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GSK and J&J alum Vijay Reddy to take control of R&D at Tmunity; Andrew Hirsch exits Agios for CEO job at C4 Therapeutics

GSK and J&J alum Vijay Reddy to take control of R&D at Tmunity; Andrew Hirsch exits Agios for CEO job at C4 Therapeutics

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Vijay Reddy

→ Vijay Reddy was seeking a return to the US when he left his role as CMO at London-based Autolus this summer. Philadelphia is that landing spot, as the T cell immunotherapy player Tmunity has put him in charge of R&D.

Reddy arrives at the Penn spinout with plenty of Big Pharma bona fides after developing the CAR-T cell clinical program at Autolus. Tmunity’s new chief R&D officer was a senior director and led early clinical development at J&J subsidiary Janssen from 2013-16, and from 2009-13, he was GSK’s medical director, cancer research and clinical development.

Simona King

Tmunity also added to their leadership team by selecting Simona King as their CFO. A nearly 20-year vet of Bristol Myers Squibb in various financial roles, King just had a brief run as VP, finance and assistant treasurer at Emergent BioSolutions.

Co-founded by CAR-T inventors Carl June and Bruce Levine, Tmunity has racked up $231 million in total funding.

Andrew Hirsch

→ Completing a 4-year run as CFO at Agios, Andrew Hirsch has made the jump to CEO of protein degradation pioneer C4 Therapeutics. Hirsch takes the helm at another biotech after a brief tenure as president and CEO of Bind Therapeutics, where he spent 4 years overall. C4 just penciled in $100 million for an IPO and back in June, the biotech raked in a $170 million raise, $150 million of that from a Series B round. Hirsch succeeds Andrew Phillips, who bolts after 2 years on the job.

→ Maryland-based CavoGene LifeSciences, whose lead program for ALS is slated for clinical trials by early 2022, has a new CEO with Daniel Jorgensen now at the helm. A former senior director at Pfizer, Jorgensen was the pharma giant’s first vaccine development team leader, and he also served as global clinical leader for azithromycin. Elsewhere, he’s been CMO and SVP, clinical development at PolyMedix and VP, clinical research for AMAG Pharmaceuticals.

→ No doubt getting a boost from Akebia’s Phase III vadadustat fail last week, roxadustat developer FibroGen has plucked Big Pharma vet Percy Carter from Janssen for the newly-created CSO post. Carter was previously Janssen’s global head of discovery sciences, and prior to that, he spent nearly 20 years at Bristol Myers Squibb in several roles, namely head of discovery and head of discovery chemistry & molecular technologies.

Rachel Humphrey

→ Young oncology company Black Diamond Therapeutics, which collected over $200 million for their IPO in January, has locked in Rachel Humphrey as CMO. Humphrey is taking over from Karsten Witt, who has been serving as acting CMO along with his duties as the company’s SVP of clinical development. Humphrey brings to the table experience from a long list of roles at CytomX Therapeutics — where she served as CMO — Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Mirati Therapeutics, Bristol Myers Squibb and Bayer.

Ali Fattaey

→ Ali Fattaey is now leading cancer metabolism player MetaboMed as their CEO. His predecessor, co-founder Simone Botti, is moving to a senior position at an undisclosed European VC. Fattaey previously led therapeutics discovery and development at Scipher Medicine and was the president and CEO at Curis. He started his career at Onyx Pharmaceuticals as VP, research.

→ Some hard times have befallen DBV Technologies, whose peanut allergy skin patch was rebuffed in a CRL from the FDA in August. Now, a couple of execs have headed for the exits with CFO Ramzi Benamar and CCO Kevin Trapp walking out the door of the French biotech. Sébastien Robitaille will be filling in as CFO on an interim basis effective Oct 2. The Ipsen vet, who started out at DBV 5 years ago as SVP, group controller and information systems, was promoted to chief of staff to CEO Daniel Tassé a year ago.

