Mark Velleca takes over at Black Diamond; Verve Therapeutics separates CMO, CSO posts

→ David M. Ep­stein is out as CEO of can­cer play­er Black Di­a­mond Ther­a­peu­tics, which is putting chair­man Mark Vel­le­ca in charge. This is Vel­le­ca’s third CEO post in less than a decade af­ter run­ning G1 Ther­a­peu­tics (2014-20) and Stride­Bio (2021-23). Ep­stein will still be on the board at Black Di­a­mond, a com­pa­ny that hit the scene in 2018 with $20 mil­lion from Ver­sant and quick­ly fol­lowed that up with an $85 mil­lion Se­ries B in Jan­u­ary 2019. Co-found­ed by Ep­stein (not to be con­fused with Seagen’s David R. Ep­stein) and Eliz­a­beth Buck, Black Di­a­mond made an im­pres­sive Nas­daq de­but with an IPO that ex­ceed­ed $200 mil­lion in 2020, but lay­offs af­fect­ed 30% of the staff two years lat­er.

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