Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

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kmall
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:57 pm

Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by kmall » Fri Oct 14, 2022 6:11 am

Jennifer Riggs - Associate Director, Clinical Science at Geron Corporation

Hired - Sept 2022

9/22/2022 - FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) reported that it has granted non-statutory stock options to purchase an aggregate of 901,950 shares of Geron common stock as inducements to newly hired employees in connection with commencement of employment with the Company. Jennifer Riggs is one of these newly hired employees.

Jennifer's previous employers include: Janssen, J&J, Merck, Prelude Therapeutics Inc., Centocor, Sanofi-Aventis, Kaiser Permanente

Jennifer was employed at Janssen from 2012 - 2020, which overlaps the entire Geron/Janssen collaboration. Her titles included Local Trial Manager and Clinical Project Scientist.

2012 - 2015: Janssen - Local Trial Manager
Therapeutic area: Oncology
Management of trial operations and oversight at the country level to ensure study related activities are in compliance with company SOPs, policies and regulatory requirements from start-up through database lock.

2015 - 2020: Janssen - Clinical Project Scientist
Therapeutic Area: Gastroenterology
Management of operations in medical affairs for investigator sponsored trials and company post-marketing commitments.

*Read that last part again in her job description for Clinical Project Scientist....."Management of operations in medical affairs for investigator sponsored trials and company post-marketing commitments."

"POST-MARKETING COMMITMENTS"........

Looks like there are a few tea leaves to read there, ehh?

By my count, Jennifer's hiring makes 15 ex-Janssen employees now under the Geron roof:

1 - Anil Kapur* - CCO - 2019
2 - Faye Feller, MD* - CMO - 2019
3 - Laurie Sherman* – VP Clinical Operations – 2019
4 - Souria Dougherty* - Ex Director Clinical Science - 2019
5 - Dr. Aleksandra Rizo*(+) - Sr. Medical and Regulatory Advisor - 2019
6 - Rana F.* – Director, Statistical Programming - 2020
7 - Bharat Baral* – CMC Manager – 2021 & 2011
8 - William Garzon-Rodriguez* - Associate Director Drug Product Manufacturing – 2021
9 - Sharon McBain* - VP Global Regulatory - 2019
10 - Shirin Mirshamsi* – Director EU Regulatory – 2019
11 - Ilesh Sanathra* - Director Global Regulatory – 2020
12 – Ronan Balicanta* - Senior Manager, Regulatory Submissions - 2022
13 - Ying Wan* – VP Biostatistics - 2019
14 - Libo Sun* – Director, Biostatistics - 2019
15 - Jennifer Riggs* - Associate Director, Clinical Science - 2022

* - ex-Janssen employee
(+) - consultant/part-time employee

**Of utmost significance here is that ALL of the above employees have been hired by or returned to Geron POST J&J discontinuation with Geron.....

I'd say that speaks volumes towards the efficacy and future of Imetelstat as a FIC platform drug. -Kmall
Last edited by kmall on Fri Oct 14, 2022 12:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

kmall
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:57 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by kmall » Fri Oct 14, 2022 6:23 am

Known current Geron Employees as of 10/14/2022 and their initial hiring dates –
* Former Janssen employee
+ Part-time or Consultant

Management:
1 - CEO – Dr. John A. Scarlett, MD - 2011
2 - CFO – Olivia K. Bloom - 1994
3 - CAO – Melissa A. Kelly Behrs – 1998
4. – CBO – Edward Koval - 2021
5 - COO – Andrew J. Grethlein - 2012
6 - CCO* – Anil Kapur - 2019
7 - CMO* – Faye Feller, MD - 2019
8 - CLO – Stephen N. Rosenfield - 2011