Molly Henderson

→ Molly Henderson is resigning from her role as CFO at Princeton, NJ biotech Advaxis, effective Sept 25, to become CFO at UroGen beginning the following week. President and CEO Kenneth Berlin will function as interim CFO until her replacement is found. Advaxis has had a rough go of it with its ill-fated Amgen partnership and multiple FDA holds on their lead asset axalimogene.

→ Elsewhere at UroGen, Polly Murphy has taken on the role of CBO and Jason Smith will be general counsel and chief compliance officer. Murphy and Smith are both Pfizer alums: Murphy spent 12 years in a series of VP roles at the pharma giant and was most recently their VP for early commercial development in the oncology business unit, while Smith logged 11 years at Pfizer, the last 4 of those as their chief counsel, oncology. Before that, Smith was legal lead for the North American region of Pfizer Essential Health.

Rosh Dias

→ Back in May, Spruce Biosciences introduced Samir Gharib as their CFO, and there’s another change at the San Francisco biotech’s C-suite with Rosh Dias coming in as CMO. Before joining Spruce, which targets rare endocrine disorders and revealed positive Phase II data a year ago with lead candidate tildacerfont, Dias — a Novartis vet — spent the last year in the same role at Indivior. From 2015-18, he was Amgen’s VP, global scientific affairs. In other Spruce developments, ex-BioMarin CFO Dan Spiegelman was added to their board of directors.

→ Forging ahead in Phase III of their Covid-19 vaccine and ranking No. 2 on our list of the 29 vaccine players, Moderna has tapped Michael Mullette as managing director, Canada. After nearly 2 decades at Sanofi, with the last 2 years as general manager and country chair for Sanofi Canada in Montreal, Mullette came to Moderna in August as VP, market access, and he will carry on in that role in addition to his new appointment.

Mike Spigarelli

→ Raising $16 million in a Series B last week in an effort to “democratize” biologics, Seattle-based Lumen Bioscience has given the nod to Mike Spigarelli to be their CMO. Spigarelli is coming off 4 years as VP, medical affairs for diagnostics company Immucor.

→ Respiratory disease-centered genetic medicines player ReCode Therapeutics has a trifecta of appointments with Mukul Agarwal, CBO; Vladimir Kharitonov, SVP, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC); and Brandon Wustman, SVP, R&D. Agarwal heads to ReCode after a little over a year as VP, corporate development at Forty Seven, which Gilead bought in March for $4.9 billion. Kharitonov had spent 20 years at Pacira Pharmaceuticals, the last 10 as their VP of R&D. And Wustman had been with the company as VP of R&D before ReCode joined forces with TranscripTx in March. From 2002-14, he was senior director, preclinical biology at Amicus Therapeutics.

Martin Madaus

→ Ex-Millipore chairman, president and CEO Martin Madaus is making his way to Feng Zhang’s CRISPR-based diagnostics player Sherlock Biosciences as COO. Madaus has been interim CEO and executive chairman at Ultivue and Emulate Bio of late, and from 2014-19, he was chairman and CEO at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.

→ UK clinical AI company Sensyne Health has tapped Michael Macdonnell as COO. Macdonnell currently heads Google Health as director of global deployment. Prior to his position at Google Health, Macdonnell was at Google DeepMind and held roles at Accenture, NHS England and Imperial College London among others.

→ Longtime Merck vet Ercem Atillasoy is on board at cell therapy company AlloVir as chief regulatory and safety officer. At Merck Research Laboratories, Atillasoy was VP and therapeutic area head of vaccines and infectious disease and VP, global regulatory affairs and clinical safety. He ran Keytruda’s first IND filing for melanoma and was involved in the approval of such medicines as the Ebola vaccine Ervebo and the HPV vaccine Gardasil.

Eric Kimble

→ Tillman Gerngross’ new endeavor, Adagio Therapeutics, has locked in Eric Kimble as chief commercial officer and Ed Campanaro as SVP of clinical operations. Kimble and Campanaro worked at Cubist Pharmaceuticals in VP positions at the same time – Kimble from 2004-13, and Campanaro from 2000-14. Before Adagio, which focuses on antibodies as an avenue to combat Covid-19, Kimble was the CCO at Entasis Therapeutics, while Campanaro was SVP of clinical operations at Artugen Therapeutics.

