Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc has appointed Paul J. Sekhri, former senior vice president in the global business development and licensing group at Novartis Pharma AG, to the newly created position of president and chief business officer of Ariad.

Sekhri was head of global search and evaluation and head of global early-commercial development at Novartis from 1999 through 2003. Most recently, he was a partner at the Sprout Group, the venture capital arm of Credit Suisse First Boston.

At Novartis, Sekhri was a member of the top senior-management decision-making teams. His department led the development and implementation of Novartis' global disease area strategy. He also had global responsibility for providing commercial and market input into the development of new drugs emerging from research at Novartis.

"I am delighted to have Paul working closely with me," said Harvey J. Berger, chairman and chief executive officer of Ariad. "He brings close to twenty years of experience in the life-sciences to our executive team, including business development and partnering, sales and marketing, commercial strategy, and portfolio management. His in-depth knowledge of the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets and products, coupled with his skills in structuring and negotiating innovative business partnerships, will help Ariad achieve its corporate objectives."

Prior to joining Novartis, Sekhri held management positions at several life-sciences companies, including Millipore Corporation, PerSeptive Biosystems Inc and Zymark Corporation, and the consulting company, Northeast Consulting Resources Inc. Sekhri has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Maryland.