Margaret Hamburg (right) has announced her resignation as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, effective this month. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the US Senate in May 2009, she is one of the longest-serving FDA commissioners in the modern era, overseeing public health initiatives ranging from tobacco control and food safety to personalized medicine and drug approvals. Under Hamburg, the agency introduced multiple measures to speed new products to the market. Fifty-one new drugs were approved in 2014, the most in almost 20 years. FDA chief scientist Stephen Ostroff will serve as interim commissioner until a permanent successor is named.

ZS Pharma (Coppell, TX, USA) has named Martin Babler to its board of directors. Babler currently serves as CEO of Principia Biopharma, and he was previously president and CEO of Talima Therapeutics.

Laguna Pharmaceuticals (La Jolla, CA, USA), previously known as ChanRx, has named Bob Baltera as its new CEO. Baltera led Amira Pharmaceuticals until its $475-million acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2011.

Blueprint Medicines (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Anthony (Andy) Boral as senior vice president, clinical development. He joins the company from Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he served as executive director, oncology clinical research.

Onxeo (Paris) has announced that Elisabeth Carstensen and Graham Dixon have been added to its management team. Carstensen, formerly director of business development and partnership management at Topotarget, has been appointed director of alliance management, and Dixon, most recently director of R&D at Galapagos NV, has been named CSO and head of R&D.

Regen BioPharma (San Diego) has announced that it has appointed Todd Caven to serve as CFO. Caven is the co-founder of venture capital firms Saguaro Capital Partners and Rock Ridge Enterprises. In addition, Regen has named Christine Ichim to the position of director of molecular therapeutics.

GlaxoSmithKline (London) has announced the retirement of US pharma operations president Deirdre Connelly. She will be succeeded by Jack Bailey, who was most recently senior vice president for policy, payers and vaccines. The change is effective immediately.

Armetheon (Menlo Park, CA, USA) has named John (Jack) F. Glenn as CFO. Glenn brings 25 years of healthcare industry experience, most recently serving as CFO of publicly traded Solta Medical, and CFO, vice president of finance, treasurer and secretary at publicly traded Cholestech.

Vaccinogen (Frederick, MD, USA) has appointed Ronald W. Kaiser to its board of directors as a member of the nominating and corporate governance committees and as chair of the audit committee. Kaiser has more than 35 years of financial and accounting expertise, and currently serves on the boards of Tangoe, Inc. and Acetylon Pharmaceuticals. Previously he served as CFO at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals and PharmAthene.

Ryan Maynard has been named a director and chair of the audit committee of cancer drug developer Lion Biotechnologies (Los Angeles). He joined Rigel Pharmaceuticals in 2001, where he currently serves as executive vice president and CFO.

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) has announced the appointment of Sean P. Nolan to its board of directors. Nolan has more than 20 years of biopharma experience, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief business officer at Intermune. Previously, he served as chief commercial officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals.

Erik Nordkamp has been named the new managing director and head of global innovative pharmaceutical business for Pfizer UK (Tadworth, UK). He replaces Jonathan Emms, who was appointed global marketing lead for Pfizer's global established pharmaceutical business. Nordkamp joined Pfizer in 2010, and previously worked with Pfizer Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

Mayo Pujols has been appointed vice president, manufacturing for cancer immunotherapies developer Advaxis (Princeton, NJ, USA). He brings to Advaxis more than 22 years of experience in global commercial and clinical manufacturing and product development strategy. Most recently, Pujols served as executive director, technical operations for Merck, Sharp & Dohme, the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co.

Nabriva Therapeutics (Vienna) has announced the appointment of Charles Rowland to its board of directors and Steven Gelone as chief development officer. Rowland was most recently vice president and CFO of ViroPharma until its acquisition by Shire last year. Prior to joining ViroPharma in 2008, he was the executive vice president and CFO, as well as the interim co-CEO for Endo Pharmaceuticals. Gelone was most recently head of clinical R&D at Spark Therapeutics and was previously vice president of development at ViroPharma.

SAGE Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has appointed Amy Schacterle vice president of regulatory affairs and quality assurance. She brings to SAGE 22 years of experience in the biotech and life sciences industries, most recently serving as vice president, regulatory affairs at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals (previously Sepracor).

Albany Molecular Research (Albany, NY, USA) has named Jimmy Wang to the newly created position of chief information officer, replacing the retiring Carl Neumann, senior director, information technology. Most recently, Wang served as senior vice president and chief information officer at OPKO Health. Before that, he was senior vice president and chief information officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.