Alberto Frausin has been appointed managing director of Zambon Group's pharma business, headquartered in Milan, Italy. Previously general manager at Manetti & Roberts, he has also worked for Kraft, S.C. Johnson and Ferrero.
Dr Tadataka Yamada, GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) chairman of r&d and executive director, will retire on 1 June to become executive director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. He will be succeeded as chairman of r&d by Dr Moncef Slaoui, currently the company's senior vice president of worldwide business development and external alliances in r&d. Dr Slaoui will join GSK's Board of Directors on 17 May and be put forward for election as a director at the company's AGM on the same day.
Rose Button has become business development manager of Excelsyn's engineering technology business based in Durham, UK. Button (nee Harper) is well known in the industry through her role as a UK Young Ambas-sador for CIA. She joins Excelsyn from Solvay Chemicals, where she was manufacturing process engineer, and has previously worked for Bovis Tanvec and Great Lakes.
Biosystems Informatics Institute (Bii) and Turbinia, its commercial trading arm, have appointed Dr David Flanders to the position of chief operating officer. With more than 20 years' international experience in life sciences software tools and database management development, he will be responsible for implementing long-term business strategy, project management, negotiating collaborative agreements and day-to-day operations.
Re-shuffling at Bayer has seen Dr Wolfgang Plischke vacate his role as head of the pharmaceuticals division to succeed Dr Udo Oels, who will start his pre-retirement at the end of April, on the board of management. Plischke's role will be filled by Dr Gunnar Riemann, whose former role as head of the company's animal health division will be taken up by Peter Nicklin, who was formerly responsible for business development at Bayer HealthCare.
Following Thomas B Lewis' retirement as president and ceo of Chiral Technologies in the second quarter of 2006, Dietmar Heckmann, president of Chiral Technologies Europe since 2001, will become president and ceo of Chiral Technoloies Inc and Chiral Technologies Europe.