→ Olema Oncology, working on the development of targeted therapies for women’s cancers, has made several new additions to its executive team with the appointment of Shane Kovacs as COO/CFO, Genentech vet Kinney Horn as CBO, and John Moriarty as EVP, chief legal officer. In addition, Pamela Klein has been named CMO and David Myles has been promoted to chief development officer. Kovacs joins the company from BlueRock Therapeutics (acquired by Bayer), where he served as CBO and CFO. Horn held a 16-year stint at Genentech, while Moriarty was most recently EVP and general counsel at Portola Pharmaceuticals.

Klein joins the company with experience from Syndax Pharmaceuticals and Genentech — where she most recently served as VP, development — among others. Myles moves up to his new role after serving as Olema’s EVP, drug discovery and development.

→ New York-based Phosplatin Therapeutics, which has obtained exclusive license to a family of compounds known as phosphaplatins that may aid in treating cancer, has made Joseph O’Donnell their interim CMO, and Jason Summa has gotten the call to be VP of clinical development. O’Donnell has long been in academia at Dartmouth University’s Geisel School of Medicine, where he started teaching in 1978. A Bind and Momenta alum, Summa was previously oncology director and clinical project scientist at Janssen.

→ Australian CRO Avance Clinical has corralled Jorgen Mould as a scientific affairs specialist. Mould was previously with Merck (KGaA) Healthcare as an associate medical manager and medical science liaison, neurology and immunology.

Amanda Murphy

→ Cell engineering service provider MaxCyte has snagged Amanda Murphy as CFO, succeeding Ron Holtz — who has been promoted to the position of SVP and chief accounting officer. Prior to MaxCyte, Murphy was managing director at BTIG and was partner and healthcare analyst at William Blair & Company.

Henk Schuring

→ Prilenia Therapeutics, focused on treatments for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, has welcomed Henk Schuring as chief regulatory and commercialization officer. Schuring hails from Sanofi Genzyme, where he had a 21-year career and managed the rare nephrological diseases business and rare neurological diseases business.

→ Paul Bavier has been appointed general counsel at cancer-focused VelosBio, which racked up $137 million in a Series B round a couple months ago. Before he set off for VelosBio, Bavier spent 3 years at Avedro as their general counsel and chief compliance officer. He also held similar roles at Biodel from 2007-16 and was also their VP, corporate development.

Laurie Stelzer

→ With Rich Heyman now chairman of the board and a $70 million Series D in the hopper, NJ-based PMV Pharma has brought in Robert Ticktin as general counsel. Ticktin was previously associate general counsel, corporate at Tesaro (and then GSK after the buyout). PMV Pharma, which targets p53 mutations, has also selected Arena Pharmaceuticals CFO Laurie Stelzer to the board of directors as audit committee chair.

→ Sygnature Discovery, a Nottingham-based provider of drug discovery and preclinical services, has reeled in Andy Mead as director and head of drug abuse and substance use disorders at its integrated vivopharmacology company, RenaSci. Mead jumps aboard Sygnature from Sosei Heptares, where he served as director of discovery and translational safety. In addition, he brings experience from roles at Merck, Pfizer and AstraZeneca among others.

→ UK’s PrecisionLife has appointed Simon Beaulah as SVP of healthcare and head of US operations. Most recently, Beaulah was director of healthcare at Linguamatics and prior to that was at IDBS Healthcare.

Alex Badamchi-Zadeh

→ VC and growth equity firm SV has brought on Alex Badamchi-Zadeh as senior associate. Badamchi-Zadeh hops aboard with experience from Xilio Therapeutics — where he helped guide the Kendall Square-based company through their $100.5 million Series B financing round — and LEK Consulting.

→ Dean Mitchell has been named chairman of the board at Kinnate, which just nabbed a $98 million Series C in August. The GSK and Bristol Myers Squibb vet is the former president and CEO of Lux Biosciences and Alpharma.

→ Blueprint Medicines president and CEO Jeff Albers has joined the board of directors at Kymera Therapeutics. The newly public protein degradation player also added Replimune CBO Pamela Esposito to the board.

