Ironwood Pharmaceuticals hires CLO

Boston-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has appointed John Minardo as senior vice president and chief legal officer overseeing the healthcare company’s corporate legal, compliance and intellectual property (IP) teams. He reports to Ironwood CEO Thomas McCourt.

Minardo was most recently vice president, general counsel and member of the executive leadership team with influenza vaccine company Seqirus. Before joining Seqirus in 2015, he was vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Novartis’s influenza vaccines unit. Before that, he was head of legal for the North American business unit of Novartis vaccines and diagnostics business. Minardo began his legal career as a litigator at Kaye Scholer in New York City.

His experience includes complex business transactions, regulatory matters, integrity and compliance, privacy, risk management, corporate governance, litigation, IP, employment, antitrust and marketing matters.

McCourt says in a statement: ‘John’s deep legal experience and proven track record, in particular his experience at highly focused healthcare companies, arm him with invaluable expertise that will strongly benefit Ironwood by helping accelerate our business priorities and reinforce our efforts to make a difference for people living with [gastrointestinal] diseases.’