Board of Directors & Executive Directors

Dr Geoffrey Guy - Executive Chairman, 53

Dr Guy founded Ethical Holdings plc, in 1985 and led that company as Chairman and Chief Executive to its NASDAQ flotation in 1993 before leaving in 1997. He received 3i's "Venturer of the Year" award in the science and technology category. In 1990, Dr Guy co-founded the plant-medicines company that became Phytopharm plc, of which he was Chairman until 1997. Dr Guy served as Director of Clinical Development at Napp Laboratories from 1983 to 1985 and as International Clinical Research Co-ordinator at Laboratories Pierre Fabre from 1981 to 1983.

Dr Guy has over twenty years experience in pharmaceutical development covering new chemical entities, biotechnology products, plant-based medicines, controlled drugs and drug delivery systems. Dr Guy has been the physician in charge of over 200 clinical studies including first dose in man, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, dose-ranging, controlled clinical trials and large scale multi-centred studies and clinical surveys.

Dr Guy gained a BSc in pharmacology from the University of London in 1976, a MBBS at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1979, a MRCS Eng. and LRCP London in 1979, a LMSSA Society of Apothecaries in 1979 and a Diploma of Pharmaceutical Medicine from the Royal Colleges of Physicians in 1984.

Justin Gover - Managing Director, 36

Mr Gover has been Managing Director of GW since January 1999. In this time, he has successfully guided the Group through this period of rapid growth and managed the Group's equity financing activities. He was previously Head of Corporate Affairs at Ethical Holdings plc, the NASDAQ-quoted drug delivery company. In this role, he was responsible for the company's strategic corporate activities, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, equity financing and investor relations. Transactions included acquisitions and disposals in North and South America, public listings of group companies in London and the US, and strategic investment in Asia.

He previously worked as a consultant with BDO Management Consultants in Hong Kong and also in China establishing a pharmaceutical joint venture. Mr Gover holds an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He received a BSc (Hons) from Bristol University in 1992.

David Kirk - Finance Director, 54

Mr Kirk joined GW as Finance Director on 11 September 2001. He joined Arthur Andersen in 1975, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1978 and becoming a partner in 1988. At Arthur Andersen he specialised in entrepreneurial growth companies and worked across a range of sectors. He was responsible for launching the UK Arthur Andersen Biotech Programme in 1994 whilst Head of its UK Technology Team.

In early 1997 he became the first Finance Director of CeNeS Limited, the company developing drugs for CNS disorders and pain control, playing a significant role in its development, including its reverse into Core Group PLC (which subsequently became CeNeS Pharmaceuticals Plc). He left CeNeS in summer 2000. He was also a founding Director of Amura Limited, an antibacterial research company, and was until June 2001 a non executive Director of Avlar Bioventures, a biotechnology venture capital fund based in Cambridge.

Dr Stephen Wright, R&D Director, 55

Dr Wright joined GW’s senior management team in January 2004 as Research & Development Director and was promoted to the Board in March 2005.

Dr Wright has more than 15 years of experience in medicines development, having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, in large and small pharmaceutical companies. He joined GW from Ipsen, where he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Research & Development and a member of the UK Board of Directors. In this role he led teams responsible for regulatory success in both the US and EU. Dr Wright has US drug development experience, firstly as Medical Director of Immunosciences, then Venture Head of Neuroscience at Abbott Laboratories, based near Chicago. He also spent some years at Glaxo in the UK as Associate Medical Director with special responsibility for sumatriptan and for the Glaxo range of topical steroids. His industry experience started when he joined Scotia Pharmaceuticals as Director of Immunology, Inflammation and Dermatology Research in 1988. He has experience across a range of therapeutic areas, but his particular expertise lies in the fields of neurology and oncology.

Dr Wright has an MA in Social and Political Science from the University of Cambridge, where he also won a ‘Blue' for representing the University at Cricket and Soccer. He qualified in Medicine (MB BS) at The Royal London Hospital. His other higher degrees include an MD, also from The University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and was elected to FFPM in 2000. His early medical career in the NHS culminated in him becoming Consultant Senior Lecturer at The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. He has authored more than 100 publications.

Non-Executive Directors

James Noble – Deputy Chairman, 48
Mr Noble has extensive experience in the biotech industry and was most recently CEO of Avidex Limited, a private biotech company, which was sold in late 2006 to MediGene AG, of which he is joining the Supervisory Board. Mr Noble is also a non-executive director of Albany Capital plc, an AIM-listed investment company, Finsbury Worldwide Pharmaceutical Trust plc, one of the largest investment trusts specialising in healthcare companies, and CuraGen Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company.

In 2003, Mr Noble was a member of the UK government committee on funding the UK biotech industry. From 1997-2001, he held numerous non-executive director positions including PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford GlycoSciences plc (OGS), Advanced Medical Solutions plc, as well as number of other private UK, European and US biotech companies. At PowderJect and OGS, he was a director prior to and following flotation of these companies, and in particular played a key role in the secondary IPO of OGS on NASDAQ, which raised £175m.

Prior to this, Mr Noble was a director of corporate finance at Kleinwort Benson (1983-90) and Finance Director of British Biotech Plc (1990-7). He started his career at PriceWaterhouse, where he qualified as a chartered accountant.

Richard Forrest – Non-Executive Director, 59
Richard Forrest is currently a non-executive director of Alizyme plc, and has extensive commercial experience in the international pharmaceutical industry, gained over a period of 30 years. This included 19 years with the Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Group (now Sanofi-Aventis), where his most senior position was Senior Vice-President, Europe. His roles have included responsibility for General Management, Marketing and Sales and Business Development in Europe and Rest of the World (South America, Africa, Middle East and South-East Asia).

Mr Forrest was also a member of the Pharmaceutical Operations Committee which had responsibility for worldwide operational performance, as well as the Pharmaceutical Development Committee, which had responsibility for all R&D portfolio decisions and major licensing. Subsequently, his most recent position was Chief Operating Officer of Novuspharma SpA, an Italian biopharmaceutical company, which merged with Cell Therapeutics Inc. in January 2004.

Hans Schram - Non-Executive Director, 54

Mr Schram has over 20 years experience in global pharmaceutical business development and marketing and became a Non-Executive Director in April 2003.

Mr Schram is currently Chief Executive Officer of Nordic Group, a specialist pharmaceutical sales and marketing company with operations in Scandinavia, UK, Netherlands and France. Prior to this appointment he spent 18 years at Ferring Group, an international pharmaceutical company operating in over 40 countries with annual revenues of over Euro 500 million. Mr Schram was a member of Ferring's Executive Management Team and Senior Vice President, International Business Development. Mr Schram also held posts as Managing Director of several of the European affiliates and as Regional Director of the Group's operations in Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Middle East.

Prior to Ferring, Mr Schram was at Ciba Geigy in Switzerland and at Pierre Fabre Laboratories, the French phytomedicines company, responsible for pharmaceutical operations in Northern Europe, North America, South East Asia and Japan.

This section of the website was last updated to comply with Rule 26 on: 2 April 2008

Back to top