Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Health consultancy firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP has brought on four new managing directors in its New York and D.C. offices: Christina Farr, Tom Cassels, Shamiram Feinglass and Melindah Sharma. The four individuals will provide business advisory services for clients including pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies to emerging startups, investors and innovators.
Chrissy Farr was a principal at OMERS Ventures, where she focused on health tech with an emphasis on behavioral health, telemedicine, electronic medical records and women’s health. She is also the owner and editorial lead of the weekly newsletter Second Opinion Media. (top left)
Shamiram Feinglass, M.D., was formerly a regulator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service. She has also served as an executive and chief medical officer in large multi-national life sciences corporations where she builds and scales critical business functions. (top right)
Tom Cassels, former president and CEO of Rock Health Inc., has advised health systems, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, health technology and digital health companies, and private investors. (bottom left)
Melindah Sharma co-founded VLab partners and led the marketing integration of a multibillion-dollar healthcare system across practices. Sharma has experience in R&D, commercial and supply chain, finance, strategy/re-engineering functions ranging in size from seed to $95 billion in revenue. She also serves as an industry advisor to Arcade Therapeutics and Galen Growth, and an investor at Emmeline Ventures, which enables female founders in health care. (bottom right)
National Alliance for Caregiving
The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) announced the appointment of Kimberly Cantor as its new chief external affairs officer. In this newly created role, Cantor will oversee the organization’s policy, advocacy and communication efforts.
Cantor formerly worked as a patient advocate at several organizations, including pharmaceutical company CSL Vifor, Pyxis Partners and the Lupus Foundation of America.
Podimetrics
Matthew Oefinger has been appointed chief data and technology officer at Podimetrics, a company that supports patients with diabetic foot complications and helps prevent unnecessary amputations. Oefinger was previously the chief data scientist at Ahara Corporation, and before that, he was the CDTO at Deerfield Management. He also has a Ph.D. from MIT in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Oefinger's LinkedIn says that he will oversee the company's use of AI to augment decision-making in numerous aspects of the business. He will also lead software development, cybersecurity, IT and data analytics functions.
> Lunit Inc., which just completed its acquisition of Volpara Health to provide AI-driven cancer care, has appointed Craig Hadfield as chief customer and financial officer, and Becky Weber joins as executive vice president of sales. Volpara's CEO, Teri Thomas, has been named the chief business officer of Lunit's Cancer Screening Group while continuing in her role as CEO of Volpara, following the acquisition.
> Medicaid and maternal and child health expert Gretchen Hammer has joined Mathematica as a Senior Fellow in its Health Unit. Hammer will lead Mathematica’s state Medicaid policy and program research and advisory services practice, helping to expand the organization’s offerings to support Medicaid policy and program improvement at the state level.
> Imperative Care announced the appointment of Shacey Petrovic as the vice chair of Imperative Care’s board of directors.
> Jacquelyn McRae is now vice president of policy and external affairs at the National Pharmaceutical Council. She previously was director of policy and research at PhRMA.
> Health Network One, a leader in value-based healthcare solutions, announced the appointment of Jeremy Hardegree as its new senior director of business development.
> Komodo Health has named Miles Ennis as its new chief revenue officer. He previously held key leadership positions at major technology companies including IBM and Cisco.
> Nieca Goldberg, M.D., returns to practice at NYU Langone Health in addition to her role as a clinical associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
> Private equity firm Flexpoint Ford announced that Josh Tamaroff joined as managing director of the healthcare team.