SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar
Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) today announced that it has
appointed Karin Eastham as an
independent director to its Board of Directors. Ms. Eastham brings
more than 35 years of experience as both an executive and
independent director in the biotechnology industry, with particular
expertise in finance and operations. Prior to her retirement in
2008, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer and Trustee of the Burnham Institute for Medical
Research.
"Karin is an experienced and highly-regarded leader in the life
sciences industry, with particular expertise in finance, accounting
and corporate governance," said Howard W.
Robin, President and CEO of Nektar Therapeutics. "We are
delighted that she is bringing her insight and acumen to our Board
as we continue to advance our immuno-oncology, immunology and pain
programs."
In her position at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research
(now called the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery
Institute), Ms. Eastham was responsible for managing all
non-scientific operations of the Institute, including overseeing
business development and strategic planning. Prior to that, she was
Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for
Diversa Corporation, a global leader in developing products for the
pharmaceutical and other industries using genomic technologies.
Before Diversa, she held the role of Vice President of Finance and
Administration and Chief Financial Officer at CombiChem, Inc., a
computational drug discovery company, and Cytel Corporation, a
biopharmaceutical company. Earlier in her career, she was Vice
President of Finance at Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostic. She began
her career on the audit staff of Price Waterhouse.
"I'm excited to join Nektar's Board and collaborate with other
Board members and Nektar's executive leadership team to contribute
to the company's mission of developing and delivering innovative
medicines for patients living with cancer, auto-immune disease and
chronic pain," said Ms. Eastham. "During my thirty-plus year career
in biopharma as both an executive and an independent director, I've
had multiple opportunities to help companies grow strategically. I
look forward to bringing my expertise and experience to Nektar as a
new Board member."
In addition to Nektar, Ms. Eastham currently serves as a Board
member for Illumina, Inc., Geron, Inc., and Veracyte, Inc.
Previously, she has served on the public company boards of
Morphosys AG, Trius Therapeutics, Inc., Amylin, Inc., Genoptix,
Inc., Tercica, Inc., and SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She has also
served on several not-for-profit boards, including the Burnham
Institute for Medical Research, Moores Cancer Center at UC San
Diego, and the San Diego Symphony.
Ms. Eastham received both a B.S. in accounting and an M.B.A. in
finance from Indiana University.
Dennis L. Winger, a member of our
Board of Directors retired from the Board of Directors effective as
of September 26, 2018.
About Nektar Therapeutics
Nektar
Therapeutics is a research-based development stage
biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover and develop
innovative medicines to address the unmet medical needs of
patients. Our R&D pipeline of new investigational medicines
includes treatments for cancer, auto-immune disease and chronic
pain. We leverage Nektar's proprietary and proven chemistry
platform in the discovery and design of our new therapeutic
candidates. Nektar is headquartered in San Francisco,
California, with additional
operations in Huntsville, Alabama and Hyderabad,
India. Further information about
the company and its drug development programs and capabilities may
be found online at http://www.nektar.com.
Contacts:
For Investors:
Jennifer Ruddock of Nektar
Therapeutics
415-482-5585
Jodi Sievers of Nektar
Therapeutics
415-482-5593
For Media:
Dan Budwick of 1AB
973-271-6085
dan@1abmedia.com
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SOURCE Nektar Therapeutics