Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) has filled two critical vacancies on its senior team.
The Gaithersburg company said Friday it hired new leaders of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and quality and compliance work — areas launched into the global spotlight last year when a high-profile snafu at the company’s Baltimore plant led millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine to be contaminated.
Coleen Glessner, senior vice president and chief quality officer of AstraZeneca-owned Alexion Pharmaceuticals, has been named executive vice president overseeing the global quality, ethics and compliance functions for Emergent. She started Monday and reports to CEO Bob Kramer, according to the company.
Before joining Alexion as head of R&D quality and compliance in 2015, Glessner spent more than 13 years in various roles at Pfizer. Glessner assumes the role with Emergent previously held by Mary Oates — who had held that position from November 2020 until October 2021, and is now head of vaccine manufacturing for French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.
Bill Hartzel, previously chief commercial officer for Illinois-based Woodstock Sterile Solutions, has been appointed senior vice president and head of the CDMO business for Emergent. He started March 14 and reports to Adam Havey, Emergent’s chief operating officer.
Prior to Woodstock, Hartzel spent more than a decade with Somerset, New Jersey's Catalent Pharma Solutions, including as vice president of business development for the company’s respiratory and ophthalmic work from November 2017 to April 2021. Hartzel’s role with Emergent has been open since his predecessor, Syed Husain, left in 2021 to become chief commercial officer at La Jolla, California-based Resilience. He had joined Emergent in September 2019.
“Rigorous quality and compliance practices and the growth of our CDMO business are critical to Emergent’s future success,” Kramer said in a statement, “and I am pleased we have been able to add two experienced and accomplished leaders like Coleen and Bill.”
Marcia Baroni, Emergent’s vice president of quality operations, served as interim head of quality. Jon Lenihan, a senior director with the company, had stepped in as interim leader of the CDMO business unit. Both remain with the company and have returned to their previous roles, Emergent confirmed to the Washington Business Journal. They are now “ensuring a smooth transition between leaders,” Kramer said in a statement.
The appointments come as Emergent works to regain its footing following a turbulent 2021. They also follow a few other recent leadership changes effective this month: Atul Saran, executive vice president and general counsel, became chief strategy and development officer; Dr. Chris Cabell was appointed chief medical officer, after serving in the role on an acting basis; and Jennifer Fox, senior vice president of legal affairs and deputy general counsel, was promoted to executive vice president of external affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary.
These moves sit within a new leadership structure that Emergent implemented in mid-2021. The business now has three distinct business lines: medical countermeasures, commercial and CDMO services.
In addition, Fuad El-Hibri, Emergent’s founder and executive chairman, is set to retire April 1 about 23 years after he started the company.
Emergent is now initiating improvements at its Baltimore manufacturing facility as Johnson & Johnson evaluates the future of its Covid vaccine, which the local company has been producing at that site.
