Lorus Therapeutics has appointed Avanish Vellanki as Chief Business Officer and Gregory Chow as Chief Financial Officer.
In his new role Vellanki will manage global business development, licensing and corporate strategy. Chow will have global responsibility for corporate finance and accounting functions. Both men will report to William Rice, Chairman and Chief Executive of Lorus.
These latest appointments follow the recent announcements of Rice joining as Chief Executive and Chairman and Daniel D. Von Hoff, who is serving in a key advisory capacity as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs.
Vellanki was most recently a Senior Vice President in Investment Banking at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco, covering the biotechnology sector. Previously, he was a Senior Director of Corporate Development of Proteolix (acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals), a private biotechnology company based in South San Francisco focused on the development of oncology therapeutics. He has also been a Vice President in the Global Healthcare Investment Banking team at Citigroup.
Vellanki began his career at Bear Stearns as an equity research analyst covering the small/mid-cap biotechnology sector, and held the title of Vice President as a publishing analyst.
Chow was previously Managing Director and led the Private Placements team in the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Wedbush Securities. Prior to joining Wedbush, he was a Director in the Private Placements/Equity Capital Markets Group at RBC Capital Markets where he led the life science private capital activities.
Prior to RBC, he directed the Private Capital Group at Wells Fargo Securities, and was a Senior Auditor at BDO Seidman.
