Benzinga | Jun 23, 2021 08:22AM EDT

Gritstone Names Celia Economides As CFO

Gritstone bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next generation cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies, today announced the appointment of Celia Economides as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Separately, the company announced that Roman Yelensky, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief technology officer, will be stepping down to co-found and lead a new startup in the cancer diagnostics space, working alongside a major healthcare investor.



Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Gritstone, remarked, "Celia brings a diverse and well-rounded background to the CFO role for Gritstone, including leadership experience in business and finance strategy, investor and corporate communications, medical affairs, and business analytics. Her expertise in these areas will serve our fast-growing company well as we continue to advance our cancer and infectious disease platforms. Celia will lead our established finance and accounting operations, as well as enhance our investor relations capabilities."

Dr. Allen continued, "Additionally, I would like to extend my best wishes and gratitude to Roman, who solved a tough problem -- using nucleic acid sequence data to drive high quality prediction of peptides that are processed and presented by HLA molecules on the surface of cancerous or virally infected target cells. This breakthrough formed the basis of the Gritstone EDGETM platform, which continues to be leveraged and enhanced by our machine learning, genomics, proteomics, and immunology teams to drive target discovery across Gritstone's programs. I wish him great success in his new endeavor."

Ms. Economides was most recently senior vice president, Strategy and External Affairs at Kezar Life Sciences, Inc., a public company targeting immune-mediated diseases and cancer. Before joining Kezar in 2019, she served as vice president, Corporate Affairs at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public company that delivered the first FDA-approved oral treatment (an immunotherapy) for lupus nephritis. Previously, she served as director of Global Medical Affairs and director of Clinical Operations at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc. after the company's acquisition of Prosensa where she led IR and corporate communications. Earlier in her career, she led investor relations and program development at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and worked at a healthcare-focused hedge fund and in financial services focusing on the biotech sector. Ms. Economides received a B.A. from McGill University and an M.P.H. in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University.

Ms. Economides added, "I am thrilled to join Gritstone's executive team during this pivotal year for the company as we expand our pipeline to maximize the benefit we might deliver to patients. Our two new infectious disease programs are supported by key strategic partnerships and complement our foundational oncology programs. With key data from the individualized neoantigen-directed GRANITE program in cancer expected this fall, and the "off-the-shelf" SLATE program embarking upon its second phase imminently, the company is poised for significant near and long-term growth. The Gritstone platform has enormous potential utility, and I am excited to help shape the future of the company and unlock the immense value of antigen-directed immunotherapy."