Alector Announces Appointment of Shehnaaz Suliman, M.D., MBA, M.Phil., as President and Chief Operating Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Dec. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alector, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALEC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering immuno-neurology, today announced the appointment of Shehnaaz Suliman, M.D., MBA, M.Phil., as the company’s president and chief operating officer. In this new role, Dr. Suliman will oversee Alector’s day-to-day operations, including preclinical development, program management, and strategic and administrative functions. Dr. Suliman will report to Arnon Rosenthal, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Alector.

“Shehnaaz’s background and expertise in drug development, strategy, portfolio management, and operational leadership uniquely position her to bring greater integration to our operations. Her strong track record of building and leading teams that can support the development of life-changing medicines comes at a key inflection point for Alector as we prepare to launch our first registrational trial in 2020,” said Dr. Rosenthal. “Shehnaaz’s core leadership strengths will be invaluable to our entire organization, and we look forward to leveraging her insights as a thought partner and leader at Alector.”

“Neurodegeneration affects millions of patients and families worldwide, and I am proud to be supporting Alector’s mission to find a cure for these diseases. As the leader in immuno-neurology, Alector has made substantial progress in rapidly advancing a broad clinical portfolio of novel and innovative programs,” said Dr. Suliman. “As we advance our lead programs into late-stage clinical development and continue to progress our research pipeline, I look forward to partnering with the team to further our vision for finding cures for neurodegenerative diseases. I am excited to be joining the company at this important time and look forward to helping Alector execute our objectives and scale our organization effectively.”

Dr. Suliman brings over 20 years of business development, drug development, strategic and operational expertise, and executive leadership skills to Alector. She joins Alector from Theravance Biopharma, where she served as senior vice president, corporate development and strategy, a position she held from July 2017 to March 2019. Prior to Theravance, Dr. Suliman worked for Genentech as a group leader and project team leader in the R&D Portfolio Management and Operations Group from September 2010 to May 2015 where she led and oversaw a number of neuroscience development programs. She was also vice president and global therapeutic head, Roche Partnering from June 2015 to July 2017. Dr. Suliman held various management roles of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences between January 2005 and September 2010. Before Gilead, Dr. Suliman was an investment banker with Lehman Brothers and Petkevich & Partners, advising public and private companies on buy- and sell-side transactions. She is a member of the board of directors of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, a biopharmaceutical company, and 10X Genomics, a life science technology company. Dr. Suliman received her M.D. from the University of Cape Town Medical School, South Africa, and holds an MBA, with distinction, and M.Phil. in development studies from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.