Dr Andy Richards, Chairman
Dr Andy Richards is a serial Biotechnology entrepreneur and business angel. He is currently Chairman of Altacor, Novacta Abcodia and Ixico and is a director of Arecor, Summit Corp plc, PsychologyOn-line, Cancer Research Technology (commercial arm of CR-UK) and Babraham Bioscience Technology.
Andy is a Cambridge graduate with a PhD in Chemistry who spent his early career with ICI (now AstraZeneca) and with PA Technology. He was a founder of Chiroscience and an executive director through to the sale to Celltech in 1999. Since that time he has been founding and investing in new Cambridge based biotechnology companies including several of those listed above as well as Arakis, Geneservice, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd, Amedis Pharmaceuticals, Sirus Pharmaceuticals, Daniolabs and Pharmakodex, all of which were recently sold.
He is a council member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), a founder member of the Cambridge Angels, the founding Chairman of BIA Bioangels and an advisor to Vectura plc, CUTEC, 4D-biomedical and Toscana Life Sciences.
Dr Fran Crawford, CEO
Fran Crawford has been closely involved in the growth of several life science businesses including Altacor, Sirus Pharmaceuticals and Spirogen. For at least two of these companies she has participated in orchestrating M&A resulting in an exit for the benefit of shareholders and investors.
Fran is a clinical pharmacologist who, following several post doctoral posts entered the pharmaceutical industry in clinical research with Ethical Holdings. She has an extensive record of product development and regulatory approvals (formulation to market) in Europe and the US as well as in and out licensing. Holding senior posts in several start up businesses she has built IP portfolios to add value and protection to product pipelines. More recently she has been responsible for growing hospital and retail sales teams to commercialise products in a Specialty Pharma setting.
Mr David Alcraft, Director
35 years in international roles in Pharmaceutical Industry. Founder of Bridgehead International a consultancy company offering technical and commercial evaluation, pricing and reimbursement strategies and business development and licensing services. He has a track record of product development and commercialisation.
Mr Dean Slagel, Non Executive Director
17 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical business management experience across 4 countries. Starting in global business development at Tillotts Pharma in Switzerland, he spent 8 years with Ferring in the UK, France and Denmark, moving from regional operations to global business development and became Global Business Development Director in 2000. During this period, he completed his MBA and was responsible for two significant international licensing deals. He established and has managed Esperante's initial fund since late 2003, during which time he has been responsible for 8 portfolio company investments in the USA, UK, France and Germany to date.
Mr Stéphane Mery, Non Executive Director
Stephane manages the investments for Beringea's ProVen Health VCT. Prior to joining Beringea Stephane was Associate Director of Healthcare Investment at Noble from May 2007 and Fund Manager of the Bloomsbury Bioseed Fund from November 2000.
Mr Chris Lyddon, Non Executive Director
Chris joined Altacor as an independent Non-executive Director in March 2011. Since 2008 Chris has run his own consultancy business specialising in M&A transactions, including advising the personalised medicines business DxS and its shareholders on a sale to Qiagen, which won the BVCA deal of the year award in 2010. This follows over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors with roles in corporate development at Amersham plc, CEO and CFO positions in various Apax Partners portfolio companies and financial positions with Boehringer Mannheim. Chris qualified as an ACA in 1994.
Rob Sprawson, CFO
Rob joined Altacor as Chief Financial Officer in October 2011. Rob has more than 15 years of professional and commercial experience providing strategic, financial and corporate finance advice to Boards and shareholders, especially in the pharmaceutical and technology industries, to maximise shareholder value. His previous roles included Chief Financial and Commercial Officer of Warwick Ventures Limited, the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Warwick, Chief Financial Officer of an AIM list drug development company and Senior Manager, Corporate Finance at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Rob is also the Finance Director of Lumora Limited, a molecular diagnostic company, and holds a FCA and a BA Hons in Accounting and Financial Analysis.
Dr Gavin Spencer, Non-Executive Director
Gavin is Vice President of Business Development at NicOx where he is responsible for corporate development and communications. He has over 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including product development, search, evaluation and licensing of new technologies, alliance management, communications and M&A evaluation. Prior to joining NicOx in 2005 Gavin worked in New Technologies and Product Innovation at Novartis Consumer Health in Nyon, Switzerland, where he was responsible for the search, evaluation and development of new technologies. Gavin has a PhD in Chemistry and began his career at Boots Healthcare International in product development.