Mersana Therapeutics appoints Martin Huber as CEO

Mersana Therapeutics announced the retirement of Anna Protopapas, President and CEO, effective September 10 and the appointment of Martin Huber, current member of the Board of Directors, as President and CEO, effective September 11. Huber and Protopapas will both remain members of Mersana’s Board of Directors following the transition. Huber has been a member of Mersana’s Board of Directors since 2020 and joins the company from Xilio Therapeutics, where he most recently served as President, Head of R&D and, prior to that, as Chief Medical Officer. Before joining Xilio, he served as Chief Medical Officer at TESARO. Mersana also announced additional changes to the company’s executive team. Brian DeSchuytner, who joined the company in 2019 and has served as Senior Vice President, CFO, since 2021, has been named Senior Vice President, COO and CFO. He will continue to serve as the company’s principal financial officer while overseeing its finance, investor relations, business development, information technology and human resources functions. Mohan Bala, who has served as Senior Vice President, Strategic Product Planning & Program Leadership since 2021, has been named Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer and will lead the company’s clinical and translational medicine, clinical operations, biometrics, product planning and program leadership functions. Additionally, Ashish Mandelia, who joined the company as Vice President, Controller in 2019, has been appointed Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer. In conjunction with these changes, Chief Medical Officer Arvin Yang, and Chief People Officer Carla Poulson will be departing Mersana, effective September 29.