Kite, a Gilead unit, announced Tuesday afternoon that it has hired Cindy Perettie as EVP.

In the position, Perettie will oversee the CAR-T unit’s cell therapy business, effective May 30.

Most recently, Perettie served as Head of Roche’s Molecular Lab Solutions, overseeing the polymerase chain reaction and sequencing divisions.

Prior to Roche, she was the CEO of Foundation Medicine, head of global oncology strategy at Roche’s oncology unit and president of global development innovations at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute.

The appointment comes nearly three months after Christi Shaw announced her departure from the CEO post at Kite. Shaw had helmed the company since 2019 following Gilead’s $12 billion acquisition of the biotech.

“Cindy has more than 20 years’ experience in scientific and commercial leadership in oncology and has dedicated her career to improving the care of cancer,” Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said in a statement. “With her extensive experience, her passion for patients and her outstanding leadership skills, Cindy is the right leader to build on our global leadership in cell therapy so that more eligible patients can benefit from this potentially curative treatment.”

Perettie’s addition to the C-suite comes months after Kite closed its acquisition of Tmunity Therapeutics and expanded its pipeline with the biotech’s next-generation CAR T therapies and technologies.

First announced at the end of last year, Tmunity provides Kite with pre-clinical and clinical programs as well as its “armored” CAR T technology platform. Additionally, Kite will obtain a strategic research and licensing agreement with the University of Pennsylvania. 

That deal was unveiled shortly after Gilead at Kite paid Arcellx $225 million in cash and $100 million in equity for the firm’s CAR-T program. The acquisition is slated to double Kite’s pipeline of cell therapies, which features lymphoma treatments, Yescarta and Tecartus.

Of note, two of Tmunity’s assets won’t be included in the Kite acquisition as its prostate-specific membrane antigen and prostate stem cell antigen will be spun out of Tmunity instead.

Kite also recently saw SVP and global head of cell therapy Francesco Marincola jump to Sonata Therapeutics to serve as its chief scientific officer.