Gelesis Holdings, Inc. announced that Mr. Yishai Zohar, age 60, the company President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors, was appointed by the company board of directors on August 16, 2023 to succeed Mr. Maltz as Interim Principal Financial Officer, effective as of August 15, 2023. Prior to his appointment as Interim Principal Financial Officer, Mr. Zohar has been serving as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors since January 2022. Mr. Zohar will continue to serve as the Companys President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Zohar is the founder of Gelesis, Inc. and previously served as entrepreneur and has over 25 years experience in the development of industry innovating companies. Mr. Zohar led the Company from concept stage and initial product development as a Co-Inventor and shepherded the company and its novel technological platform through clinical studies and a landmark FDA clearance of lead product Plenity as an aid for weight management. Prior to founding Gelesis, Inc., Mr. Zohar co-founded PureTech Health.

In his role at PureTech, Mr. Zohar led the obesity/gastrointestinal disorder initiative, which engaged leading experts to tackle these problems with an unbiased discovery process looking at a broad landscape of technologies and approaches. This initiative led to the formation of Gelesis, Inc. Mr. Zohar has a degree in Business Administration from the College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS) in Tel Aviv and was an air force pilot ranked Captain in the Israeli Defense Forces.