10 November 2017 - - US-based biotechnology company Avrobio, Inc has appointed Ian Clark to its board of directors.

Clark, the former CEO of Genentech, will join as an independent director effective immediately.

He is currently serving as an operating partner within Clarus Ventures.

Clark served as chief executive officer of Genentech and as head of Roche's North American Commercial Operations. Clark joined Genentech in 2003 as senior vice president and general manager, Bio-Oncology.

By 2006, Clark was named executive vice president, commercial operations and became a member of the executive committee.

Clark was named head of global product strategy and chief marketing officer of Roche in April 2009.

Prior to joining Genentech, Clark served as general manager of Novartis Canada, where he oversaw all of the company's operations, and as chief operating officer for Novartis United Kingdom.

Currently, Clark serves on the boards of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Shire plc.

Clark recently was a member of the Kite Pharma board until its acquisition by Gilead Inc.

Since 2009, he has served on the boards of directors of the biotechnology Industry Organization, the Gladstone Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Advisory Council.

Avrobio, a specialist in lentiviral-based gene therapies, is a clinical-stage company.

The company is focused on the development of its Phase 1 programme in Fabry disease and pre-IND programs in Cystinosis and Gaucher disease, while actively building a pipeline of therapies to treat Pompe disease and other rare and non-rare genetic diseases.

Avrobio also has an immuno-oncology gene therapy programme. Avrobio is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in Toronto, Canada.