Theravance Appoints Eric D'Esparbes As New CFO

(RTTNews) - Royalty management company Theravance, Inc. (THRX) announced Thursday the appointment of Eric d'Esparbes as senior vice president and the new chief financial officer of the company. d'Esparbes succeeds Michael Aguiar, who was promoted to chief executive officer in mid-August.

"Eric's strong, global financial background will support Theravance as we continue our efforts to optimize the royalties from our partnership with GSK and develop a capital structure that allows us to provide increasing capital returns to shareholders over time," Aguiar said in a statement.

The South San Francisco, California-based company noted that d'Esparbes will report directly to Aguiar and will be responsible for overseeing its financial and IT operations.

d'Esparbes brings nearly 25 years of financial strategy and structuring, accounting and management experience to Theravance. Most recently, he served as the CFO of sustainable energy company Joule Unlimited since December 2010.

Prior to joining Joule, d'Esparbes served as the vice president of Finance at AEI Services, LLC, a global emerging markets energy company. He also held senior financial management positions at Asia-based power company Meiya Power Co. Ltd. (a former subsidiary of PSEG Global), and Hydro-Québec International.

"We are pleased to have Eric join our company and believe he compliments our new leadership team focused on building long-term value for shareholders," Aguiar added.

THRX closed Thursday's regular trading session at $16.19, down $0.87 or 5.10% on a volume of 1.53 million shares.