Clinical – Operations, Science, Development:
Faye Feller*(7), MD – CMO – 2019
9 - Laurie Sherman* – VP Clinical Operations – 2019
10 - Souria Dougherty* - Ex Director Clinical Science - 2019
11 - Tymara Berry – Ex Director Clinical Development - 2020
12 - Sheetal Shah – Sr Director – 2020
13 - Denise Redding – Director - 2021
14 - Jeff Ryel – Director Clinical Operations - 2020
15 - Karie Arnold – Director Clinical Operations –
2021
16 - Brandie Jonas – Sr Director, Clinical Program Management – 2019
17 - F Matthew Bakthasekaran - Sr Manger, Clinical Program Management - 2022
18 - Judy Ho - Sr Manager - 2022
19 - Natasha M - Associate Director, Clinical Research - 2021
20 - Manoj Jivani - Director Clinical Operations - 2022
21 - Kate Turner - Associate Director Clinical Operations - 2022
22 - Jennifer Riggs* - Associate Director Clinical Science - 2022
23 – Carolina Jacobs – Sr Project Manager - 2012
24 - Daria Zielinska – Sr Scientist – 2001
25 - Ron Pruzan – Principal Scientist – 2010
26 – Yelena Polonskaya – Sr Research Associate - 2001
27 - Barbara Mandelkow (Germany) Lab Assistant - 2017
28 - Janet Ahern(+) - Clinical Research Consultant - 2022
29 - Dr. Aleksandra Rizo*(+) - Sr. Medical and Regulatory Advisor - 2019
(currently employed at Vividion and Geron)
30 - Mebratu Gebreyesus(+) - Sr Development Associate - 2010
(currently employed at Bayer, Celltheon and Geron)
31 - Kerry Mundt(+) – CT Assistant – 2010
(currently employed by Pharmacyclics/Abbvie and Geron)

Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety/Information:
32 - Patti N. – Ex Director Drug Safety – 2020
33 – Annat Ikin - Director Medical Writing – 2021

Business Development:
Melissa A. Kelly Behrs (3) – Chief Alliance Officer – 2014
Edward Koval (4) – CBO - 2021
Anil Kapur* (6) - COO - 2019
34 - Jason Grossman - Ex Director, Commercial Operations - 2022
35 - Nishan Sengupta - VP, Market-Access, Pricing, Evidence Strategy - 2021
36 - Denise Meyer – VP Medical Affairs – 2021
37 - Christopher Cornell - Sr. Field Medical Liaison - 2022
38 - Helen Lee – Sr. Reporting Analyst - 2012
39 - Anthony Kuczynski – Analyst - 2019
40 - Aron Feingold - VP Investor Relations & Corporate Communication - 2022

Finance:
Olivia K. Bloom (2) – CFO – 1994
41 - Karen Boyce – VP -2008
42 - Andrew Good – Ex Director – 2006
43 - Gilian Fong – Director – 2021
44 – Iasko Cable – Sr. Clinical Trial Accountant – 2019
45 – Dave Clark – CPA, Corporate Controller - 2022
46 - Katherine Harmon, CPA, Assistant Controller - 2022

Data Management:
47 - Ben Thorp - Head of Clinical Data Management - 2022
48 - Rana F.* – Director, Statistical Programming - 2020
49 - Sridevi Sridhar, CCDM – Associate Director – 2021

Manufacturing:
50 - Patrick Murphy – VP Manufacturing – 2019
51 - Eric Mueller – Director – 2019
52 - Leslie C. – CMC Director - 2021
53 - Bharat Baral* – CMC Manager – 2021 & 2011
54 - William Garzon-Rodriguez* - Associate Director Drug Product Manufacturing – 2021
55 - Tim Tickner – Director, Supply Chain Management – 2022

Regulatory:
56 - Sharon McBain* - VP Global - 2019
57 - Shirin Mirshamsi* – Director EU – 2019
58 - Ilesh Sanathra* - Director Global – 2020
59 - Nick Lyon – Director – 2020
60 – Ronan Balicanta* Senior Manager, Submissions - 2022
61 - Tarin Araujo - Senior Manager US - 2022

