Mary Alice Simon brings extensive experience in the pharmaceuticals industry to the role of COO.
Mary Alice Simon has been appointed chief operating officer (COO) at Helius Therapeutics licenced medicinal cannabis company.
Simon joins Helius with extensive experience in the pharmaceuticals industry – both in operations and quality assurance. Most recently, she was head of operations, healthcare, at API Consumer Brands, following four years as head of quality overseeing API’s pharmaceutical and personal care manufacturing plants in Auckland.
Previously, she was head of quality assurance at Diatranz Otsuka Ltd – formerly Living Cell Technologies. She also spent five years as director of data management and process improvement at Penobscot Community Health Care in the US.
She has an MBA from the University of Maine, as well as an MSc in microbiology and a BSc in biochemistry.
Skilled in pharmaceutics and biotechnology, Simon’s previous roles in the US were as quality assurance specialist, research scientist, validation engineer, quality control manager, and technical writer.
“We’re delighted to have Mary Alice join our internationally experienced team at Helius. She intrinsically understands advanced manufacturing environments and the absolute quality assurance required in controlled medicines production,” Helius Therapeutics chief executive Carmen Doran, who was the company’s previous COO.
As chief operating officer at Helius, Simon will substantially contribute to the organisation focused squarely on pharmaceuticals manufacturing, cannabis-based medicines research and development, quality systems and standards (GMP), and plant science.
Last month, Helius announced it had raised a further $15 million from private investors, with the Kiwi-owned company so far attracting nearly $50m in investment. It has now completed its $20m-plus state of the art, integrated medicines manufacturing facility in East Auckland.
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