Geron's COO Andrew Grethlein To Depart On October 15, 2025

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | October 13, 2025 03:42pm

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Oct. 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to change lives by changing the course of blood cancer, today announced several executive transitions and appointments designed to align the company's leadership structure with its strategic priorities. Andrew Grethlein, Ph.D. who joined Geron in September 2012 and has served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer since January 2019, will depart the company on October 15, 2025, transitioning to a consulting role, while pursuing other interests. Jim Ziegler, who joined the company in September 2024 as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, will also depart on October 15, 2025, to pursue other interests. Succeeding Jim, Ahmed ElNawawi ("Nawawi") has been appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, effective October 20, 2025. In this role, Nawawi will assume leadership of Geron's commercial organization to advance the company's strategic priorities—driving growth, maximizing the potential of RYTELO® (imetelstat), and strengthening the foundation for potential future portfolio expansion.

In addition to Nawawi's appointment, Geron announced the appointment of three other seasoned executives to its leadership team: Shanthakumar ("Shantha") Tyavanagimatt as Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer; Dawn Schottlandt as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs; and Bryan Ridgell as Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management and Chief of Staff. Together, these leaders bring deep experience across technical operations, investor relations and corporate affairs, and portfolio management, further strengthening the company's commercial, operational and development capabilities.

"This is a pivotal moment for Geron as we enhance our leadership team to deliver on our full potential," said Harout Semerjian, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our incoming leaders bring extensive U.S. and global hematology-oncology experience and a proven track record of leading high-performing teams—expertise that will be critical as we work to expand the reach and impact of RYTELO. We are deeply grateful to Andy and Jim for their leadership and many contributions in helping bring Geron to this point, and we look forward to building on our strong foundation."

Nawawi most recently served as Senior Vice President and U.S. Commercial Head at Stemline Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Menarini Group, where he led the U.S. commercial organization spanning the sales, marketing, market access, commercial excellence, and data analytics functions. During his tenure, he successfully built the U.S. business from the ground up—expanding the team from 30 to 165 employees and delivering three consecutive years of topline and bottom-line growth. He oversaw the U.S. launch of ORSERDU® in metastatic breast cancer, which was recently recognized as one of the top oncology launches in recent years, as well as drove renewed growth for ELZONRIS® in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). Before joining Stemline, Nawawi spent nearly two decades at Novartis Oncology in global, regional, and country leadership roles across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. His experience includes leading country P&L organizations, launching multiple oncology and hematology brands, and driving cultural and organizational transformation. He received an MBA from the University of Leicester and a B.S. in Clinical Pharmacy from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.

"I'm inspired by Geron's mission and by the dedication of its people," said Nawawi. "This is a biotechnology company that has already achieved what so many aspire to—bringing its first medicine to patients—and is now focused on scaling with purpose and precision. With RYTELO in the U.S. market helping patients, our task is to expand reach, deepen engagement, and deliver operational excellence across every part of the business. I'm honored to build on the strong foundation already in place and excited to partner with Harout and my new colleagues to shape Geron's next chapter."

Additional information on the other new executives and the experience they bring to Geron follows:

• Shantha Tyavanagimatt, Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, brings more than 25 years of global leadership across drug development, CMC, and technical operations. He has advanced oncology and antiviral programs from early development through global approval and commercialization, with a proven record of building high-performing teams and forging strong partnerships to deliver transformative therapies to patients. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at IDEAYA Biosciences, leading global CMC and supply-chain strategies and driving technical excellence, scalability and "right-first-time" regulatory approvals that enabled reliable access to new medicines. Prior to that, as Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Operations & Early Development at CTI BioPharma, he guided the company through multiple NDA and MAA approvals and established a resilient global supply network. Mr. Tyavanagimatt is expected to join Geron on October 20, 2025.
  
  
  
   
• Dawn Schottlandt, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, brings more than 20 years of experience in investor relations and corporate affairs within the life sciences industry. She has supported both private and public companies through IPOs, regulatory approvals, acquisitions, and major data milestones, building programs that strengthen visibility and engagement with the investment community. She most recently served as Managing Director at Argot Partners, leading investor relations strategy for a portfolio of biotechnology clients. Ms. Schottlandt is expected to join Geron on October 20, 2025.
  
  
  
   
• Bryan Ridgell, Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management and Chief of Staff, brings more than 20 years of experience in program and portfolio management within the biotechnology industry. He has led global cross-functional teams across R&D, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, and clinical operations to drive alignment with key development objectives. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Project Management at GlycoMimetics, where he was a member of the Executive Leadership Team and partner to the CEO in portfolio planning, resource optimization, and execution of late-stage clinical programs. Mr. Ridgell joined Geron today, October 13, 2025.
   

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