Business
Nkarta Announces Key Senior Leadership Team Appointments
Ralph Brandenberger, PhD, promoted to Chief Technical OfficerYvonne Li, MBA, promoted to Chief Administrative OfficerEvolution of Nkarta leadership team to
About this update from Nkarta, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Ralph Brandenberger, PhD, promoted to Chief Technical OfficerYvonne Li, MBA, promoted to Chief Administrative OfficerEvolution of Nkarta leadership team to support rapid development of allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK cell therapies SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. , July 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nkarta, Inc. (Nasdaq: NKTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies to treat cancer, today announced the promotions of Ralph Brandenberger, PhD, to Chief Technical Officer and Yvonne Li, MBA, to Chief Administrative Officer. “Ralph and Yvonne have each distinguished themselves through their exceptional accomplishments, leadership of collaborative teams and valuable cross-functional contributions to Nkarta,” said Paul J. Hastings, President and CEO of Nkarta. “As Nkarta enters its next stage of growth in preparing for potential future commercialization, their continued leadership will be central to scaling and delivering off-the-shell NK cell therapies for patients.” Dr. Brandenberger oversees technical operations, including process and analytical development, supply chain, manufacturing, and quality for Nkarta’s engineered NK cell therapy candidates. He has more than 20 years of experience in process and analytical development and biopharmaceutical manufacturing with deep experience in end-to-end technical operations and the successful scale-up of complex cell therapy agents. Dr. Brandenberger joined Nkarta in April 2018 and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Technical Operations. Prior to joining Nkarta, he held leadership roles in process development, technical operations and manufacturing of cellular therapeutics at Neurona Therapeutics, Baxter Healthcare, and Geron Corp. Dr. Brandenberger started his scientific career at Celera Genomics. He received his MS in biology and PhD in cell biology from the Biocenter, University of Basel, Switzerland and completed postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. Ms. Li oversees Nkarta’s accounting organization, and associated budgetary and administrative operations, financial and regulatory compliance, and human resources administration. She has nearly 25 years of experience in corporate finance and accounting. Ms. Li joined Nkarta in November 2019 as Senior Vice P...