WuXi NextCODE Appoints Hannes Smarason as CEO, John Long as CFO, and Alex Fowkes as COO
Appointments bolster global business expansion, operational integration and independent strategic development
SHANGHAI, CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Feb. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi NextCODE, a WuXi AppTec group company and the contract genomics organization enabling precision medicine worldwide, today announced that the company's chief operating officer Hannes Smarason has been appointed as the company's chief executive officer, and WuXi AppTec senior vice presidents John Long and Alex Fowkes have been named chief financial officer and chief operating officer, respectively.
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"WuXi NextCODE is executing on its vision to enable anyone to use the genome to advance health and wellness worldwide," said Dr Ge Li, founder and chairman of WuXi AppTec group and chairman of WuXi NextCODE. "It is also positioning itself as the data management platform at the heart of the genomics revolution and what may become the world's largest data ecosystem. Hannes, John and Alex have the breadth of vision and proven executive capabilities to carry out this strategy and advance the company to the next level."
"This is an exciting time at WuXi NextCODE, as we work on leading projects in every facet of genomics and advance a global standard for the way genomic data is organized, mined and shared," said Mr Smarason. "John and Alex's leadership and experience in life sciences finance and operations, and in the recent independent listing of other WuXi AppTec companies, will be invaluable as we grow our business and forge our own strategic path. We are very pleased to have them join our team and offer them a warm welcome to WuXi NextCODE."
Hannes Smarason co-founded NextCODE Health in 2013 as a spinout from deCODE genetics. He oversaw NextCODE's acquisition by WuXi AppTec in 2015 and its merger with the WuXi Genome Center to create WuXi NextCODE. He served as COO until January 2017 and as CEO will lead the company's overall business and corporate strategy.
John Long has served as WuXi AppTec's senior vice president of finance since 2013. He was actively involved in WuXi AppTec's privatization from NYSE in 2015 and played important roles in WuXi AppTec's subsequent corporate restructuring, supporting WuXi Biologics's recent IPO filing process in Hong Kong as well as private placements in the China capital market. John has over twenty years' experience in financial management, investment and operations in the US, China and Singapore, and prior to joining WuXi AppTec served in senior roles at Willis Group, Tyco International and Lucent Technologies. In addition to finance and operations leadership, he will provide WuXi NextCODE with global expertise in governance, reporting, strategic planning, treasury and tax. John holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and received his MBA from Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania.
Alex Fowkes has twenty years experience in the life science industry in operations, business development, strategy and legal roles. He joined WuXi AppTec in 2012 initially to lead corporate development and then most recently serving as senior vice president of commercial operations. Prior to WuXi Alex served in a variety roles for Pfizer in the US, UK, Australia and China over 14 years.
About WuXi NextCODE
WuXi NextCODE is a fully integrated global contract genomics organization. With offices in Shanghai; Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Reykjavik, Iceland, we offer comprehensive services that enable population, precision medicine, diagnostics and wellness initiatives and enterprises to use the genome to improve health around the world. Our capabilities span study design, sequencing, secondary analysis, storage, and interpretation and scalable analytics – all backed by the most proven and widely used technology for organizing, mining and sharing genome sequence data. We are also applying the same capabilities to advance a growing range of sequence-based tests and scans in China. WuXi NextCODE is a WuXi AppTec Group company. Visit us on the web at wuxinextcode.com.
Contact:
Edward Farmer, PhD
efarmer@wuxinextcode.com
+1 781-775-6206
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