SAINT-HERBLAIN: Valneva SE a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention against diseases with major unmet needs, has appointed Perry Celentano as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on an interim basis to support the expansion of the manufacturing sites in Livingston and Solna.
Perry Celentano has an extensive track record in the pharma and vaccines industry including roles with Merck, Novartis and Dynavax. Perry will be based at the Company’s Livingston site where the primary production of VLA2001 is taking place. The Company also manufactures its JEV and chikungunya vaccines in Livingston.
Further to the recent announcement that David Lawrence, CFO, will retire at the end of 2020, the Company has re-appointed David as Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) potentially until mid-2021.
David will support the ongoing strategic planning, including Investor Relations, as well as key collaborations, including the COVID vaccine collaboration with the UK Government. The Company had previously announced that David would support the CEO in an advisory capacity in 2021 following his retirement.
Commenting, Thomas Lingelbach, CEO, said, “Valneva is going from strength to strength and it’s important that we continue to build our senior management team. I am delighted to welcome Perry on board; he is a really strong operations and manufacturing expert and leader. He will play a vital role in the execution of our manufacturing strategy for our planned COVID-19 vaccine.
I’m also really pleased that David has agreed to continue helping Valneva and to work with me personally on our near-term objectives. He knows the Company and our investors very well, so will play a pivotal role in executing on our capital formation and growth strategies. These appointments also give the Company time to find the best permanent candidates as we go through an important stage of our evolution.”
Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention against diseases with major unmet needs. The Company has various vaccines in development including unique vaccines against Lyme disease, chikungunya and COVID-19. Valneva has operations in Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the US with over 500 employees.