• Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) said that Ursula Burns and Kristina Johnson have resigned from the company's board after accepting senior appointments in industry and government, respectively. Burns has been named CEO of Xerox, effective July 1, and Johnson has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Under Secretary in the Department of Energy. Boston Scientific makes interventional medical products.

• Thomas Frieden, MD, was named director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta). Frieden has served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since January 2002. Frieden had served at the CDC from 1990 to 2002. In the early 1990s, as an epidemiologic intelligence service officer, he investigated issues such as a spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

• Jed Cohen was named managing director of investment banking for Leerink Swann (Boston). Previously, Cohen was a managing director at Citigroup Global Markets. Leerink Swann is a healthcare investment bank.

• Patrick Soon-Shiong was named executive director of the UCLA Wireless Health Institute (Los Angeles). Soon-Shiong is founder and chairman of Abraxis BioScience and executive chairman/CEO of Abraxis Health. The Wireless Health Institute is a community of UCLA experts and innovators from a variety disciplines dedicated to improving the timeliness and reach of health care through the development and application of wireless, network-enabled technologies integrated with current and next-generation medical enterprise computing.

• Thoratec (Pleasanton, California) reported the election of Paul LaViolette, the former COO of Boston Scientific, to its board. Thoratec makes heart-assist devices.