New boss shakes things up

[jayfish101]

Four new executives appointed, including new Chief Commercial Officer, to lead commercial strategy and operations
FOSTER CITY, Calif., Oct. 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to change lives by changing the course of blood cancer, today announced several executive transitions and appointments designed to align the company’s leadership structure with its strategic priorities. Andrew Grethlein, Ph.D. who joined Geron in September 2012 and has served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer since January 2019, will depart the company on October 15, 2025, transitioning to a consulting role, while pursuing other interests. Jim Ziegler, who joined the company in September 2024 as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, will also depart on October 15, 2025, to pursue other interests. Succeeding Jim, Ahmed ElNawawi (“Nawawi”) has been appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, effective October 20, 2025. In this role, Nawawi will assume leadership of Geron’s commercial organization to advance the company’s strategic priorities—driving growth, maximizing the potential of RYTELO® (imetelstat), and strengthening the foundation for potential future portfolio expansion.

In addition to Nawawi’s appointment, Geron announced the appointment of three other seasoned executives to its leadership team: Shanthakumar (“Shantha”) Tyavanagimatt as Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer; Dawn Schottlandt as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs; and Bryan Ridgell as Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management and Chief of Staff. Together, these leaders bring deep experience across technical operations, investor relations and corporate affairs, and portfolio management, further strengthening the company’s commercial, operational and development capabilities.

“This is a pivotal moment for Geron as we enhance our leadership team to deliver on our full potential,” said Harout Semerjian, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our incoming leaders bring extensive U.S. and global hematology-oncology experience and a proven track record of leading high-performing teams—expertise that will be critical as we work to expand the reach and impact of RYTELO. We are deeply grateful to Andy and Jim for their leadership and many contributions in helping bring Geron to this point, and we look forward to building on our strong foundation.”

Nawawi most recently served as Senior Vice President and U.S. Commercial Head at Stemline Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Menarini Group, where he led the U.S. commercial organization spanning the sales, marketing, market access, commercial excellence, and data analytics functions. During his tenure, he successfully built the U.S. business from the ground up—expanding the team from 30 to 165 employees and delivering three consecutive years of topline and bottom-line growth. He oversaw the U.S. launch of ORSERDU® in metastatic breast cancer, which was recently recognized as one of the top oncology launches in recent years, as well as drove renewed growth for ELZONRIS® in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). Before joining Stemline, Nawawi spent nearly two decades at Novartis Oncology in global, regional, and country leadership roles across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. His experience includes leading country P&L organizations, launching multiple oncology and hematology brands, and driving cultural and organizational transformation. He received an MBA from the University of Leicester and a B.S. in Clinical Pharmacy from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.

“I’m inspired by Geron’s mission and by the dedication of its people,” said Nawawi. “This is a biotechnology company that has already achieved what so many aspire to—bringing its first medicine to patients—and is now focused on scaling with purpose and precision. With RYTELO in the U.S. market helping patients, our task is to expand reach, deepen engagement, and deliver operational excellence across every part of the business. I’m honored to build on the strong foundation already in place and excited to partner with Harout and my new colleagues to shape Geron’s next chapter.”

Additional information on the other new executives and the experience they bring to Geron follows:

Shantha Tyavanagimatt, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, brings more than 25 years of global leadership across drug development, CMC, and technical operations. He has advanced oncology and antiviral programs from early development through global approval and commercialization, with a proven record of building high-performing teams and forging strong partnerships to deliver transformative therapies to patients. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at IDEAYA Biosciences, leading global CMC and supply-chain strategies and driving technical excellence, scalability and “right-first-time” regulatory approvals that enabled reliable access to new medicines. Prior to that, as Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Operations & Early Development at CTI BioPharma, he guided the company through multiple NDA and MAA approvals and established a resilient global supply network. Mr. Tyavanagimatt is expected to join Geron on October 20, 2025.

