Appointment of Tony Gardiner as CFO

RNS Number : 5812I

Avacta Group PLC

10 December 2015

 

10 December 2015

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or "the Group")

Avacta Appoints Tony Gardiner as Chief Financial Officer

Tim Sykes stepping down from role; Craig Slater to serve as Interim Chief Financial Officer

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer^® biotherapeutics and research reagents, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Tony Gardiner as Group Chief Financial Officer. Mr Gardiner will join the Group on 4 January 2016.

As announced on 7 July 2015, Tim Sykes, who has held the part-time role of Chief Financial Officer since IPO, informed the Board he wished to step down from this role to pursue other business interests. Tim leaves the Group today and Craig Slater, Chief Operating Officer, will serve as Interim Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect until 4 January when Tony joins.

Between 2007 and 2011, Tony was the Chief Financial Officer of AIM listed Fusion IP plc, an IP commercialisation company, which was subsequently acquired by IP Group plc in 2014. Here, he played a key role in supporting the Chief Executive Officer in growing the business and oversaw all finance activities as well as directly supporting life sciences and health technology companies in Fusion's portfolio.

Tony joins Avacta from AHR an international architecture and building consultancy practice where he has held the role of Finance Director since 2011. During his time at AHR, Tony oversaw the financial and legal demerger of the practice from Aedas, an international design practice and, following this, the financial restructuring of the practice.

Tony has also held senior finance roles within Eversheds LLP, KCOM Group Plc, Eldon Electric Ltd and Hickson International Plc.

Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Avacta, said:

"We are delighted that Tony will be joining Avacta at such an important time in our development. Tony's wealth of experience, in particular his time as Chief Financial Officer of Fusion IP plc, a role in which he was involved with numerous health technology and life sciences businesses, will be of great value to the Group. We look forward to working with him as part of the senior leadership team as we continue to progress the development and commercialisation of our Affimer^® platform to create value for our shareholders.

"We would once again like to thank Tim for his contribution to the Group over the years and wish him well for the future. We would also like to thank Craig for serving as Chief Financial Officer in this short interim period."

Commenting on his appointment, Tony Gardiner said:

"Avacta's Affimer^® technology is very compelling and has great potential as a therapeutic platform and in the form of innovative research tools. I am impressed with the Company and its plans, and I look forward to working with the leadership team to build the business and to help it reach its full potential."

The following information is disclosed pursuant to Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies. Tony Peter Gardiner, aged 44 years, has been a director of the following companies during the five years preceding the date of this announcement: 

Past directorships

Fusion IP plc

Fusion IP Two Limited

Fusion IP Cardiff Limited

Fusion IP Sheffield Limited

Fusion IP Nottingham Limited

There is no further information to be disclosed pursuant to Rule 17 or Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Enquiries:

Avacta Group plc Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer Craig Slater, Chief Financial Officer	Tel:  [phone] www.avacta.com
Numis Securities Limited     Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated Adviser James Black - Corporate Broking WG Partners David Wilson Nigel Barnes Claes Spang	Tel:  [phone] www.numiscorp.com Tel:  [phone] Tel:  [phone] www.wgpartners.co.uk
Media Enquiries FTI Consulting Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins	Tel: [phone] [e-mail]

Notes to Editors

Avacta Group plc (www.avacta.com)

Avacta's principal focus is on its proprietary Affimer^® technology which is a novel engineered alternative to antibodies that has wide application in Life Sciences for diagnostics, therapeutics and general research and development.

Antibodies dominate markets worth in excess of $50bn despite their shortcomings. Affimer technology has been designed to address many of these negative performance issues, principally; the time taken to generate new antibodies, the reliance on an animal's immune response, poor specificity in many cases, and batch to batch variability. Affimer technology is based on a small protein that can be quickly generated to bind with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of protein targets.

Avacta has a pre-clinical biotech development programme with an in-house focus on oncology and bleeding disorders as well as several partnered development programmes. Avacta is commercialising Affimer reagents through custom Affimer services to provide bespoke solutions to customers and via a growing on-line catalogue of Affimer reagents.

 

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