Israeli Biotech | Increasing Stock with Strong Leadership

Entera Bio is an Israeli based, public, product focused biotech that specializes in the oral delivery of large molecules and biologics. They needed an east coast Chief Executive Officer who could work in tandem with the Israeli based Board of Directors as they worked to improve Entera’s stock price and continue to advance their clinical trials. The Board wished to hire a CEO who understood US Capital Markets from the perspective of a micro-cap company. It was imperative that the candidate held strong relationships across Wall Street and could quickly raise money while invoking shareholder confidence. A strong sense of urgency was needed in this search as the need to raise additional capital to continue funding their active clinical trials was imminent. The new CEO would need to hit the ground running and be able to raise money within their first 12 weeks.

Approach

LifeSci Search was retained for the assignment at the recommendation of the Chairman of the Board at Entera. He had prior experience working with the team at LifeSci Search and could vouch for their speed of delivery and high caliber of execution. LifeSci Search explored recent M&As, CEO turn over and first time CEO candidates from similar micro-cap companies. Entera’s story and potential needed to appeal to an ideal candidate. This should be someone who would come with a strong reputation, be a known player to LifeSci who could be easily reference checked within our networks and someone who could interview and start quickly to meet the urgency of Entera’s intent to hire.

Outcome

Spiros Jamas, Sc.D. was hired after the search was open for only 7 weeks. With over 30 years of senior management experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Spiros had an impressive track record as CEO and/or founder of multiple high growth, innovative companies including AOBiome Therapeutics, Tempero Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceuticals and Alpha-Beta Technology. His background in first-in-class R&D programs, coupled with his experience with INB and advanced clinical development was particularly attractive to Entera. Furthermore, Spiros held longstanding wall street relationships and the Board was confident in his ability to attractively convey Entera’s story to investors. Spiros officially took over at CEO and member of the board January 4, 2021, more details on his appointment can be read here.