Xencor Announces Planned Retirement of Chief Financial Officer John Kuch

Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered antibodies and cytokines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, announced that John J. Kuch, senior vice president and chief financial officer, plans to retire in March 2024, after a 23-year career with Xencor and over 40 years in corporate finance. Mr. Kuch will support the search for a new chief financial officer and has agreed to enter into a consulting agreement following a transition period.

“In October 2000, Xencor was a small start-up designing protein sequences, and John joined us then as a finance director, leading all financial functions. We subsequently grew through multiple venture rounds, revenue-generating partnerships and several public financings, and we now have the strong financial position that enables our rich clinical-stage pipeline and leading XmAb protein engineering technology platforms. John notably kept us solvent through the global financial crisis and almost single-handedly completed all financial and accounting aspects for our challenging but ultimately successful IPO in 2013,” said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at Xencor. “On behalf of Xencor’s Board of Directors and our entire team, I would like to thank John for his leadership and more than two decades playing a critical role in our pursuit of creating and advancing new medicines for patients.”

“It has been a privilege, an honor and a pleasure to work with my bright and talented colleagues at Xencor on the development of novel technologies and medicines that could improve patient lives. Our growth from a research organization built around world class protein engineering capabilities into a development-stage organization, supported by successful capital financings and revenues from multiple partner-marketed products, is an accomplishment of which I’m incredibly proud,” said Mr. Kuch. “Over the coming months, I look forward to supporting the search for an experienced finance executive and subsequent transition of responsibilities and oversight of several key supportive functions. And I certainly plan to follow Xencor’s progress with confidence, as the Company continues to advance the most promising candidates in the pipeline.”