Strategic leadership identified to up level HR and Finance functions

Abeona Therapeutics is a fully-integrated gene and cell therapy company at the forefront of the rapidly-advancing field of genetic medicine. Their executive team is truly top notch after being revamped by the new CEO. His strategy was to hire strong leaders, who are well respected, with known reputations in the market. They had a need to supplement this great team with a VP of Human Resources and CFO hire. For the VP of Human Resources, the strategy was to target someone who had a mix of strategic and traditional HR experience. The need for the new CFO was quite similar; they hoped to find someone who had experience with small market cap companies and who wasn’t afraid to jump into the weeds where the work needed to be done.

The Approach

Abeona was in a critical growth period with a need to hire smart, but quickly. LifeSci Search launched it’s search  to find a CFO and VP of Human Resources who both had strategic and traditional experiences but who would not be afraid of the challenges faced by a quickly growing organization like Abeona. LifeSci worked quickly to identify top of market candidates from within their known network, candidates with defendable reputations and impeccable performance records. LifeSci introduced only select, highly qualified and pre-vetted candidates to Abeona out of respect for the need to fill both roles quickly.

 

The Outcome

Joe Vazzano as the new CFO understood the challenges ahead and was not afraid to tackle them.

• Former CFO at Avenue Therapeutics
• Closed under 6 weeks!

Alison Hardgrove as the new VP of Human Resources not only understood Abeona’s challenges, but was excited and ready to improve their processes.

• Former Sr. Director of HR at Acceleron Pharma
• Closed under 30 days!

LifeSci continues to support Abeona to build out their leadership team. Additional placements have included:

• Board Member, Faith Charles
• Board Member, Don Wuchterl
• VP of Regulatory, Carl Denny