→ After penciling in a $150 million IPO in June, Forma Therapeutics has recruited Thomas Wiggans to its board of directors. Wiggans is the former chairman and CEO of Dermira (acquired by Eli Lilly) and helped in the formation of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, now Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

Bonnie Anderson

→ Bonnie Anderson has been elected to the board of directors at Bruker Corporation, a scientific instrument manufacturer. Anderson co-founded Veracyte in 2008 and is their chairman and CEO.

→ UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals has tapped ex-Incyte and Celgene CFO David Gryska to be on their board of directors. Gryska is also on the boards of Seattle Genetics, PDL BioPharma and Aerie Pharmaceuticals.

Joseph Bower

→ Joseph Bower has announced his decision to retire as chairman of the board at orthopedic-focused Anika Therapeutics after his term is up in 2021. Bower, a professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, has served on the board since 1993. Anika is also bringing in Jack Henneman and Stephen Richard as new board members.

→ AAV-based gene therapies-focused Prevail Therapeutics has added William Carson to its board of directors. Most recently, Carson served as president and CEO of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization and draws from experience from a stint at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Asher Chanan-Khan

→ Hematology biotech Starton Therapeutics has chosen Kenneth Anderson and Asher Chanan-Khan to sit on their board of directors. Anderson is director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics at Dana-Farber, while Chanan-Khan is a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Jacksonville.

→ Retinal gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics has brought on Sean Bohen to its board of directors. Bohen is the former CMO and EVP, global medicines development at AstraZeneca and previously served as SVP of Genentech early development (gRED).

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‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

‘Excess Mortality Skyrocketed’: Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack ‘Criminal’ COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded…

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8 hours ago

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March 14, 2024

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'Excess Mortality Skyrocketed': Tucker Carlson and Dr. Pierre Kory Unpack 'Criminal' COVID Response

As the global pandemic unfolded, government-funded experimental vaccines were hastily developed for a virus which primarily killed the old and fat (and those with other obvious comorbidities), and an aggressive, global campaign to coerce billions into injecting them ensued.

Then there were the lockdowns - with some countries (New Zealand, for example) building internment camps for those who tested positive for Covid-19, and others such as China welding entire apartment buildings shut to trap people inside.

It was an egregious and unnecessary response to a virus that, while highly virulent, was survivable by the vast majority of the general population.

Oh, and the vaccines, which governments are still pushing, didn't work as advertised to the point where health officials changed the definition of "vaccine" multiple times.

Tucker Carlson recently sat down with Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care specialist and vocal critic of vaccines. The two had a wide-ranging discussion, which included vaccine safety and efficacy, excess mortality, demographic impacts of the virus, big pharma, and the professional price Kory has paid for speaking out.

Keep reading below, or if you have roughly 50 minutes, watch it in its entirety for free on X:

"Do we have any real sense of what the cost, the physical cost to the country and world has been of those vaccines?" Carlson asked, kicking off the interview.

"I do think we have some understanding of the cost. I mean, I think, you know, you're aware of the work of of Ed Dowd, who's put together a team and looked, analytically at a lot of the epidemiologic data," Kory replied. "I mean, time with that vaccination rollout is when all of the numbers started going sideways, the excess mortality started to skyrocket."

When asked "what kind of death toll are we looking at?", Kory responded "...in 2023 alone, in the first nine months, we had what's called an excess mortality of 158,000 Americans," adding "But this is in 2023. I mean, we've  had Omicron now for two years, which is a mild variant. Not that many go to the hospital."

'Safe and Effective'

Tucker also asked Kory why the people who claimed the vaccine were "safe and effective" aren't being held criminally liable for abetting the "killing of all these Americans," to which Kory replied: "It’s my kind of belief, looking back, that [safe and effective] was a predetermined conclusion. There was no data to support that, but it was agreed upon that it would be presented as safe and effective."

Carlson and Kory then discussed the different segments of the population that experienced vaccine side effects, with Kory noting an "explosion in dying in the youngest and healthiest sectors of society," adding "And why did the employed fare far worse than those that weren't? And this particularly white collar, white collar, more than gray collar, more than blue collar."

