Geron Corporation Announces Appointment of Jim Ziegler as Chief Commercial Officer

Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to change lives by changing the course of blood cancer, announced the appointment of Jim Ziegler as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, effective today, September 9, 2024. In this role, Mr. Ziegler will spearhead Geron’s global commercial strategy and operations, lead the commercial organization and be responsible for driving growth of RYTELO. Mr. Ziegler has more than 25 years of commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning leadership, strategic and operational roles in both large and smaller organizations.

“Jim brings to Geron an impressive track record of operational excellence, having led multiple high performing teams through product launches. We are thrilled to welcome Jim at this critical time when RYTELO is commercially available in the U.S. and we are seeing encouraging uptake since its launch at the end of June 2024,” said John A. Scarlett, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In addition to having operational experience in functional areas of commercial teams that were key to the success of new product launches, including national sales organizations, global marketing, and market access and strategy, Jim has also demonstrated deep leadership capabilities across organizations that we believe will help us maximize the commercial potential of RYTELO and drive long-term value for our business.”

Mr. Ziegler joins Geron from Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., where he served as Executive Vice President, Commercial, with global responsibilities for the company’s novel autologous cell therapy program and led the U.S. commercial launch of Amtagvi for patients with previously treated advanced melanoma. Previously, he served in numerous commercial roles at Gilead Sciences, Inc., most recently as Vice President, Cardiopulmonary and Inflammation Business Unit. He also led the U.S. launch team for Gilead’s first approved oncology product and supported the launch of several multibillion-dollar antiviral products for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis (HCV and HBV) franchises. His earlier experience included commercial roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen, Amgen and Pfizer. Prior to the biopharmaceutical industry, he served as an Armor Officer in the U.S. Army. Mr. Ziegler received a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.