San Diego biotech Celladon Corp. has appointed industry veteran Paul Cleveland as its new president and chief financial officer. Cleveland most recently was CFO of Aragon Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego drugmaker sold to Johnson & Johnson last August for $1 billion.
Celladon began trading publicly Jan. 30 of this year with a $44 million IPO; its most advanced drug, Mydicar, uses gene therapy to target an enzyme that’s deficient in patients with heart failure.
Before Cleveland’s tenure at Aragon, he was a general partner and chief operating officer of Menlo Park firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. From 2006 to 2011 he served in leadership roles – including CFO — of Affymax Inc., a publicly traded Bay Area biotech. He has served as a JPMorgan investment banker, as well as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell, Sidley & Austin, and Cooley LLP.
“We expect Paul’s vast experience as a senior industry executive will lead to important contributions to Celladon,” CEO Krisztina Zsebo said in a statement. “We look forward to his expertise and leadership as we further advance Mydicar through development and toward commercialization.”
