MyoKardia Announces Appointment of Denelle J. Waynick as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
MyoKardia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MYOK) has appointed Denelle Waynick as the new General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, effective immediately. With over 25 years of experience in legal and business roles, Waynick previously served at UCB and Actavis. She succeeds Cynthia Ladd, who will retire this year after leading the legal department since January 2018. CEO Tassos Gianakakos praised Waynick for her leadership and relevant experience in advancing the company’s precision cardiovascular medicines as they approach commercialization.
- Denelle Waynick brings over 25 years of relevant legal expertise in the healthcare sector.
- Her appointment is expected to strengthen leadership as the company moves towards commercialization of its therapies.
- Cynthia Ladd's retirement may create concerns about continuity within the legal department.
BRISBANE, Calif., July 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MyoKardia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MYOK) today announced the appointment of Denelle Waynick as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Waynick joins MyoKardia from UCB, Inc., bringing more than 25 years of domestic and international legal and business expertise in the healthcare and life-science industry.
Cynthia Ladd, who has been leading MyoKardia’s legal function as General Counsel since January 2018, will be retiring this year.
“Denelle is a great leader, with an enterprise mindset, hands-on style and deep focus on people and their development. She is passionate about improving the lives of people with serious illnesses and helping us continue to build an incredible company. Denelle’s leadership and depth of highly relevant commercial, R&D, regulatory and operational experience will serve MyoKardia well as we approach commercialization and continue to grow our pipeline of precision cardiovascular medicines,” said Tassos Gianakakos, MyoKardia’s Chief Executive Officer.
“At the same time, I want to congratulate Cynthia on her retirement and recognize the many important contributions she made during her time at MyoKardia and also throughout her career in biotech. She is a true pioneer and played an important part of establishing the bay area biotech ecosystem, including while at Genentech in the 90’s and with the companies she’s helped lead since. On behalf of your MyoKardia family, thank you.”
Ms. Waynick most recently served as Vice President, Legal Affairs (US), US General Counsel & Head of Global Enterprise Risk Management at UCB. In this role, Ms. Waynick served as the secretary and a member of the company’s US Board of Directors overseeing its governance while also serving as a member of the US Leadership Team, which oversees corporate operations. During her tenure at UCB, she relocated to UCB’s headquarters in Belgium for a year where she provided counsel to the global business units, including commercial operations, R&D, and the regulatory team. Prior to UCB, Ms. Waynick oversaw legal operations as Vice President, Legal Affairs, Global Brands at Actavis, Inc. (now AbbVie). In this role, she served as part of the global brand’s executive team helping to lead the company’s strategic growth plans through product in-licensing agreements and several acquisitions. She served as Legal Director at Schering-Plough (now Merck) where she provided legal support to the company’s multi-million-dollar virology, respiratory and oncology product franchises on a myriad of legal and compliance issues. In addition to her roles as in-house counsel, Ms. Waynick was Chief of Staff for the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General. She began her legal career in the corporate law department of Paul Hastings in Los Angeles. Several years later, she joined the healthcare group at Gibbons P.C., in Newark, New Jersey, where she ultimately served as Partner.
Ms. Waynick holds a Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Newark.
About MyoKardia
MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases. The company is pioneering a precision medicine approach to its discovery and development efforts by 1) understanding the biomechanical underpinnings of disease; 2) targeting the proteins that modulate a given condition; 3) identifying patient populations with shared disease characteristics; and 4) applying learnings from research and clinical studies to inform and guide pipeline growth and product advancement. MyoKardia’s initial focus is on small molecule therapeutics aimed at the proteins of the heart that modulate cardiac muscle contraction to address diseases driven by excessive contraction, impaired relaxation, or insufficient contraction. Among its discoveries are three clinical-stage therapeutics: mavacamten (formerly MYK-461); danicamtiv (formerly MYK-491) and MYK-224.
MyoKardia’s mission is to change the world for people with serious cardiovascular disease through bold and innovative science.
Contacts
Michelle Corral
Executive Director, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations
MyoKardia, Inc.
650-351-4690
ir@myokardia.com
Hannah Deresiewicz (investors)
Stern Investor Relations, Inc.
212-362-1200
hannah.deresiewicz@sternir.com
Julie Normant (media)
W2O
628-213-3754
jnormart@w2ogroup.com
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