Kory also said that Big Pharma is 'terrified' of Vitamin D because it "threatens the disease model." As journalist The Vigilant Fox notes on X, "Vitamin D showed about a 60% effectiveness against the incidence of COVID-19 in randomized control trials," and "showed about 40-50% effectiveness in reducing the incidence of COVID-19 in observational studies."

Professional costs

Kory - while risking professional suicide by speaking out, has undoubtedly helped save countless lives by advocating for alternate treatments such as Ivermectin.

Kory shared his own experiences of job loss and censorship, highlighting the challenges of advocating for a more nuanced understanding of vaccine safety in an environment often resistant to dissenting voices.

"I wrote a book called The War on Ivermectin and the the genesis of that book," he said, adding "Not only is my expertise on Ivermectin and my vast clinical experience, but and I tell the story before, but I got an email, during this journey from a guy named William B Grant, who's a professor out in California, and he wrote to me this email just one day, my life was going totally sideways because our protocols focused on Ivermectin. I was using a lot in my practice, as were tens of thousands of doctors around the world, to really good benefits. And I was getting attacked, hit jobs in the media, and he wrote me this email on and he said, Dear Dr. Kory, what they're doing to Ivermectin, they've been doing to vitamin D for decades..."

"And it's got five tactics. And these are the five tactics that all industries employ when science emerges, that's inconvenient to their interests. And so I'm just going to give you an example. Ivermectin science was extremely inconvenient to the interests of the pharmaceutical industrial complex. I mean, it threatened the vaccine campaign. It threatened vaccine hesitancy, which was public enemy number one. We know that, that everything, all the propaganda censorship was literally going after something called vaccine hesitancy."

Money makes the world go 'round

Carlson then hit on perhaps the most devious aspect of the relationship between drug companies and the medical establishment, and how special interests completely taint science to the point where public distrust of institutions has spiked in recent years.

"I think all of it starts at the level the medical journals," said Kory. "Because once you have something established in the medical journals as a, let's say, a proven fact or a generally accepted consensus, consensus comes out of the journals."

"I have dozens of rejection letters from investigators around the world who did good trials on ivermectin, tried to publish it. No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. And then the ones that do get in all purportedly prove that ivermectin didn't work," Kory continued.

"So and then when you look at the ones that actually got in and this is where like probably my biggest estrangement and why I don't recognize science and don't trust it anymore, is the trials that flew to publication in the top journals in the world were so brazenly manipulated and corrupted in the design and conduct in, many of us wrote about it. But they flew to publication, and then every time they were published, you saw these huge PR campaigns in the media. New York Times, Boston Globe, L.A. times, ivermectin doesn't work. Latest high quality, rigorous study says. I'm sitting here in my office watching these lies just ripple throughout the media sphere based on fraudulent studies published in the top journals. And that's that's that has changed. Now that's why I say I'm estranged and I don't know what to trust anymore."

Vaccine Injuries

Carlson asked Kory about his clinical experience with vaccine injuries.

"So how this is how I divide, this is just kind of my perception of vaccine injury is that when I use the term vaccine injury, I'm usually referring to what I call a single organ problem, like pericarditis, myocarditis, stroke, something like that. An autoimmune disease," he replied.

"What I specialize in my practice, is I treat patients with what we call a long Covid long vaxx. It's the same disease, just different triggers, right? One is triggered by Covid, the other one is triggered by the spike protein from the vaccine. Much more common is long vax. The only real differences between the two conditions is that the vaccinated are, on average, sicker and more disabled than the long Covids, with some pretty prominent exceptions to that."

Watch the entire interview above, and you can support Tucker Carlson's endeavors by joining the Tucker Carlson Network here...

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/14/2024 - 16:20

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Shakira’s net worth

After 12 albums, a tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth more than 4 decades into her care…

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13 hours ago

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March 14, 2024

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Shakira’s considerable net worth is no surprise, given her massive popularity in Latin America, the U.S., and elsewhere. 

