Barry Clare, Chairperson
Barry has almost twenty years experience in the healthcare industry. As a main board director of the Boots Company plc where he was managing director of the successful consumer healthcare division, Boots Healthcare International, responsible for the global expansion of Nurofen, Strepsils, Clearasil etc. Since leaving Boots, he has set up his own company, Clarat Partners LLP, and engineered several private equity backed transactions, including the carve out of Betapharm, a German generics business, eventually sold to Dr. Reddy for £460m. He has recently set up a new over the counter business, Healthcare Brands International and advises technology developers on the commercialisation of their innovations.
Dr Stephen Franklin, Chief Executive
Stephen has over 18 years commercial experience in the life science industries, with most roles dedicated to the commercialisation of new technology. He is the former CEO of Provexis plc, an AIM-listed company dedicated to developing proprietary, science-based, food ingredients (supported by clinical trials) for licensing to major brand holding companies across the functional food, dietary supplement and medical food industries. Prior to that, Stephen was a Principal Executive with the technology commercialisation company, ANGLE plc, and held a business development role with Manchester Biotech (now Manchester Innovation), one of the largest campus-based incubators in Europe; in these roles he helped establish a portfolio of drug discovery and development businesses. Stephen has a BSc in Biology, a PhD in Biochemistry and an MBA with distinction.
Dr David Howat, Chief Development Officer
David Howat has over 18 years experience in pharmaceutical industry R&D. Since 2003, he has been a Freelance Preclinical Development and Project Management Consultant. In this role he has been responsible for the establishment of the development infrastructure, project plans, the establishment of contracts for manufacturing, analysis, safety, assessment and the Phase I regulatory filings for a number of small drug development companies. Prior to 2003, David was Head of Project Management for KS Biomedix Holdings, a biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of drugs for a range of cancer indications. He was formerly the Director of Preclinical Development for NicOx SA and was a Team Leader at Celltech Chiroscience.
Dr Barry Furr, Chief Scientific Advisor
Barry Furr is a reproductive biologist and endocrinologist and former Chief Scientist of AstraZeneca. He worked on tamoxifen, and both Zoladex and Casodex for prostate cancer were discovered in his laboratory. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Institute of Biology, and has an honorary chair at the University of Manchester. He is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and is a member of the CRUK Council Research Strategy Committee. Barry was awarded an OBE in 2000 for his contribution to cancer research. He was awarded the Society for Drug Research Prize for Drug Discovery and the Jubilee Medal of the Society for Endocrinology. He is now a consultant for a number of companies, including AstraZeneca, Almirall, Medivir, Abingworth, SV Life Sciences, MVM, Avila, Astex, and Syntaxin and is a non-executive Director of Genus, GTx and the MHRA.
Dr Sue Foden, Non-Executive Director
Sue Foden holds a number of Non-Executive Directorships with both public and private companies and public funding bodies in the biotechnology and healthcare field, including: Vectura plc, Source Bioscience plc, Cizzle Biotechnology Ltd, The Rainbow Fund, and Oxford Ancestors Ltd. She also holds several Advisory Board roles, including Elara GmbH and Manchester Premier Fund. Prior to this Sue held positions in venture capital and UK biotech companies. From 2000 to 2003 she was an Investor Director with the London-based venture capital firm Merlin Biosciences Limited, and was Chief Executive Officer of the technology transfer company Cancer Research Campaign Technology Ltd from 1987 to 2000. She studied biochemistry at the University of Oxford from where she obtained an MA and a DPhil.
Dr Ben Ferrari, Non-Executive Director
Ben is currently Managing Director of IP Management for Imprimatur Capital, a significant shareholder in Evgen. He has previously worked with a wide range of knowledge and technology transfer programmes in the UK higher education sector. Before joining Imprimatur, he was the Director of UniSdirect, the technology transfer and research support division of the University of Surrey. Prior to that, he served as Head of Research and Enterprise at Royal Holloway, University of London and was a Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of St Andrews. Ben has played a leading role in development of two of the largest UK higher education knowledge transfer partnerships; WestFocus and the SETsquared partnership.