Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc announced that Kristen Hege, M.D., has been appointed to its Board of Directors, as an independent Non-Executive Director, and Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., will be resigning from the Board. Dr. Hege's appointment will be effective from November 1, 2023 and Dr. Zaks' resignation from the Board and Remuneration Committee will be effective from March 31, 2023. His decision to resign was not as a result of any disagreement with the Company or its management.

Dr. Hege brings more than two decades of oncology clinical leadership experience to Adaptimmune's board. Currently, she is Senior Vice President, Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Dr. Hege joined BMS following acquisition of Celgene in November 2019.

She is responsible for global early clinical development and oversight of BMS's pipeline and partnered assets, including cell therapies, in all hematologic and solid tumor indications from first-in-human studies through human proof-of-concept. Dr. Hege will be retiring from BMS in March. She is also a professor of Hematology/Oncology and an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco.

Prior to Celgene, Dr. Hege was a senior medical advisor to development-stage biotech companies including Aragon and Theraclone. A pioneer in immuno-oncology, she began her career at Cell Genesys Inc. where she spent 14 years in various roles of increasing responsibility. Dr. Hege holds a M.D. from the UCSF School of Medicine and a B.A. in biochemistry from Dartmouth College.

She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and completed a subspecialty fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at UCSF. She was also a visiting bone marrow transplant fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Hege also serves as a board member of Mersana Therapeutics Inc. and Graphite Bio Inc.