BOSTON, Jan. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIOP) today announced the election of James Huang as Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Huang has served on the Board since July 2020 and is currently a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) China. He has founded and financed several innovative life sciences companies, including GenScript, Legend Biotech and Zai Lab. He is also Founding Partner of Panacea Venture, which formed TriArm Therapeutics, the funding partner for Ziopharm’s joint venture, Eden BioCell.

“I am delighted to take on this additional role at Ziopharm and work closely with Laurence to help deliver the company’s transformational CAR-T and TCR technologies to patients,” said Mr. Huang. “I firmly believe the company is in an excellent position, and I look forward to supporting and guiding the efforts of the company to execute on its strategy as Board Chairman.”

Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Ziopharm, said, “We are pleased to have secured James as our Chairman. James has a stellar track record of supporting and delivering innovation in our space. On behalf of the management team and entire Ziopharm organization, we look forward to James’ leadership of the Board.”

The Company also announced today the election of Heidi Hagen to the position of Lead Independent Director, effective immediately. Ms. Hagen has served on the Board since June 2019.

Ms. Hagen is Co-Founder of Vineti, a cloud-based software platform company that addresses challenges in data management from order through cell collection, manufacturing, and delivery of personalized treatments such as cell and gene therapies and cancer vaccines. She has extensive experience in operations management and commercializing innovative technologies.

The election of Mr. Huang as Chairman of the Board and the election of Ms. Hagen as Lead Independent Director were both supported by unanimous votes of the entire Board of Directors.

James Huang Biography
James Huang joined KPCB China as a Managing Partner in 2011 and focused on the firm’s life sciences practice. Prior to joining KPCB, he was a Managing Partner at Vivo Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in life sciences investments. While at Vivo, he led numerous investments in China. Prior to joining Vivo in 2007, Mr. Huang was President of Anesiva, a biopharmaceutical company focused on pain-management treatments.

During his 20-year career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, Mr. Huang held senior roles in business development, sales, marketing and R&D with Tularik Inc. (acquired by Amgen), GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb and ALZA Corp (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Mr. Huang also built GenScript, including Legend Biotech from a small U.S. venture backed company into a revenue-generating company with a multi-billion valuation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Mr. Huang received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

About Ziopharm Oncology, Inc.
Ziopharm is developing non-viral and cytokine-driven cell and gene therapies that weaponize the body’s immune system to treat the millions of people globally diagnosed with cancer each year. With its multiplatform approach, Ziopharm is at the forefront of immuno-oncology. Ziopharm’s pipeline is built for commercially scalable, cost effective T-cell receptor T-cell therapies based on its non-viral Sleeping Beauty gene transfer platform, a precisely controlled IL-12 gene therapy, and rapidly manufactured Sleeping Beauty-enabled CD19-specific CAR-T program. The Company has clinical and strategic collaborations with the National Cancer Institute, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. For more information, please visit www.ziopharm.com.