Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. announced key leadership appointments to drive its next phase of growth and operational success. Doug Kerr, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, has been appointed chief medical officer (CMO) succeeding Wildon Farwell, M.D., MPH, who is stepping down from his role and will remain at Dyne full-time through the end of 2024 to assist in the continued successful execution of the company?s clinical plans, including advancing its myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) programs toward registration. In addition, Johanna Friedl-Naderer is joining Dyne as chief commercial officer and Lucia Celona has been appointed chief human resources officer.
Doug Kerr, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, chief medical officer (CMO), brings more than 25 years of expertise in early-and late-stage clinical development, with deep experience in neurology. For the last year, Dr. Kerr was a venture partner at Atlas Venture. From 2017 to 2023, he was an integral member of Generation Bio, joining initially as the head of research and development and most recently serving as its CMO.
Previously, he oversaw neurology-focused franchises at Shire, and prior to that he held senior positions at Biogen where he was the global lead for a series of programs in Alzheimer?s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Dr. Kerr holds a B.A. in biochemistry from Princeton University and an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College, as well as his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Thomas Jefferson University. He obtained his MBA, with a specialization in entrepreneurship and finance from Northeastern University and completed his medical residency at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served on their faculty for 10 years.
Johanna Friedl-Naderer, chief commercial officer (CCO), brings more than two decades of biopharmaceutical industry experience in global commercialization including product launches in rare disease. Most recently Ms. Friedl-Naderer served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Vir Biotechnology in the field of infectious disease. As president Europe, Canada & Partner Markets for Biogen, she led her team to successfully launch multiple specialty and rare disease products across 35 markets, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients.
Ms. Friedl-Naderer was a member of Biogen?s global leadership team where she was accountable for the entire portfolio across therapeutic areas in her respective geographic region and managed a multibillion-dollar financial portfolio which doubled under her leadership. During her more than 20-year tenure at Biogen, she held positions of increasing responsibility across a wide range of functions, building and leading teams in advancing access to medicines for the treatment of devastating neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis, SMA, ALS and Alzheimer?s disease. Ms. Friedl-Naderer has also served on several boards including the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA).
Lucia Celona, chief human resources officer (CHRO), brings more than 30 years of experience in organizational design and effectiveness, talent management and developing programs that enhance employee engagement and drive operational excellence. At Biogen, she served as the vice president of HR for pharmaceutical operations & technology, where she was the lead HR business partner responsible for the strategic partnership with senior leaders and driving HR strategies that enabled commercial success. Following her tenure at Biogen, she became the chief HR and communications officer at Bioverativ playing an integral role in building a global rare disease organization to support multiple product launches.
Additionally, she oversaw the HR and corporate communications functions at Apellis, supporting the organizational build to commercial launch. From 2020-2022, she served as CHRO for Repertoire Immune Medicines, where she collaborated with leadership to build the organization, develop talent, and design effective people programs. Most recently, she operated her own consulting practice focused on providing fractional CHRO services to small to mid-size life sciences companies. Ms. Celona earned her B.S. in accounting from Bentley University.
In addition, the company announced that Susanna High, MBA, chief operating officer, and Jonathan McNeill, M.D., chief business officer, have decided to step down from their roles to pursue other opportunities.