Kendall
Aquestive Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company based in Warren, announced May 17 that President and CEO Keith Kendall will leave the organization. Daniel Barber, current chief operating officer succeeds him, effective immediately.
Kendall, whos is also a member of the board of directors, will serve as a consultant until the end of the year. He joined Aquestive as chief financial officer in 2006. In June 2011, he was promoted to co-president and chief operating officer, and then to CEO in November 2014.
The company said Kendall led Aquestive through significant growth, including its public-market debut in 2018, through approval of six drug products by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the launch of its first proprietary drug product, Sympazan, in 2018; the issuance of more than 200 patents as well as other achievements.
Barber
Santo Costa, chairman of the board, thanked Kendall for his vision, leadership and contributions, stating he “built a corporate culture which will serve as a platform for continued future success of the company.” Costa added that Barber is “ideally suited” to take over leadership of the company.
Barber, who joined the company in 2007, said he looked forward to helping to steer the business and “will remain keenly focused on advancing the two most important value drivers for Aquestive, product candidates Libervant and AQST-109, while carefully managing costs.”
According to his May 2019 promotion announcement, Barber previously served as senior vice president, chief strategy and development officer for Aquestive before moving into the COO role. He also served as finance director, senior director of alliance management, and vice president of business development. Prior to Aquestive, he worked for Xerox and Quest Diagnostics.
