been appointed SVP, Biometrics effective September 9. Li most recently served as SVP, Biometrics, at Marinus Pharmaceuticals. Over his career, Li held global Biometrics roles at Forest Laboratories, Astra Zeneca, and other pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Jen Watts has been appointed VP Global Clinical Operations. During recent years, she has held the position of VP, Clinical Operations at several clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies. Jennifer Watts succeeds Bruno Gagnon, who decided to leave the company on September 9. Anthony Bonifazio has been appointed VP, Market Access, effective September 9. Bonifazio joins Opthea from Astellas where he served as VP, Access, Reimbursement and Market Development. During his tenure at Novartis, Bonifazio built a 180-person organization for the launch of the first physician-administered, buy and bill product in cardiology. Bonifazio started his career in Genentech.