- Neha Krishnamohan brings extensive experience across strategic growth, business development, M&A and financing
- Jennifer Bush, Esq., who brings 14 years of executive leadership, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer
Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage company whose mission is to deliver broadly accessible, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies to patients suffering from devastating autoimmune diseases and cancers, today announced the appointment of Neha Krishnamohan as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and the promotion of Jennifer Bush to Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Krishnamohan brings a wealth of financial and strategic leadership to Artiva with her investment banking experience and most recently CFO operating experience. Ms. Bush has been a critical member of Artiva’s executive team since 2020. The appointment of Ms. Krishnamohan and promotion of Ms. Bush are expected to support Artiva's growth and overall strategic objectives.
“I am very pleased to welcome Neha to our team,” said Fred Aslan, M.D., CEO of Artiva. “Neha’s perspectives as a finance industry executive and long-standing Wall Street experience as an investment banker will be valuable as we pursue our mission to develop effective, safe, and accessible cell therapies for patients with devastating autoimmune diseases and cancers.”
Prior to joining Artiva, Ms. Krishnamohan served as the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Kinnate Biopharma Inc., a clinical stage precision oncology company where she led the company’s financial operations, business development and investor relations / communications functions. Ms. Krishnamohan was also a leader on Kinnate's exploration of strategic alternatives, which resulted in a successful asset sale to Pierre Fabre Laboratories and the sale of Kinnate to XOMA Corporation. Prior to Kinnate, Ms. Krishnamohan was a Vice President in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group and a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Group within the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs where she worked for over 12 years. In this role, Ms. Krishnamohan established herself as a senior leader in the healthcare coverage group, working with a variety of biopharmaceutical boards and management teams on a broad range of strategic financial matters and executing financings, as well as leading M&A transactions. Ms. Krishnamohan has successfully executed over $100 billion in transactions in the biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and tools/diagnostics sectors.
Ms. Krishnamohan holds a B.S.E in biomedical engineering and economics from Duke University. Ms. Krishnamohan also serves on the board of directors of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc.
“I am honored to be joining Artiva, a company that is committed to transforming the lives of patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer as it approaches an exciting year following the dosing of the first patient in its Phase 1 trial of AlloNK® cell therapy candidate in lupus nephritis. I look forward to partnering with Artiva's talented management team and board to advance Artiva's strategic and financial objectives." said Ms. Krishnamohan. "Artiva has the potential to transform the treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases through its differentiated 'manufacturing first' approach to NK cell therapies bringing expanded accessibility and availability relative to autologous cell therapy."
Ms. Bush is a seasoned leader in corporate strategy and governance, legal, regulatory people and culture, information technology, government relations, and operations. She joined Artiva in 2020 as General Counsel and became Chief Legal & People Officer in 2021. She will continue to hold the responsibilities of Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary and Compliance Officer following her promotion to Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Artiva, Ms. Bush was Senior Vice President, General Counsel of Organovo, Inc., a tissue engineering company where she led the company’s legal, human resources, regulatory, and government relations functions. Prior to that, Ms. Bush was Associate General Counsel of Broadcom, a fabless semiconductor company, where she was responsible for the company’s international regulatory compliance, international government relations, and legal aspects of the company’s participation in more than 100 standard setting organizations. Ms. Bush began her career as a commercial and intellectual property litigator at Fish & Richardson, where she spent 10 years representing companies in the life science, medical device, and software industries.
Ms. Bush received her B.A. in history and Latin American studies from Princeton University and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Ms. Bush also serves on the board of directors of the San Diego Association of Corporate Counsel.
“At Artiva, people are our most important asset, and I am thrilled to recognize Jennifer with a promotion that further strengthens Artiva’s potential for success and reflects her immense contributions and impact to Artiva’s growth over the past four years,” said Dr. Aslan. “Jennifer has been instrumental negotiating our key strategic transactions, financing the company through offerings that have raised over $200 million, and building and leading Artiva’s legal, people and culture, finance, information technology, and administrative functions.”
About Artiva Biotherapeutics
Artiva is a clinical-stage company whose mission is to deliver broadly accessible, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies to patients suffering from devastating autoimmune diseases and cancers. Artiva’s lead program, AlloNK®, is a non-genetically modified, allogeneic, cryopreserved NK cell therapy candidate being developed to enhance the activity of B-cell targeting monoclonal antibodies to drive B-cell depletion. Artiva’s pipeline also includes a pipeline of CAR-NK candidates targeting both solid and hematologic cancers. Artiva’s cell therapy manufacturing platform incorporates cell expansion, activation, and engineering technology developed by Artiva’s strategic partner, GC Cell Corporation, a member of the GC family of companies, a leading healthcare company in Korea. Artiva is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, visit www.artivabio.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425583818/en/
Contacts
Investors: Nicholas Veomett, Ph.D., Artiva Biotherapeutics, ir@artivabio.com
Media: Jessica Yingling, Ph.D., Little Dog Communications Inc., jessica@litldog.com, +1.858.344.8091