BioNTech expands board with James Ryan as chief legal officer
15.08.2023 13:10
BioNTech announced that the supervisory board Dr. James Ryan has been appointed to the Board of Directors as Chief Legal Officer (CLO) effective September 1, 2023. As part of the Board of Directors, James Ryan will continue to lead the legal aspects of the company's strategy and global legal affairs, including, but not limited to, transactions, corporate governance, securities, intellectual property ("IP"), insurance and data protection. Prior to his appointment to the Board, James Ryan served as the company's General Counsel and Senior Vice President Legal & IP.
“We are pleased to welcome James Ryan to the Board. Since joining BioNTech in 2018, he has been a trusted advisor and proven leader. He is distinguished by his international, comprehensive expertise in crucial legal and compliance areas of the healthcare sector,” said Helmut Jeggle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of BioNTech. “James Ryan has played a critical role in BioNTech's evolution from a private to a globally integrated biopharmaceutical company. He has an exceptional combination of scientific and legal expertise and has contributed to BioNTech's continued success and growth. We also appreciate James Ryan for his contributions to strengthening BioNTech’s unique culture and his commitment to continuing to do so in the future.”
“BioNTech is in a crucial development phase. As our pipeline candidates progress into more advanced stages of clinical development, we are already working on trials with regulatory potential and are focused on building commercial capacity for potential launches,” said Dr. James Ryan, Senior Vice President Legal & IP and designated Chief Legal Officer at BioNTech. “I believe that BioNTech has a unique opportunity to help improve the health of people worldwide and look forward to contributing to the fulfillment of this important mission as a member of the Board of Directors.”
James Ryan has around 20 years of legal and IP experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has worked for BioNTech since 2018. Since then, he has successfully led the company through a variety of core business, IP and transactional activities, capital markets transactions (including the company's initial public offering in 2019), mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships. He and his teams played an important role in the successful development of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and are supporting the company in all aspects of the program, including launch and commercialization.
James Ryan holds a PhD in epigenetics from the University of St Andrews and is a member of the Law Society of England & Wales and the Law Society of Ireland.