ARIAD Pharma Appoints Manmeet Soni As CFO - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARIA) announced the appointment of Manmeet Soni, 38, as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, effective March 21, 2016. He will report to Paris Panayiotopoulos, president and chief executive officer of ARIAD.

Soni will succeed Edward M. Fitzgerald, who has made significant contributions to the company as ARIAD's chief financial officer since 2002.

Soni most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of Pharmacyclics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for all finance, procurement, information technology and human resources functions, and where he played a vital role in the acquisition of Pharmacyclics by AbbVie, Inc. in May 2015. Previously, Soni worked at ZELTIQ Aesthetics Inc., where he served as controller and senior director of finance, and where he was responsible for accounting, SEC and Treasury functions.

Prior to ZELTIQ, Mr. Soni worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers San Jose, in the Life Science and Venture Capital Group, providing audit and assurance services to various public and privately held companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, software and semiconductor space. Prior to that, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, India providing audit and assurance services.

Soni currently serves on the board of Genoscience Pharma. He graduated from Hansraj College at Delhi University in India. He is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in the State of California.