Karimah Es Sabar has announced that she will be vacating her positions as president and CEO at the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) at the end of the month. CDRD vice-chair Gordon McCauley will replace Es Sabar as interim CEO while the organization looks for a permanent replacement. In announcing her departure, she said the solid foundation established at CDRD represents "an opportune time for me to devote my passion and energy to new opportunities around global innovation and translation". Under the leadership of Es Sabar and former CEO Natalie Dakers, CDRD has grown signif- icantly and attracted funding from the federal and British Columbia government, most recently receiving $32 million in the last federal Budget to scale up its efforts to establish a national cluster for drug development and commercialization (R$, April 18/16). Es Sabar joined CDRD in 2009 as senior VP business and strategic affairs and assumed her current roles in 2013. She was previously executive director at BC Biotech from 2005 to 2009….