MENLO PARK, CA, May 3, 2025 – Orca Bio, a late-stage biotechnology company committed to transforming the lives of patients through high-precision cell therapy, today announced leadership updates including the appointment of co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Nate Fernhoff, Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding Ivan Dimov, Ph.D. In addition, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Jeroen Bekaert, Ph.D., has assumed the role of President at Orca Bio.

“I am honored and humbled to serve as CEO as we progress toward our vision of transforming the treatment landscape for patients living with blood cancer,” said Dr. Fernhoff. “Following the positive Phase 3 results for Orca-T, we remain focused on a 2025 BLA submission and ensuring commercial readiness. In parallel, we are advancing our pipeline of groundbreaking cell therapies that leverage the same high-precision platform to potentially offer new and innovative treatments to more patients who could benefit.”

Dr. Fernhoff continued, “I’m fortunate to continue to partner with Jeroen in his new role as President where he will oversee operations across all areas of the organization. Since co-founding Orca Bio, Jeroen has played an integral part in guiding the company from its inception through multiple phases of clinical development and organizational growth.”

After reporting positive Phase 3 clinical data on its lead investigational allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy, Orca-T, Orca Bio continues to scale its U.S. manufacturing infrastructure and operations to ensure consistent and reliable delivery of its products. This includes activating new production lines in its state-of-the-art commercial manufacturing facility to increase capacity and support future demand. The company is also strengthening the commercial organization with the addition of leaders who have successful cell therapy launch expertise across commercial operations, market access and stakeholder engagement.

Nate Fernhoff, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Fernhoff is the CEO and co-founder of Orca Bio. In his previous role as Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Fernhoff led the advancement of Orca Bio’s robust pipeline of high-precision cell therapies and is one of the inventors of Orca-Q, an investigational allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy for patients with high-risk blood disease. Prior to Orca Bio, Dr. Fernhoff was a Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Scholar in the Irving Weissman laboratory at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences and mathematics from Stanford University. Dr. Fernhoff has several publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as patents and patent applications. He currently serves on the board of the ML4 Foundation.

Jeroen Bekaert, Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Bekaert is the President and co-founder of Orca Bio where he oversees the operational activities across all company functions. Before joining Orca Bio, Dr. Bekaert was the head of Merck KGaA’s innovation center in Silicon Valley, where he was responsible for shaping and onboarding science and technology opportunities from universities and emerging biotech companies across Merck KGaA’s pharma and life science sectors. Prior to this, Dr. Bekaert held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in Johnson & Johnson’s Supply Chain group, most recently as director, worldwide engineering and technical operations, overseeing the EMEA portfolio. Dr. Bekaert started his career as a researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He holds a master’s and Ph.D. in computer science engineering from Ghent University. He was a Gustave Boël-Sofina Fellow and also holds a master’s degree in management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.