Melinda Moree, the Seattle-based CEO of a group that serves as a liaison between for-profit biotech and nonprofit global health organizations, is moving on.
Moree is stepping down as CEO of BIO Ventures for Global Health, a nonprofit seeks to help develop biotech innovations like drugs, vaccines and diagnostics that can be applied in poor countries where they otherwise wouldn’t be developed. Moree, who has been in the job for about two and a half years, is being replaced on Feb. 1 by Don Joseph, the organization’s chief operating officer. Moree, who had been CEO of the organization since July 2009, will stick around as a part-time executive chair of BIO Ventures for Global Health.
The move by Moree is the latest in a string of executive comings and goings in the global health community. PATH president Chris Elias announced three weeks ago that he’s resigning after 11 years at the helm of the Seattle-based nonprofit to run anti-poverty programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And Christian Loucq, the director of the PATH-supported Malaria Vaccine Initiative, is also leaving his position.
Moree didn’t immediately respond this afternoon to a request for comment about her departure. But Robert Chess, the chairman of Nektar Therapeutics and former chairman of the board at BIO Ventures for Global Health, said in a statement the executive moves were part of a planned process.
“My decision has been made much easier knowing that Don Joseph, with his passion and drive for solving global health problems, will be taking over as CEO,” Moree said in a statement. “I am very pleased to continue my involvement with BIO Ventures for Global Health through this new position on the Board.”
