5 October 2018 - - US-based healthcare company GRAIL, Inc has appointed Renée Galá as chief financial officer, effective 3 January 2019, the company said.

Renée Galá brings more than 20 years of finance, corporate strategy, and leadership experience, having executed nearly USD 3bn in healthcare-related financing transactions over the course of her career.

She is joining GRAIL from Theravance Biopharma where she has served as senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2014, following the company's spinout from Theravance, Inc.

Galá joined Theravance (now Innoviva, Inc.) in 2006 and held various roles in the finance organization before leading the company's spin-out transaction.

Before Theravance, Galá worked at Eli Lilly and company, where she held positions of increasing responsibility in global treasury, pharmaceutical sales, and corporate strategy/business development.

Prior to joining Eli Lilly, she spent seven years in the energy industry in the United States and internationally in positions focused on corporate finance, project finance, and mergers and acquisitions.

She is a member of the board of directors of Corcept Therapeutics Inc., and she is actively involved in multiple initiatives aimed at improving gender diversity within the healthcare industry. Galá holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is using the power of high-intensity sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology, and to develop and commercialize pioneering products for the early detection of cancer.

The company is located in Menlo Park, California and Hong Kong. It is supported by leading global investors and pharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare companies.