Appointment of a Non-Executive Director

RNS Number : 8976K

Avacta Group PLC

05 August 2013

 



Press Release

5 August 2013

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")

Dr Trevor Nicholls joins the Board of Avacta Group plc as a Non-executive Director

Ex-Chief Commercial Officer of Affymetrix Joins Avacta Board

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), a global provider of innovative diagnostic tools, consumables and reagents aimed at reducing the cost of human and animal healthcare, is pleased to announce that Dr Trevor Nicholls has joined the Board as a Non-executive Director with immediate effect.

Dr Nicholls has over 30 years of commercial experience building international businesses in the life sciences sector.  As Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Affymetrix, Dr Nicholls was responsible for global operations including sales, marketing, product development and manufacturing, overseeing approximately 600 staff across 8 locations worldwide.  In this role he grew product revenue from US$249 million to US$330 million in two years with the launch of a large number of new products including major instrument systems during that period.  

Dr Nicholls is currently Chief Executive Officer of the not-for-profit CAB International, an intergovernmental organisation owned by 47 member countries whose mission is to improve lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.  He is also Non-Executive Chairman of Activiomics Limited, a UK biomarker discovery and drug profiling services business and was founder and CEO of Oxagen, a UK biotech company where he successfully raised approximately £50 million over three venture-backed financing rounds and secured major commercial partnerships.  Prior to that he held senior commercial positions with Amersham International and worked in consultancy with McKinsey.

Trevor brings great experience in commercial and corporate strategy, international sales and marketing and building life sciences businesses.

Commenting on the appointment, Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group said:  "The Board is delighted that Trevor is joining the Board as a Non-executive Director.  We will benefit greatly from his experience in commercialising new products and in developing strategic commercial relationships in the life sciences sector. Trevor's appointment is particularly timely at this stage of the Company's development, as Avacta progresses from a period of focused and intensive product development to one in which it is expanding its commercial activities with new products and affinity reagents. 

"We very much look forward to working with Trevor over the coming years and to the strategic guidance that he will bring to Avacta."

Dr Trevor Nicholls, aged 56, is a director/partner or has been a director/partner of the following companies/partnerships during the previous five years:

Activiomics Limited

C.A.B. International Limited

Conidia Bioscience Limited

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited

Oxloc Limited

Sea Gardens (Hope Cove) Limited

Chaise Cottages Management Company Limited

On 2 August 2013, Dr Nicholls was granted options over 5,454,545 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Company (the "Options") pursuant to the Avacta Group plc Executive Share Option Scheme. The Options have an exercise price of 0.55p each and vest as follows:

1,818,181 options over ordinary shares of 0.1p each vest on 2 August 2014

1,818,182 options over ordinary shares of 0.1p each vest on 2 August 2015

1,818,182 options over ordinary shares of 0.1p each vest on 2 August 2016

Dr Nicholls does not hold any ordinary shares in the Company.

Save for the information disclosed above there is no other information to be disclosed on Dr Trevor Nicholls under Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules.

- Ends -

Enquiries:

Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer	Tel:  [phone] www.avacta.com
Numis Securities Limited     Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated Adviser James Black - Corporate Broking	Tel:  [phone] www.numiscorp.com
Media Enquiries Abchurch Communications Joanne Shears / Jamie Hooper / Harriet Rae [e-mail]	Tel: [phone] www.abchurch-group.com

Notes to Editors:

Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics.

Avacta's products address one of the most significant global challenges facing mankind today - the rapidly rising cost of healthcare for a growing and ageing population.

The cost of healthcare is driven by many factors.  New drugs are expensive to develop, most don't reach the patient and those that do are often very costly to prescribe.  Inadequate, incorrect or slow diagnosis causes delays that lead to longer or less effective courses of treatment resulting in lengthy or repeated hospitalisation.

Avacta is dedicated to developing and providing innovative and practical tools to help drug developers get their products to market quicker and more reliably, and to providing clinicians with rapid and powerful diagnostics to improve patient treatment, helping to reduce the cost of healthcare worldwide.

Avacta joined AIM in August 2006 and is based in Wetherby, England.

For further information visit www.avacta.com

 

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