KANSAS CITY, MO. — CRB announced the appointment of Kris Desmet as senior director of client services for the company’s SlateXpace, a multimodal manufacturing system, on March 9.

Prior to CRB, Desmet has spent more than 20 years gaining experience in the life science and food and beverage industries serving in leadership positions. He served as head of engineering at Takeda’s manufacturing site and as director of front-end engineering and design at both Shire and Baxalta. At his previous roles Desmet led teams of engineers, technicians and consultants, and directed engineering, maintenance, CQV, automation and capital projects.

In his new role at CRB, Desmet will direct the company’s SlateXpace segment, ensuring seamless integration into exiting client operations.

“I am extremely delighted to be joining CRB and taking on this new role because it allows me to pursue my passion of driving innovation to support the patient community,” Desmet said. “I’ll be able to leverage my operational background to significantly improve the client experience, provide faster project delivery, and generate greater flexibility and value for clients.”

SlateXpace is CRB’s modular solution, providing clients with multi-modal manufacturing. The system uses agile, adaptable, scalable suites, offering manufacturers more versatility between modal-specific platforms.

Desmet will report to Sam Kitchell, senior vice president of emerging business operations at CRB, and will focus on integrating customer’s needs into the development of SlateXpace. Desmet will work with SlateXpace’s leadership team, establishing services and operational support of the modules in the field.

“As we continue to grow our experience with ONEsolution™ project delivery and listen to our clients about what they need to succeed, we are hearing loud and clear the desire for greater speed, flexibility, and repeatability from their investments and more complete service offerings,” Kitchell said. “Kris’ background leading engineering inside life sciences manufacturing companies for both capital project work and ongoing operations gives him a deep understanding of clients’ business needs and significant insight into the key success factors for delivering and operating technically complex facilities.”

Read more about personnel changes throughout the industry.