Biostatistics:
62 - Ying Wan* – VP - 2019
63 - Libo Sun* – Director - 2019

Quality Assurance and Quality Control:
64 - Denise Grippo – VP Quality and Compliance – 2019
65 - Samantha Taylor – QA Manager, Document Control – 2007
66 - Joe Denton – Director – 2019
67 - Damanjit Singh – Sr Manager – 2018
68 - Willie Mobley – Materials/Document Specialist - 2007
69 - Leah Wood – Manager – 2021
70 - Murugappa Vedachalam (+) – QA/QC/CMC Consultant - 2019

Legal and Intellectual Property:
Stephen L. Rosenfield (8) – CLO – 2011
71 - Pamela Smith – Associate General Counsel - 1999
72 - Christopher Johnson – Director - 2019
73 - Laura Reederson – Director - 2020
74 - Leslie Mooi – VP IP – 2007
75 - Abby B. – Sr Patent Paralegal - 2014
76 - Cheryl Northern – Sr. Contracts Manager – 2007
77 – Brittney Hernandez – Contracts Manager – 2021

Facilities Operations and Information Technology:
78 - Michael Yamada – VP -2007
79 - Jyoti Shetty – Sr Director IT – 2021
80 - John Albert - Director Information Technology Infrastructure - 2022
81 - Tim W - Associate Director, IT Business Systems - 2022
82 - Miguel Hundelt – Systems Administrator – 2018
83 – Julian Cornejo - Systems Administrator - 2021
84 - Briana Martinez – Ex Assistant - 2006
85 - Julia Mensing – Ex Assistant – 2011
86 - Stacie W. – Ex Assistant - 2020
87 - Mia Pham – Office Manager - 2020

Human Resources:
88 - Shannon Odam – HR Executive -2019
89 - Stephanie Dellari – Director - 2004
90 - Susan Finan – Employee Benefits – 2021
91 - Marisa Cerniglia - Manager, People Operations – 2021
92 – Jennifer Allen - Associate Director, Talent Acquisition – 2022
93 – Fiona McAuliffe – Talent Acquisition Associate - 2022

**This latest "known" Geron employee roster reflects the most recent addition of:

22 - Jennifer Riggs* - Associate Director Clinical Science - 2022

biopearl123
Posts: 1665
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:13 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by biopearl123 » Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:05 pm

Kmall, thanks for this updated list. Your efforts continue to generate excitement and optimism (at least for me!). I wonder what post “marketing commitments actually means”. Perhaps commitments to individual non company investigator or institutions that had pre market plans for studies. I also still wonder about a few of the folks on your list that seem to have more than one company employing them. Could be that their CVs also have not been updated. Having the addition of Aron seems to be helping a a subtle way in providing more accurate public info. Best Wishes, bp

kmall
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:57 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by kmall » Sat Oct 15, 2022 9:38 am

@Bp - perhaps Jennifer Riggs is the "bridge" between Medical Affairs and Clinical Trials? Similar to Nick Lyon: Regulatory/CMC.

Her previous position prior to Geron hints at formulating P1 design and protocol.......

"Associate Director, Clinical Trial Manager
Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated
Apr 2020 - Jul 2022 2 yrs 4 mos
Wilmington, Delaware, United States
Therapeutic area: Oncology
Management of early phase 1 (FIH) studies from site selection to creation of the CSR; oversight of in house and CRO managed studies. Involved in protocol review and IND submission. Creating and implementing new study plans, manuals, study training slides, forms, study trackers, processes, and SOPs. Creating/sharing best practices and lessons learned within Clinical Operations and cross functionally."

Since her hiring was in September and the Pre-Clinical Lymphoid Malignancy studies at MD Anderson are due by the end of the year, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that her hiring is most likely tied to any follow-up of that event. One would think that the additional P2 CT IMpress and P1/2 CT TELOMERE are well on their way to being initiated and ready to be announced any day now.