In fact, the belly-dancing contralto queen is the second-wealthiest Latin-America-born pop singer of all time after Gloria Estefan. (Interestingly, Estefan actually helped a young Shakira translate her breakout album “Laundry Service” into English, hugely propelling her stateside success.)

Since releasing her first record at age 13, Shakira has spent decades recording albums in both Spanish and English and performing all over the world. Over the course of her 40+ year career, she helped thrust Latin pop music into the American mainstream, paving the way for the subsequent success of massively popular modern acts like Karol G and Bad Bunny.

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Shakira, the barefoot belly dancer of Barranquilla, was unveiled at the city's waterfront. The statue was commissioned by the city's former mayor and other leadership.

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

In December 2023, a 21-foot-tall beachside bronze statue of the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer was unveiled in her Colombian hometown of Barranquilla, making her a permanent fixture in the city’s skyline and cementing her legacy as one of Latin America’s most influential entertainers.

After 12 albums, a plethora of film and television appearances, a highly publicized tax evasion case, and now a towering bronze idol sculpted in her image, how much is Shakira worth? What does her income look like? And how does she spend her money?

Related: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's net worth: How the new TKO Board Member built his wealth from $7

How much is Shakira worth?

In late 2023, Spanish sports and lifestyle publication Marca reported Shakira’s net worth at $400 million, citing Forbes as the figure’s source (although Forbes’ profile page for Shakira does not list a net worth — and didn’t when that article was published).

Most other sources list the singer’s wealth at an estimated $300 million, and almost all of these point to Celebrity Net Worth — a popular but dubious celebrity wealth estimation site — as the source for the figure.

A $300 million net worth would make Shakira the third-richest Latina pop star after Gloria Estefan ($500 million) and Jennifer Lopez ($400 million), and the second-richest Latin-America-born pop singer after Estefan (JLo is Puerto Rican but was born in New York).

Shakira’s income: How much does she make annually?

Entertainers like Shakira don’t have predictable paychecks like ordinary salaried professionals. Instead, annual take-home earnings vary quite a bit depending on each year’s album sales, royalties, film and television appearances, streaming revenue, and other sources of income. As one might expect, Shakira’s earnings have fluctuated quite a bit over the years.

From June 2018 to June 2019, for instance, Shakira was the 10th highest-earning female musician, grossing $35 million, according to Forbes. This wasn’t her first time gracing the top 10, though — back in 2012, she also landed the #10 spot, bringing in $20 million, according to Billboard.

In 2023, Billboard listed Shakira as the 16th-highest-grossing Latin artist of all time.

Shakira performed alongside producer Bizarrap during the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards Gala in Seville.

Photo By Maria Jose Lopez/Europa Press via Getty Images

How much does Shakira make from her concerts and tours?

A large part of Shakira’s wealth comes from her world tours, during which she sometimes sells out massive stadiums and arenas full of passionate fans eager to see her dance and sing live.

According to a 2020 report by Pollstar, she sold over 2.7 million tickets across 190 shows that grossed over $189 million between 2000 and 2020. This landed her the 19th spot on a list of female musicians ranked by touring revenue during that period. In 2023, Billboard reported a more modest touring revenue figure of $108.1 million across 120 shows.

In 2003, Shakira reportedly generated over $4 million from a single show on Valentine’s Day at Foro Sol in Mexico City. 15 years later, in 2018, Shakira grossed around $76.5 million from her El Dorado World Tour, according to Touring Data.

Related: RuPaul's net worth: Everything to know about the cultural icon and force behind 'Drag Race'

How much has Shakira made from her album sales?

According to a 2023 profile in Variety, Shakira has sold over 100 million records throughout her career. “Laundry Service,” the pop icon’s fifth studio album, was her most successful, selling over 13 million copies worldwide, according to TheRichest.

Exactly how much money Shakira has taken home from her album sales is unclear, but in 2008, it was widely reported that she signed a 10-year contract with LiveNation to the tune of between $70 and $100 million to release her subsequent albums and manage her tours.

Shakira and JLo co-headlined the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show in Florida.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

How much did Shakira make from her Super Bowl and World Cup performances?

