BOTHELL, WA -- (Marketwire) -- 07/14/09 -- MDRNA, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) announced today the
appointment of Peter S. Garcia as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary,
reporting to the President and CEO. Mr. Garcia will lead and direct
corporate financial and financing activities, investor and public relations
efforts, as well as facilities and information technology operations for
the Company.
"We are extremely pleased to add an individual of Pete's caliber to our
management team," said Michael French, President and CEO at MDRNA. "Pete
brings great depth and experience to MDRNA with a proven track record of
leading successful financing strategies for a range of biotech and high
tech companies. I look forward to working with Pete to continue to build
MDRNA into the preeminent RNAi drug discovery company."
Mr. Garcia has been Chief Financial Officer of both public and private life
science and high technology companies for the past 13 years. From 2004 to
2008, Mr. Garcia served as Chief Financial Officer of Nanosys Inc., a
privately held nanotechnology company based in Palo Alto, California, where
he was responsible for finance, facilities, information technology, and
investor and government relations. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Garcia was Senior
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nuvelo Inc., a publicly held
biopharmaceutical company. During his tenure at Nuvelo, he helped raise
over $150 million, acquired development stage products, and led the merger
and acquisition strategy. Mr. Garcia has also served as Chief Financial
Officer at Novacept, IntraBiotics, and Dendreon; and held senior financial
roles at Amgen. Mr. Garcia has an M.B.A. from the Anderson School at
University of California Los Angeles and a B.A. in Economics and Sociology
from Stanford University.
Mr. Garcia said, "I'm delighted to be joining MDRNA as it builds on its
extraordinary progress over this past year. I look forward to working with
this accomplished business and scientific team to increase shareholder
value and move the company closer to establishing broad target and
therapeutic-based collaborations with pharmaceutical partners."
Bruce R. York, who has been the CFO through MDRNA's transition from a
clinical stage drug delivery company to a pre-clinical RNAi drug discovery
company, will move into the position of Vice President, Finance and Chief
Accounting Officer, a position he held prior to the transition.
Mr. French added, "I want to express my appreciation to Bruce for his
significant contributions to the Company as CFO over the past 18 months,
including his central role in our successful restructuring.
