—Michael Panzara, chief medical officer and head of therapeutics discovery and development for Wave Life Sciences, was appointed to Athira Pharma’s board of directors.
Panzara has more than 20 years of experience in neurology, including executive roles at Sanofi Genzyme and Biogen Idec. He was also an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Bothell, Wash.-based Athira Pharma focuses on therapy for neurological diseases. It went public in 2020 and reported a net loss of $15.7 million for the quarter that ended on Sept. 30, 2021.
Panzara joins Grant Pickering, Vaxcyte CEO, who joined Athira’s board of directors earlier this year as its first new board member since co-founder and former CEO Leen Kawas resigned and left the board after an image manipulation investigation last year.
Other personnel changes across the Pacific Northwest tech industry:
- Tara Hayward, vice president for resource & policy development at Sabin Vaccine Institute, will join Icosavax, a Seattle-based biotech company that develops vaccines, as its senior director of research and development partnerships.
- DevHub, a Seattle-based company that develops webpages, announced two hires: Rachel Flanagan, formerly chief operating officer at Pica9, will join as COO, and Dominic Le Claire, former chief revenue office at Pica9, as CRO.
- Laurel Buckner, managing director at WestRiver Group, joined asset management company Riverstone, as an investor in decarbonization, Bloomberg reported.
- Patience Malaba was named the executive director of Seattle-King County Housing Development Consortium. She previously worked as its director of government relations and policy.
- Andreas Busch, chief innovation officer of Cyclerion, was appointed to Absci’s board of directors.
- Stephen Eichenlaub recently joined Portland Seed Fund as managing director. He will manage the firm’s fourth fund with managing director Angela Jackson.