Shakira co-wrote one of her biggest hits, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” after FIFA selected her to create the official anthem for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. She performed the song, along with several of her existing fan-favorite tracks, during the event’s opening ceremonies. TheThings reported in 2023 that the song generated $1.4 million in revenue, citing Popnable for the figure.

A decade later, 2020’s Superbowl halftime show featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez as co-headliners with guest performances by Bad Bunny and J Balvin. The 14-minute performance was widely praised as a high-energy celebration of Latin music and dance, but as is typical for Super Bowl shows, neither Shakira nor JLo was compensated beyond expenses and production costs.

The exposure value that comes with performing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show, though, is significant. It is typically the most-watched television event in the U.S. each year, and in 2020, a 30-second Super Bowl ad spot cost between $5 and $6 million.

How much did Shakira make as a coach on “The Voice?”

Shakira served as a team coach on the popular singing competition program “The Voice” during the show’s fourth and sixth seasons. On the show, celebrity musicians coach up-and-coming amateurs in a team-based competition that eventually results in a single winner. In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Shakira’s salary as a coach on “The Voice” was $12 million.

Related: John Cena's net worth: The wrestler-turned-actor's investments, businesses, and more

How does Shakira spend her money?

Shakira doesn’t just make a lot of money — she spends it, too. Like many wealthy entertainers, she’s purchased her share of luxuries, but Barranquilla’s barefoot belly dancer is also a prolific philanthropist, having donated tens of millions to charitable causes throughout her career.

Private island

Back in 2006, she teamed up with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame and Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz to purchase Bonds Cay, a 550-acre island in the Bahamas, which was listed for $16 million at the time.

Along with her two partners in the purchase, Shakira planned to develop the island to feature housing, hotels, and an artists’ retreat designed to host a revolving cast of artists-in-residence. This plan didn’t come to fruition, though, and as of this article’s last update, the island was once again for sale on Vladi Private Islands.

Real estate and vehicles

Like most wealthy celebs, Shakira’s portfolio of high-end playthings also features an array of luxury properties and vehicles, including a home in Barcelona, a villa in Cyprus, a Miami mansion, and a rotating cast of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Philanthropy and charity

Shakira doesn’t just spend her massive wealth on herself; the “Queen of Latin Music” is also a dedicated philanthropist and regularly donates portions of her earnings to the Fundación Pies Descalzos, or “Barefoot Foundation,” a charity she founded in 1997 to “improve the education and social development of children in Colombia, which has suffered decades of conflict.” The foundation focuses on providing meals for children and building and improving educational infrastructure in Shakira’s hometown of Barranquilla as well as four other Colombian communities.

In addition to her efforts with the Fundación Pies Descalzos, Shakira has made a number of other notable donations over the years. In 2007, she diverted a whopping $40 million of her wealth to help rebuild community infrastructure in Peru and Nicaragua in the wake of a devastating 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Later, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Shakira donated a large supply of N95 masks for healthcare workers and ventilators for hospital patients to her hometown of Barranquilla.

Back in 2010, the UN honored Shakira with a medal to recognize her dedication to social justice, at which time the Director General of the International Labour Organization described her as a “true ambassador for children and young people.”

On November 20, 2023 (which was supposed to be her first day of trial), Shakira reached a deal with the prosecution that resulted in a three-year suspended sentence and around $8 million in fines.

Photo by Adria Puig/Anadolu via Getty Images

Shakira’s tax fraud scandal: How much did she pay?

In 2018, prosecutors in Spain initiated a tax evasion case against Shakira, alleging she lived primarily in Spain from 2012 to 2014 and therefore failed to pay around $14.4 million in taxes to the Spanish government. Spanish law requires anyone who is “domiciled” (i.e., living primarily) in Spain for more than half of the year to pay income taxes.

During the period in question, Shakira listed the Bahamas as her primary residence but did spend some time in Spain, as she was dating Gerard Piqué, a professional footballer and Spanish citizen. The couple’s first son, Milan, was also born in Barcelona during this period. 

