Ran Zheng has been appointed to the newly created position of chief technical officer, Orchard Therapeutics. Ms. Zheng will oversee multiple related functions, including process development, manufacturing, quality, facilities and engineering, supply chain, and CMC program management. Ms. Zheng, brings more than 20 years of experience in technical operations, and will report to Mark Rothera, president and chief executive officer of Orchard, and serve as a member of the executive leadership team.

“Technical operations play a pivotal role in the development, manufacture and delivery of our personalized gene therapy medicines. We are pleased that Ran is joining Orchard at this important juncture as we continue to invest in and scale our technical operations and quality systems on a global level,” said Mark Rothera. “Ran’s depth of experience will help to ensure integration and leadership across these functions, which are critical as we prepare to commercialize multiple pioneering gene therapy programs to serve patients in the coming years.”

Ms. Zheng has spent the last 16 years with Amgen in roles of increasing responsibility in operations. Most recently, she served as vice president of development supply chain, overseeing end-to-end supply chain, development labs and pilot plants and manufacturing operations across multiple geographic locations to enable Amgen’s global clinical development, product launch, commercial supply and technology innovation. Prior to Amgen, Ms. Zheng held various leadership positions in process development and process engineering at Diosynth and Genzyme.