Seres Therapeutics, Inc. announced that Marella Thorell will join as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as of March 25th, 2024, following David Arkowitz?s retirement. Mr. Arkowitz has served as CFO since June 2021 and will be available to assist in the transition. Ms. Thorell is a seasoned enterprise leader with deep life sciences and biotechnology industry experience in both public and private companies.

Prior to joining Seres, she served in executive positions with Evelo Biosciences, Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Palladio Biosciences and Realm Therapeutics. Ms. Thorell, age 56, served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Evelo Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company, from September 2022 to December 2023. From January 2021 to July 2022, Ms. Thorell served as Chief Accounting Officer and previously as Head of Finance at Centessa Pharmaceuticals PLC (?Centessa?), a pharmaceutical company.

In that role, she led the establishment of Centessa?s finance operations, led its public company readiness activities in connection with its initial public offering, and oversaw accounting operations. Previously, from October 2019 to December 2020, Ms. Thorell served as Chief Financial Officer at Palladio Biosciences, a biotechnology company, prior to its acquisition by Centessa. Before that, Ms. Thorell spent over ten years at Realm Therapeutics PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, serving in various roles of increasing responsibility, including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

Ms. Thorell has served on the board of directors of ESSA Pharma Inc., a pharmaceutical company, since July 2019 and previously served on the board of directors of Vallon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, from February 2021 until its reverse-merger with GRI Bio in April 2023. Ms. Thorell holds a B.S. in Business from Lehigh University. The company also announced that effective as of the Retirement Date and until the Effective Date, the Board has designated Eric Shaff, the Company?s current President and Chief Executive Officer and principal executive officer, to serve as the Company?s interim principal financial officer and principal accounting officer.

Mr. Shaff will continue to serve as the Company?s President and Chief Executive Officer and principal executive officer, and he will not receive any additional compensation for his role as interim principal financial officer and principal accounting officer during this period. Mr. Shaff, age 48, has served as the Company?s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board since January 2019. Previously, he served as the Company?s Chief Operating and Financial Officer and Executive Vice President from January 2018 until January 2019 and as the Company?s Chief Financial Officer from November 2014 until January 2019.

From January 2012 to November 2014, Mr. Shaff was Vice President of Corporate Finance for Momenta Pharmaceuticals, or Momenta, a biotechnology company, where he helped manage Momenta?s accounting, finance, planning, and procurement functions, as well as contributing to Momenta?s investor relations efforts. Prior to Momenta, Mr. Shaff held a number of corporate development and finance positions with Genzyme Corporation, a biotechnology company, most recently as Vice President of Finance/Controller for the Personalized Genetic Health division. Mr. Shaff previously served on the board of directors of Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. from 2017 to August 2023.

Mr. Shaff received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.B.A. from Cornell University.