Christi L. Shaw has been appointed chief executive officer of Kite, a Gilead Company, and will become a member of Gilead’s senior leadership team.

Ms. Shaw has extensive experience providing commercial, financial, strategic, medical and operations leadership across the biopharmaceutical industry. Ms. Shaw currently serves as senior vice president of Eli Lilly &. Co., and president of Lilly Bio-Medicines. She also serves as a board member of both Avantor, Inc. and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and as an advisor to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Prior to joining Lilly, Ms. Shaw served as U.S. Country head and president of Novartis Corp. and North American head of Novartis Oncology.

“We conducted an extensive search for a new leader at Kite and we believe that Christi’s unique set of skills will allow us to continue to build on our leadership position in cell therapy,” said Daniel O’Day, chairman and chief executive officer of Gilead. “Christi’s vast experience across complex therapeutic areas, and particularly in oncology, will serve Kite very well. She is clearly a leader who will bring teams and individuals together and I am confident she will build upon the entrepreneurial spirit at Kite as we seek to help more people with cancer around the world.”

“Kite’s vision of transformational drug development – and of curing cancer – is one that I am extremely passionate about,” said Ms. Shaw. “I look forward to working with the many talented individuals in this organization, as we change the way cancer is treated and bring forward important, life-saving therapies.”