CTMC, a joint venture between Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center, has appointed Amy Hay as Chief Business Officer and Duane Avant as Chief Technical Officer. The appointments are part of CTMC’s strategic growth plans to expand its support of novel cell therapy development.
“The addition of these two executives represent our ongoing commitment to accelerate impactful cell therapies reaching patients,” said Jason Bock, CEO of CTMC. “We are thrilled that Amy and Duane have joined us,” he added. “By tapping into Amy’s extensive experience in creating strategic alliances and implementing transformational global oncology programs and Duane’s operational expertise in establishing flexible, yet commercially compliant manufacturing, we will continue to drive our partners’ successes.”
“I’m honored to be a part of CTMC, which is setting a new standard for cell and gene therapy development.”
Amy Hay said, “we will continue to build business models from cell therapy discovery to commercialisation in order to optimise and democratise the global utilisation of new therapies for patients.”
In the newly created role of Chief Business Officer, Amy is responsible for developing and executing the overall business strategy for the company, focusing on market penetration, strategic partnerships, revenue generation, and long-term growth. Before joining CTMC, Amy was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company, which had annual revenue in 2024 of $24B. At Varian, Amy was responsible for setting and executing the overall strategy aimed at building the leading oncology med-tech company.
Among her former roles in strategic leadership, she held the position of Senior Vice President of Network Development at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. She was responsible for the initial development of MDACC’s regional strategy, which included outpatient cancer centers, diagnostic imaging centers, and breast screening centers. Amy earned her BA degree in Psychology from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and her MHA in Healthcare Administration from Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas.
Duane Avant brings more than 25 years of experience in the new role of Chief Technical Officer for CTMC.
“CTMC represents a watershed opportunity for the biopharma industry to accelerate the development of therapies, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Duane said, “I look forward to leveraging my experience to support CTMC’s unique model for manufacturing innovative therapies in a way that accelerates timelines while maintaining quality - as evidenced by its achievement of eight INDs since forming CTMC.”
Throughout his career, Duane has been instrumental in maintaining and advancing cell and gene therapy quality and regulatory, as well as the quality application of multiple modalities, including cell and gene, vaccines, biologics, nucleic acid, and drug products. He has expertise in product commercialisation, quality assurance, regulatory site approvals, organisation management, cost control, continuous improvement, and plant performance.
Among his accomplishments, Duane holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification, which demonstrates his dedication to a culture of continuous improvement. He previously held the roles of Chief Quality Officer and Senior Vice President at Resilience; Site Quality Head, Director QA/QC at Lonza; and Global MS&T Vaccine Network Senior Director at Elanco (Eli Lilly). He holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina.