John Lunger has been Adaptimmune’s Chief Patient Supply Officer since August 2019. John
leads the teams responsible for producing and delivering products to patients, accelerating
supply execution, and optimizing the supply chain to be ready for commercialization.
Previously, John was Head of Supply Chain and Commercial Product Supply at Merrimack
Pharmaceuticals where he led clinical and commercial supply chain as well as the cross functional
supply team for Merrimack’s first commercial product launched in October of 2015.
Earlier in his career, he held various senior manufacturing, operational, and strategy roles with
VWR International, Pfizer, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In his nearly 10 years with Wyeth
he held a number of leadership positions, including operations and supply chain strategy,
supply management, procurement and strategic sourcing, business systems implementation,
generic pharmaceutical business management, and site operations management in a pharmaceutical
manufacturing plant in Ireland. John began his career serving as a nuclear trained
officer on a U.S. Navy submarine followed by strategic consulting with Accenture. John holds
a Bachelor of Science degree (with distinction) in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Naval
Academy and an MBA in economics and operations management from the University of
Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Vijay Yabannavar
Executive Vice President and Manufacturing and Technical Operations Officer, Gritstone
Oncology
Vijay Yabannavar is the Executive Vice President and Manufacturing and Technical Operations
Officer at Gritstone Oncology. Before Gritstone, he served as vice president of global technical
operations – vaccines, biologics and sterile operations at Merck. Prior to that, he was
senior vice president of manufacturing & technical development at Emergent BioSolutions,
focusing on biodefense. Dr. Yabannavar also held process development and manufacturing
roles at Trubion Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Chiron Corporation and
Schering-Plough Corporation. He has served as a member of the Advisory Board for the
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department at the University of California,
Davis. Dr. Yabannavar obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and his B. Tech. in chemical engineering from the Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay.
Donna Rill
Chief Technology Officer, Triumvira Immunologics USA, Inc
Ms. Rill is currently serving as the Chief Technical Officer of Triumvira Immunologics, USA,
Inc. She has extensive manufacturing, clinical and translational research laboratory experience
in cell and gene therapy, monoclonal antibody production, and protein production.
She has setup and managed core development laboratories covering a large range of testing
services to facilitate research, core drug development activities as well as manufacturing
and quality control laboratories. With her expertise in the areas of laboratory construction,
project management, development and operations, cGMP, cGTP, and GLP regulatory compliance,
quality control/assurance system, database development, and clinical standards of
practice, she has designed and qualified cGMP Cell & Gene Therapy Laboratories, cGMP
Vector Production facilities, core service laboratories, and Translational Research Labs. Ms.
Rill has previously held the positions of Vice President of Manufacturing for Cell Medica,
Chief Development Officer for Opexa Therapeutics, Laboratory Director of Cell and Gene
Therapy, Translational Research Laboratories for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College
of Medicine; Associate Scientist/Lab Manager of the Bone Marrow Transplant Research
Laboratory, and the GMP Cell and Gene Therapy Laboratories, St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital; Education Coordinator and Clinical Instructor, Department of Clinical Laboratory,
LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center and University of Tennessee Center for the Health
Sciences.
