Velan Inc. announced that its board of directors has appointed Mr. James Mannebach, Chair of the Board of Directors of Velan, as interim CEO of Velan. This appointment follows the decision from Mr. Bruno Carbonaro to resign from his positions of President, CEO and director of Velan, effective as of October 10, 2023. Mr. Rishi Sharma has also been promoted to Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, to oversee all of Velan's administrative functions in addition to his oversight of the financial team.

Mr. Mannebach has been a director of Velan since 2018 and the Chair of the board of directors of Velan since 2020. Mr. Mannebach, BSBA, MBA, CPA, is CEO of Power-Sonic Corporation, a leading global provider of power supply and energy storage solutions and Managing Partner of Blackbird Group LLC, a private equity investment and management firm. Prior to March 2009, he was Group President and CEO of IMI PLC's Precision Engineering business, a global engineering firm focused on motion and fluid control technologies.

Prior to September 2004, Mr. Mannebach was Group Vice President of the Industrial Technology group of Roper Technologies, a leading global provider of process control, fluid metering and pump systems. Prior to 2003, Mr. Mannebach was employed by Emerson where he served as a Corporate Officer and in the company's process control business group which focuses on process management, control valves, fluid metering and control solutions including senior leadership positions at Fisher Controls, Rosemont and Micro Motion. Prior to 1988, Mr. Mannebach started his professional career at the global accounting, tax and advisory firm of Deloitte. As Managing Partner of Blackbird, Mr. Mannebach serves on the board of directors of Power-Sonic Corporation.

Mr. Rishi Sharma has been the Chief Financial Officer of Velan since May 2022. Before that, Rishi Sharma began his career at Deloitte & Touche in 2005 and progressed to lead finance departments in the aerospace and rail manufacturing industry through senior roles across Alstom SA and Bombardier since 2008. Rishi is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and has a bachelor's degree in commerce with a Major in Accounting and Minor in Corporate Finance from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.

He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accountancy from the John Molson School of Business.