Shakira maintained that she spent far fewer than 183 days per year in Spain during each of the years in question. In an interview with Elle Magazine, the pop star opined that “Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It's clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what."

Prosecutors in the case sought a fine of almost $26 million and a possible eight-year prison stint, but in November of 2023, Shakira took a deal to close the case, accepting a fine of around $8 million and a three-year suspended sentence to avoid going to trial. In reference to her decision to take the deal, Shakira stated, "While I was determined to defend my innocence in a trial that my lawyers were confident would have ruled in my favour [had the trial proceeded], I have made the decision to finally resolve this matter with the best interest of my kids at heart who do not want to see their mom sacrifice her personal well-being in this fight."

How much did the Shakira statue in Barranquilla cost?

In late 2023, a 21-foot-tall bronze likeness of Shakira was unveiled on a waterfront promenade in Barranquilla. The city’s then-mayor, Jaime Pumarejo, commissioned Colombian sculptor Yino Márquez to create the statue of the city’s treasured pop icon, along with a sculpture of the city’s coat of arms.

According to the New York Times, the two sculptures cost the city the equivalent of around $180,000. A plaque at the statue’s base reads, “A heart that composes, hips that don’t lie, an unmatched talent, a voice that moves the masses and bare feet that march for the good of children and humanity.” 

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International

Delta Air Lines adds a new route travelers have been asking for

The new Delta seasonal flight to the popular destination will run daily on a Boeing 767-300.

Published

13 hours ago

on

March 14, 2024

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Those who have tried to book a flight from North America to Europe in the summer of 2023 know just how high travel demand to the continent has spiked.

At 2.93 billion, visitors to the countries making up the European Union had finally reached pre-pandemic levels last year while North Americans in particular were booking trips to both large metropolises such as Paris and Milan as well as smaller cities growing increasingly popular among tourists.

Related: A popular European city is introducing the highest 'tourist tax' yet

As a result, U.S.-based airlines have been re-evaluating their networks to add more direct routes to smaller European destinations that most travelers would have previously needed to reach by train or transfer flight with a local airline.

The new flight will take place on a Boeing 767-300.

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Delta Air Lines: ‘Glad to offer customers increased choice…’

By the end of March, Delta Air Lines  (DAL)  will be restarting its route between New York’s JFK and Marco Polo International Airport in Venice as well as launching two new flights to Venice from Atlanta. One will start running this month while the other will be added during peak demand in the summer.

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“As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Venice is hugely popular with U.S. travelers, and our flights bring valuable tourism and trade opportunities to the city and the region as well as unrivalled opportunities for Venetians looking to explore destinations across the Americas,” Delta’s SVP for Europe Matteo Curcio said in a statement. “We’re glad to offer customers increased choice this summer with flights from New York and additional service from Atlanta.”

The JFK-Venice flight will run on a Boeing 767-300  (BA)  and have 216 seats including higher classes such as Delta One, Delta Premium Select and Delta Comfort Plus.

Delta offers these features on the new flight

Both the New York and Atlanta flights are seasonal routes that will be pulled out of service in October. Both will run daily while the first route will depart New York at 8:55 p.m. and arrive in Venice at 10:15 a.m. local time on the way there, while leaving Venice at 12:15 p.m. to arrive at JFK at 5:05 p.m. on the way back.

According to Delta, this will bring its service to 17 flights from different U.S. cities to Venice during the peak summer period. As with most Delta flights at this point, passengers in all fare classes will have access to free Wi-Fi during the flight.

Those flying in Delta’s highest class or with access through airline status or a credit card will also be able to use the new Delta lounge that is part of the airline’s $12 billion terminal renovation and is slated to open to travelers in the coming months. The space will take up more than 40,000 square feet and have an outdoor terrace.

“Delta One customers can stretch out in a lie-flat seat and enjoy premium amenities like plush bedding made from recycled plastic bottles, more beverage options, and a seasonal chef-curated four-course meal,” Delta said of the new route. “[…] All customers can enjoy a wide selection of in-flight entertainment options and stay connected with Wi-Fi and enjoy free mobile messaging.”

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