Mesoblast Limited announced that in connection with the Company?s transition to a fully integrated commercial organization it has appointed James M. O?Brien as its US-based Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Jim has extensive experience in all aspects of financial management and planning having spent the majority of his career with multi-national public and private companies in the life sciences, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries. Jim has had global responsibility overseeing Corporate and Business Unit finance, Reporting, Internal Controls and Accounting Operations at Actavis plc which subsequently acquired Allergan plc prior to its acquisition by AbbVie Inc. Jim created a world-class financial budgeting and forecasting process to track business performance and trends, and developed financial tools and analyses supporting a range of corporate activities including Business Strategy and Corporate Development, integrating international business acquisitions and managing activities for transactions of nearly $10 billion.
During his tenure, Actavis had proforma revenues of over $8 billion. Previously, Jim built a finance team overseeing all supply chain and revenue management for Nycomed, a private equity owned company with $750 million revenues that was acquired by Sandoz for $1.5 billion. Jim?s recent CFO roles included NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company Cognition Therapeutics Inc., overseeing the company?s successful initial public offering, and at dual-listed Finnish biotechnology company Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd. He has also held finance roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS).
Jim is a certified public accountant and previously worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in New York and Washington DC.
