Recro Pharma Inc., a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to solving formulation and manufacturing challenges for companies developing oral solid dose drug products, has appointed Laura L. Parks, Ph.D., to the company’s board of directors.
 
Dr. Parks is an experienced business leader with a track record of developing high performance, market-focused teams at a number of leading global biopharma, CDMO and food industry companies. Retired since 2017, her more than three decades of expertise spans global leadership team collaboration, profit and loss (P&L) accountability, team culture development, product lifecycle planning and brand development.
 
Experience
 
Parks most recently served on the executive leadership team at Patheon, a global biopharma CDMO, until its acquisition by Thermo Fischer Scientific in 2017. In this role, she led strategic commercial and operational initiatives including development and execution of an end-to-end pharmaceutical services offering, as well as global strategic enterprise accounts organization.
 
Prior to her role with Patheon, she served as president of DSM Pharmaceuticals until its 2014 merger with Patheon. Parks was also senior vice president, marketing and sales for DSM Pharmaceuticals, during which time she successfully led the marketing and sales team in support of the business unit’s contract manufacturing services for finished dose pharmaceuticals, including sterile injectibles, orals, topicals, as well as developmental services.
 
Parks also has extensive experience in the food ingredient industry, having served as vice president of sales for Solae, a division of DuPont. In this role, she is credited with leading the company’s global foundational sales training which successfully consolidated three independent market approaches into a single coherent strategy. While at Solae, Parks also held the position of regional vice president, North America, leading the company’s $120 million food ingredients business. She currently serves on the advisory board of Lindy BioSciences, a Durham, NC-based development-stage protein therapeutic formulations company. Parks earned a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Georgia and bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University.
 
“We are happy to add Laura and her broad biopharma CDMO industry experience to our board of directors. Her appointment continues the company’s proactive efforts to strengthen all aspects of our organization, from our sales and marketing strategies to our CDMO services and capabilities offerings,” said David Enloe, president and chief executive officer of Recro. “Laura offers Recro a wealth of strategic commercial and operational expertise which will serve the company well as we continue to execute a growth strategy designed to expand and diversify our client base by offering world-class, end-to-end CDMO offerings combined with high-touch customer service. We welcome Laura to the Recro team and look forward to the key contributions that she will make to the company’s ongoing success.”
 
“Over the past several months, Recro has made significant strides in generating momentum establishing the company as the partner-of-choice for companies developing sophisticated solid, oral dose, small molecule therapeutics, including those that require unique expertise in solving complex formulation, delivery and manufacturing challenges. With the implementation of its growth strategy well underway, I am excited to join the company’s board and leverage my industry experience to assist in continuing the company’s positive trajectory,” stated Parks. “As one of the up-and-coming U.S.-based companies in its industry, I believe Recro is well positioned to take advantage of the large and growing demand for domestic CDMO services. I look forward to supporting the company as it continues its growth in the quarters and years to come.”