Synthetic Genomics appoints Oliver Fetzer as chief executive

Synthetic biology company Synthetic Genomics has appointed Oliver Fetzer as the company’s new chief executive. The founding chief executive Craig Venter will remain involved as executive chairman and co-chief scientist.

Dr Venter said: "I am excited to welcome Oliver as the new CEO of SGI. His decades of proven biotechnology product development experience coupled with his scientific intellect and measured leadership style will help drive SGI's continued upward trajectory. I look forward to working with Oliver and the executive team to continue to meet our goals of turning SGI's science and technology into commercially viable and societal changing products."

Dr Fetzer will lead all aspects of the company, including the three business units. He joins the company from Cerulean Pharma, a company developing nanoparticle drug conjugate oncology therapeutics, where he was president and chief executive. Prior to this, he served in a variety of positions at Cubist (Nasdaq: CBST).