Tessa Therapeutics lures Takeda exec to be its president and CEO

Singapore-based Tessa Therapeutics, a Temasek-backed clinical stage biotech company, today announced the appointment of Thomas Willemsen as its president and chief executive, effective October 1, 2022. Mr Willemsen has also been named as a member of Tessa’s board of directors.

Mr Willemsen brings more than 25 years of experience to Tessa with extensive international management and leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He joins Tessa from Takeda Pharmaceuticals (TYO: 4502), where he served as senior vice president, Asia Pacific, leading the transformation of Takeda across 10 markets and enhancing its focus on rare and genetic diseases, oncology, and vaccines.

As president and CEO, Mr Willemsen will lead Tessa’s corporate, business and development strategy focused on maximizing the value potential of the company’s proprietary autologous and allogeneic CAR-T platforms, including ongoing clinical programs involving its autologous CD30-CAR-T therapy (TT11) and allogeneic CD30.CAR EBVST therapy (TT11X). Mr Willemsen will lead Tessa from its global headquarters in Singapore. John Ng, who had served as Tessa’s acting CEO since November 2021, will continue as the company’s chief technical officer.