SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Tenaya Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of novel therapies for heart failure, announced the appointment of Faraz Ali as Chief Executive Officer.
“We are thrilled to bring Faraz on board as the new CEO,” said David Goeddel, Ph.D., Managing Partner at The Column Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Tenaya. “The Board felt his strategic vision, track record of relevant operational experience, and commitment to building a leading heart failure company over the long-term make him an outstanding choice for Tenaya.”
Mr. Ali will take over leadership of the company from JJ Kang, Ph.D., a Principal at The Column Group who has served as Tenaya’s founding President. Dr. Kang will continue to serve on the Board. “Faraz’s previous experiences with novel therapies for rare diseases as well as for larger indications will be a great asset to Tenaya as the company evaluates and advances its research pipeline towards the clinic. The breadth of his business experiences is an excellent complement to the deep scientific expertise at Tenaya,” said Dr. Kang.
“I am very excited to join forces with the Tenaya team, The Column Group, and the Gladstone Institutes at this important inflection point for the company and for the gene therapy field,” said Faraz. “I have been impressed with the quality and pace of science at Tenaya, and I look forward to building out the team and capabilities that we need to bring this science forward to the clinic and to advance therapies that can have a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals living with heart failure.”
Mr. Ali was most recently Chief Business Officer at REGENXBIO, where he had accountability for corporate development, commercial planning, portfolio strategy, alliance management, and corporate communications. Prior to that, he was a Vice President at bluebird bio, where he had accountability for new product planning, program management, patient advocacy, and external affairs. Mr. Ali also had roles of increasing global commercial leadership at Genzyme Corporation, where he helped launch multiple first-in-class enzyme replacement therapies for rare diseases. He started his career at General Electric, including technical roles at GE Healthcare and business assignments at GE Corporate. Mr. Ali received his M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School and his B.S. degree from Stanford University.
About Tenaya Therapeutics
Tenaya Therapeutics is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company backed by The Column Group. The Company was founded in 2016 by leading scientists from the Gladstone Institute’s Cardiovascular Division and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Tenaya is dedicated to addressing heart failure through multipronged efforts that target the fundamental cellular pathologies present in diseased cardiac muscle and that leverage cutting-edge research in cardiac development and regeneration. Tenaya has a lead gene therapy program focused on in vivo reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts to cardiomyocytes to regenerate heart tissue, and additional programs focused on cardiomyopathies.
Tenaya Therapeutics is headquartered in South San Francisco, California, USA. For more information, please visit the company’s website at https://www.tenayatherapeutics.com and LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/tenaya-therapeutics/.
SOURCE Tenaya Therapeutics
