•Scott Smith was named COO of the Amacore Group (Lake Mary, Florida). In December 2007, shortly after the Amacore Group acquired ownership of Lifeguard Benefit Services, Smith was appointed COO of the Lifeguard subsidiary. Amacore Group provides health and health-related programs and other solutions through its multi-channel distribution system.

•Laureen DeBuono has been named president/CEO and a director of Coapt Systems (Palo Alto, California). She has more than 25 years of management experience in the medical device and technology markets, most recently as CFO of Thermage, a developer of aesthetic applications. Coapt is a developer of bioabsorbable implants for the fixation of soft tissue in the plastic, reconstructive and sports medicine markets.

•Todd Pope, worldwide president of Johnson & Johnson's Cordis (Miami Lakes, Florida) business, has resigned to pursue other opportunities. No replacement has been named. Med-tech analyst Larry Biegelsen of Wachovia Capital Markets (New York) said this marks the seventh senior person at Cordis to recently leave or announce his/her intention to leave.

•Amy Cohen has been named vice president, clinical operations, for EyeGate Pharma (Waltham, Massachusetts), a specialty pharmaceutical company using iontophoresis technology to non-invasively deliver therapeutics into the front and back of the eye to treat ocular diseases. She most recently was director, clinical operations at Javelin Pharmaceuticals.

•Jon DiVincenzo has been appointed to succeed Dominique Baly as president of Millipore's (Billerica, Massachusetts) Bioscience Division. DiVincenzo, currently vice president, global sales and service, for the division, will assume his new role on Jan. 1, 2009, and Baly will support this transition through the remainder of 2008. Millipore provides technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

•Neil Warma was named president/CEO of Opexa Therapeutics (The Woodlands, Texas). Warma will also be a director nominee to the company's board of directors at the next annual shareholders' meeting. Most recently, Warma was president/CEO of Viron Therapeutics. Opexa Therapuetics makes cell therapies to treat autoimmune diseases such as MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes.

•Faith Kolb was named senior director of clinical operations and data management at Prometrika (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Previously, Kolb was chief technical officer at Averion International. Prometrika is a contract research organization.

•Christopher Jackson has been appointed vice president of sales at SpectraScience (San Diego), a developer of cancer-screening technology. He most recently was with Neomatrix.