Dawn Schottlandt, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, brings more than 20 years of experience in investor relations and corporate affairs within the life sciences industry. She has supported both private and public companies through IPOs, regulatory approvals, acquisitions, and major data milestones, building programs that strengthen visibility and engagement with the investment community. She most recently served as Managing Director at Argot Partners, leading investor relations strategy for a portfolio of biotechnology clients. Ms. Schottlandt is expected to join Geron on October 20, 2025.

Bryan Ridgell, Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management and Chief of Staff, brings more than 20 years of experience in program and portfolio management within the biotechnology industry. He has led global cross-functional teams across R&D, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, and clinical operations to drive alignment with key development objectives. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management at GlycoMimetics, where he was a member of the Executive Leadership Team and partner to the CEO in portfolio planning, resource optimization, and execution of late-stage clinical programs. Mr. Ridgell joined Geron today, October 13, 2025.

[rccola335]

i am glad they are making changes - I think the old band was stale

[biopearl123]

Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss. Logical that he would want his own management team. Full disclosure, If I don’t see any new excitement, deeper development and evidence for ultimate success emerging (choice of words deliberate) at this years ASH, I plan to sell half my position and start moving on.

[jayfish101]

I sold 2/3 of my geron a couple of weeks ago. I bought back a few last night. Pretty sluggish development of stock. If new team doesn’t show life I will vacate. I like some other biotechs better.

[Ryan]

Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss. Logical that he would want his own management team. Full disclosure, If I don’t see any new excitement, deeper development and evidence for ultimate success emerging (choice of words deliberate) at this years ASH, I plan to sell half my position and start moving on.

Oh, there will be.

[biopearl123]

LOVE your optimism!

[mistergern]

I'm with Ryan - I think we're on the cusp of a significant turn-around.

[Ryan]

ASH Abstracts published Monday, November 3rd.

Watch when the PR is announced for the quarterly meeting for Tuesday morning, November 4th.

Our new CEO brought on some of his colleagues, who will likely be on that call.

As our old pal Omar used to say, a lot - “Novartis”

PS - Mr.Semerjian worked at Novartis from 2001-2017….. lol that was a good run that set him up for the future.
PSS - these heme trials starting taking shape circa 2014. Just some random factoids for Omar.

[huntingonthebluffs]

As some already know, it looks like Faye Feller is no longer CMO per the Geron leadership page. Joseph Eid, M.D. EVP Research and Development, is also the Chief Medical Officer. Seems that should have been announced but haven’t seen anything anywhere yet.

https://www.geron.com/about/leadership/

[biopearl123]

They have four days to clarify by law. Pretty big shake up.Wonder why it wasn’t announced and wonder what’s behind it.

[lacour_98]

Kind of makes you wonder. If the new CEO wanted and made the change, that's one thing, but if the CMO decided to leave, especially at this late date with Ryetelo getting off the ground for LR-MDS and P3 IMpact for MF nearing the finish line, then that's another.

[Ryan]

This is very fresh news - neither have changed their LinkedIn info… this feels like she left (cause now he has 2 positions), but let’s see where she went before making conclusions…

[rccola335]

This is odd
https://x.com/gmpnsf/status/19787401948 ... CXgoldHN1Q

This was posted five days ago on Twitter and the picture says she’s executive vice president and the chief medical officer

I’m glad things are being shaken up - time to stop fucking around and get this going and get this company sold

[jayfish101]

The Feller situation is interesting. I followed your post up by registering for Dr. Feller's seminar. My application is pending approval.

[biopearl123]

Thanks Jay, please let us know if any new info (like if she is still with the company!)

[rccola335]

https://x.com/gmpnsf/status/19809900195 ... CXgoldHN1Q

[biopearl123]

Guys, presentation appears to have been given by Christian Demaano, VP for medical affairs. There is still no news regarding Faye. If Ryan is right they are waiting to release news going into the weekend suggesting it may not be positive. There was plenty of time to update the website which has not been done. YMB suggested she was transitioned to Chief Development Officer which would be a positive if it really happened, but why wait to announce if true. The fact is we just don’t know. As Ryan has said it is reasonable to expect some sort of announcement by days end tomorrow. I very much hope she is still part of Geron.