Board Appointment

RNS Number : 9595Z

Venn Life Sciences Holdings PLC

14 March 2013

 



Venn Life Sciences Holdings Plc

("Venn" or the "Company")

Board Appointment

Venn Life Sciences (AIM: VENN), a growing Clinical Research Organisation (CRO) providing clinical trial management and resourcing solutions to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device clients, announces the appointment of Paul Kennedy as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

Paul has an extensive career in the pharmaceutical industry having been President of Novo Nordisk France for 15 years and before that working as a Marketing Director for seven years at Abbot France and Boots, both in the UK and France. Having left Novo Nordisk in 1994, Paul set up his own pharmaceutical company, Laboratoires Murat, which was purchased by Fuisz Technologies Ltd, a Nasdaq listed drug delivery company three years later. Paul then worked as Executive Vice President, Operations for Fuisz Technologies in Paris before the business was sold to Shire plc in 1999 for a further premium.

From 1999 to 2004 Paul worked as an Independent Consultant in the pharmaceutical industry where he continued to build on his M&A experience by advising on a series of transactions, including the sale of Ethypharm for €235m and the sale of Laboratoires Dexo for €12.5m. In 2004 Paul became President of International Operations at AIM listed medical diagnostics company Cozart plc, establishing their international organisation from a standing start. Cozart was subsequently sold for £65m in 2007 to Concateno plc. In 2007 Paul became a controlling shareholder and Director of US listed IVAX Diagnostics, Inc, which was subsequently sold to Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd, India's largest diagnostics company, in September 2010. Paul is also fluent in French and Spanish.

Commenting on the appointment, Venn CEO, Tony Richardson, said: "We are very pleased to welcome Paul to the Board as a Non-Executive Director. Paul's knowledge of the pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics industries, and particularly his experience in M&A transactions, will be a great benefit to Venn as we continue to execute our strategy of becoming a leading mid-sized CRO in Europe."

Enquiries:

Venn Life Sciences Holdings Plc
Tony Richardson, Chief Executive Officer	Tel: [phone]
Paul Foulger, Finance Director	Tel: [phone]
Zeus Capital (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Ross Andrews/Andrew Jones(Corporate Finance)	Tel: [phone]
John Goold (Institutional Sales)	Tel: [phone]
Walbrook PR Ltd	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]
Paul McManus	Mob: [phone]
Lianne Cawthorne	Mob: [phone]

Additional Information:

Paul Francis Kennedy, aged 68, holds 480,035 shares in the Company and other than as set out below there is no further information to be disclosed under schedule 2(g) and Rule 17 of the AIM Rules in respect of Mr Kennedy's appointment today as a Director of the Company.

Paul is a director / partner or has been a director / partner of the following companies / partnerships during the previous five years:

Current directorships/partnerships	Director/Partner in the last 5 years
None	IVAX Diagnostics, Inc

About Venn Life Sciences Limited: www.vennlifesciences.com

Venn Life Sciences is a Clinical Research Organisation ("CRO") providing a suite of consulting and clinical trial services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device organisations and having operations in France, the Netherlands, Russia and Ireland, with a branch office in Switzerland. The Venn Group also includes a Clinical Resourcing business based in France. The Company's near term objective is the expansion of its coverage to other European countries through strategic acquisitions thus combining a number of small European CROs to build a mid-sized CRO focused on the European market, offering clients a full service, multi-centred capability in Phase II-IV trials and across a range of principal disease areas.

 

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