Walking Fish Therapeutics Expands Leadership Team
Promotes Julie Kim, PharmD, MS, to Chief Business Officer
Appoints Nallakkan Arvindan, PhD, MBA, to Chief Technology Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, June 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Walking Fish Therapeutics, a leader in B cell engineering, today announced the promotion of Julie Kim, PharmD, MS, to Chief Business Officer. In this new position, Dr. Kim will lead Walking Fish’s business development endeavors and coordinate the company’s external alliances and strategic planning processes.
“We are delighted to announce the expansion of Julie’s role with Walking Fish,” said Lewis (Rusty) Williams, MD, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Walking Fish Therapeutics. “Her contributions to date are evident across the entire business, from increasing our visibility within the pharmaceutical industry and with key potential strategic partners, as well as streamlining our strategic planning processes. She is already an effective member of senior management, and we are pleased to add her as an officer of the company.”
Walking Fish also announced the appointment of Nallakkan Arvindan, PhD, to Chief Technology Officer. Arvind’s key responsibilities will be focused on our manufacturing processes, to drive innovation and automation that will identify key areas where the company can reduce costs and processing time for its B cell therapy products.
“As we look ahead to what could be the industry’s first commercialized B cell therapy product, we recognize that manufacturing is a key element of any cell therapy’s success. We are thrilled to welcome Arvind to our team,” said Dr. Williams. “Arvind’s technical knowledge and experience in process efficiencies present our company with a unique opportunity to improve manufacturing early in the clinical development process. As a valued colleague during our days together at Five Prime, there is no one more qualified to lead this critical function.”
Julie Kim, PharmD, MS
Julie brings diverse experience in both healthcare investments and drug development. Prior to Walking Fish Therapeutics, she served as Vice President at Quan Capital, responsible for execution and management of biotech investments and served as board observer to several start-up companies, including Walking Fish Therapeutics. Prior to joining Quan Capital, she spent 8 years at Roche and Genentech, in increasing senior roles in pharma partnering, external alliances and oncology clinical operations, and serving in global leadership roles in multiple therapeutic areas including infectious diseases, virology and oncology.
Julie received a PharmD from University of California San Diego, an MS in chemistry from University of San Francisco, and a BA in chemistry and music from Emory University.
Nallakkan Arvindan, PhD, MBA
Dr. Arvindan joins Walking Fish as Chief Technology Officer, from Spotlight Therapeutics, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Spotlight, Dr. Arvindan served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Technology Operations and a member of the executive team at Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. contributing to the development of a first-in-class immuno-oncology pipeline. Prior to Five Prime, Dr. Arvindan served in technology development and operations management roles at IDEXX Laboratories and Symyx Technologies.
Dr. Arvindan received an MBA from University of California Berkeley, a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Nanotechnology from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a BTech in Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering from the Central Electro-Chemical Research Institute, Karaikudi.
About Walking Fish Therapeutics
Walking Fish Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company discovering and developing innovative therapeutics that harness the power of B cells as protein factories and immune modulators. Walking Fish has created a broad technology platform addressing enzyme replacement therapies, oncology, autoimmune disease, and recombinant antibody production. The company’s first program, WFX-001, employs B cells as protein factories to generate a deficient enzyme in Fabry disease. Founded in 2019 by Lewis (Rusty) Williams, MD, PhD, the former CSO of Chiron, co-founder of Cor Therapeutics and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Five Prime Therapeutics, the company has assembled a diverse and experienced team of scientists and business leaders who are committed to bringing life-changing and life-saving therapeutics to patients worldwide. For more information and important updates, please visit http://www.https://www.walkingfishtx.com/
Media Contact:
Georgia Erbez
Chief Operating Officer
media@walkingfishtx.com
