Pharmaceutical firm Zogenix announced the appointment of Shawnte Mitchell as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. In this role, Mitchell will lead the company’s legal team, manage certain corporate affairs, and serve as a member of the Zogenix executive team.

Mitchell has more than 15 years of experience advising publicly traded and privately held companies. She joins Zogenix from Aptevo Therapeutics, where she was most recently senior vice president, general counsel and corporate affairs, contributing to the development and execution of the company’s strategic and operational plans and overseeing compliance, governance, SEC, intellectual property, data privacy, and contractual matters.

Prior to Aptevo, Mitchell was vice president, associate general counsel and assistant secretary at the specialty biopharmaceutical company Emergent BioSolutions.