"IMpress is planned to be conducted in Germany, France and Australia. We expect the trial to start in the second half of 2022."

https://www.geron.com/patients/impress-study/


"Up to 20 patients are expected to be enrolled into this portion of the TELOMERE study. We expect the trial to start in the second half of 2022."

https://www.geron.com/patients/telomere-study/

Of course, only speculation here as of now.

Speaking of speculation, both Membrane Gebreyesus and Kerry Mundt, the two employees you inquired about, are Scientists/CT Development. As we have seen with Dr. Rizo, it isn't unlikely that perhaps they work for more than one company to a certain degree? It's just as likely that perhaps their resumes haven't been updated to reflect current employment status. They both have additional titles with previous employers in the past with both start and end dates. Maybe Aron Feingold can clear the air on this matter as well? -Kmall

biopearl123
Posts: 1665
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:13 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by biopearl123 » Sat Oct 15, 2022 4:43 pm

The strong addition of Aron seems to me to be a company commitment to having credible relations with its investors. In this spirit I would think ensuring that accurate up to date information about Geron employees would be paramount. Old non current internet info amounts to unintentional misinformation by neglect and should be updated in this spirit. I suspect once Aron knows the importance (no doubt she already does), we will see an effort in this regard. bp

kmall
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:57 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by kmall » Mon Oct 17, 2022 4:27 pm

Bp - Unfortunately, as far as I know, Geron is only obligated to announce Executive hires through PR's. I do understand the reasoning behind the rationale, however, as shareholders, given the fact that we have been bombarded by monthly PR's concerning newly hired employees with massive options granted in many cases for the last 3+ years, it seems only fair that we are enlightened to a certain extent as to who these newly hired employees are, their positions in the company and their backgrounds as they pertain to a future with Geron. Since 10/2018 approximately 50+ employees have been hired. A similar scenario occurred at Forty-Seven Biotech prior to their $4.9Billion acquisition by Gilead. Numerous employees were hired in the 18months or so prior to that acquisition with PR's of "newly hired employees" with large options granted attached to their hiring. At times I feel like Dr. Scarlett has been reading the Dr. Mark McCamish, CEO Forty-Seven playbook verbatim.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1274


With that said, I have done my best to reference and cross-reference many of the employees on the "Master roster" as best as possible. The ex-Janssen employee list of 15 is most likely 100% accurate and up to date. The more extensive list of 93 employees has about 5-10 that are somewhat questionable. It's most likely on the lower end of that spectrum. There are a handful or so employees who have been with Geron for 15-20+yrs.....Olivia Bloom being one. Most of the employees who may be on the questionable side fall under the Clinical Science category. Scientists and lab technician's for example. A few that come to mind:

23 – Carolina Jacobs – Sr Project Manager - 2012
24 - Daria Zielinska – Sr Scientist – 2001
25 - Ron Pruzan – Principal Scientist – 2010
26 – Yelena Polonskaya – Sr Research Associate - 2001
27 - Barbara Mandelkow (Germany) Lab Assistant - 2017
30 - Mebratu Gebreyesus(+) - Sr Development Associate - 2010
(currently employed at Bayer, Celltheon and Geron)
31 - Kerry Mundt(+) – CT Assistant – 2010
(currently employed by Pharmacyclics/Abbvie and Geron)

I do occasional research on most names here to inform and update readers to the best of my ability on internal changes; ie: departures and promotions.....Lynn Bodarky (dep), John Brenner (dep), Kara Grew (dep), Nick Lyon (prom), etc....

Like you, I find the hiring of highly qualified employees an exciting proposition for us shareholders in GERN and those patients and physicians relying on the eventual approval/commercialization of Imetelstat. And like yourself, I believe it is a tell-tale sign of the future direction of Geron. -Kmall

biopearl123
Posts: 1665
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:13 pm

Re: Yet another ex-Janssen employee joins Geron......

Post by biopearl123 » Mon Oct 17, 2022 7:07 pm

Kmall, agree with every word.

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