I know you addressed this to Spidey but he didn’t make the jump from R&D researcher at Teva to VP at Pluristem. He held two other roles with Pluristem prior to becoming VP. But to answer your initial question, no a researcher to VP is not a common leap. However he made is way up the chain having been a director prior to being a VP.
Only thing I could find that pointed out all positions prior to becoming a VP