Appointment of Non-executive Chairman

RNS Number : 4209Q

Versarien PLC

19 June 2020

 

19 June 2020

Versarien plc

("Versarien", the "Company" or the "Group")

Appointment of Non-executive Chairman

Versarien plc (AIM: VRS), the advanced materials engineering group, is, pleased to announce that James Stewart CBE has been appointed as the Company's Non-executive Chairman with immediate effect.

Mr Stewart is currently Managing Partner of Menlo Partners LLP, an investment and advisory company with a particular focus on technology companies operating in the UK and China.  Prior to founding Menlo in 2013, he spent 25 years in the private equity sector, latterly as a Partner at ECI Partners LLP ("ECI"), one of the UK's longest established private equity fund managers, where he was involved in a wide range of investments.  James joined ECI in 1996 having formerly spent time at Arthur Andersen & Co. (Management Consultancy Division), N M Rothschild & Co. Limited and as an Investment Director at Rothschild Ventures Limited.

Following Mr Stewart's appointment the Company's Board now comprises James Stewart (Non-executive Chairman), Neill Ricketts (CEO), Christopher Leigh (CFO), Susan Bowen (Non-executive Director) and Iain Gray (Non-executive Director).

Commenting on the appointment Neill Ricketts, CEO of Versarien, said : "We are delighted to welcome James to the Versarien board.  He brings significant business and transaction experience to Versarien that will be particularly valuable as we progress our commercial partnerships and international expansion strategy.

"In particular James has considerable experience of doing business in Asia and a wide range of contacts that will assist Versarien.  I look forward to working closely with him and the Group being able to utilise his skills and experience as the commercial adoption of our graphene and other 2D materials accelerates."

The following information is disclosed pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in relation to James Stewart CBE, aged 60:

Current Directorships	Previous Directorships (last 5 years)
Menlo Partners LLP Menlo Limited UM Labs Limited Safe Apps Limited	Voxpopme Limited Exonar Limited ECI Partners LLP Voxpopme Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) Menlo Products Limited (Hong Kong)

James Stewart holds no ordinary shares in the capital of the Company.

Save as disclosed above there are no additional disclosures to be made in accordance with Rule 17 or Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Enquiries:

Versarien Neill Ricketts, CEO Chris Leigh, CFO	[phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) Ewan Leggat, Soltan Tagiev	[phone]

Berenberg (Joint Broker) Mark Whitmore, Simon Cardron

[phone]

Yellow Jersey (Investor Relations)  Charles Goodwin Georgia Colkin Henry Wilkinson

[phone]

About Versarien

Versarien plc (AIM: VRS), is an advanced engineering materials group. Leveraging proprietary technology, the Group creates innovative engineering solutions for its clients in a diverse range of industries.  Versarien has seven subsidiaries operating under two divisions:

Graphene and Plastics

2-DTech Ltd, which specialises in the supply, characterisation and early stage development of graphene products.  2-DTech is based at the Graphene Innovation Engineering Centre, a £60 million facility set up to work in collaboration with industry partners to create, test and optimise new concepts for the delivery of graphene to the market.  www.2-dtech.com

AAC Cyroma Limited, which specialises in the supply of vacuum-formed and injection-moulded products to the automotive, construction, utilities and retail industry sectors.  Using Versarien's existing graphene manufacturing capabilities, AAC has the ability to produce graphene-enhanced plastic products.  www.aaccyroma.co.uk

Cambridge Graphene Limited, supplies novel inks based on graphene and related materials, using patented processes to develop graphene materials technology.  www.cambridgegraphene.com

Gnanomat S.L. ("GNA"), based in the Parque Cientifico Madrid, Spain, is a company capable of utilising Versarien's graphene products in an environmentally friendly, scalable production process for energy storage devices that offer high power density, fast recharging and very long lifetimes for use in electrical vehicles and portable electronics products.  www.gnanomat.com  

Versarien Graphene Inc - based in Texas, is the recently incorporated sales business for the UK's graphene products.

Hard Wear and Metallic Products

Versarien Technologies Limited has developed an additive process for creating advanced micro-porous metals targeting the thermal management industry and supplies extruded aluminium.  www.versarien-technologies.co.uk  

Total Carbide Limited, a leading manufacturer in sintered tungsten carbide for applications in arduous environments such as the oil and gas industry.  www.totalcarbide.com  

 

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