Arix Bioscience Plc
ARIX:LN
Overview
Company Profile
Arix Bioscience is a global venture capital company focused on investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies around cutting edge advances in life sciences.
We collaborate with exceptional entrepreneurs and provide the capital, expertise and global networks needed to help accelerate their ideas into important new treatments for patients. As a listed company, we are able to bring this exciting growth phase of our industry to a broader range of investors.
Classification
Financials
Corporate
Board of Directors
Isaac Kohlberg
Non-Executive Director
Isaac Kohlberg has had a distinguished career protecting and commercializing IP for leading universities and research institutions. He currently is a Senior Associate Provost and Chief Technology Development Officer at Harvard University, where he responsible for the strategic management and commercial development of all technologies and intellectual property (IP) arising from Harvard’s research enterprise. Mr. Kohlberg’s role at Harvard University includes industry liaising and outreach, IP management, business development, technology commercialization and the formation of startup companies and new ventures around Harvard technology platforms. In tandem, he is also responsible for generating, structuring, and negotiating research alliances and collaborations with industry and generating industry-sponsored research funding for Harvard faculty. Isaac has served as a Director at Anchiano Therapeutics Ltd (TLV: ANCN, NASDAQ: ANCN), a pivotal-stage biopharmaceutical company, since 2017 and as a Director at Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (TLV: CBI), a life sciences investment company, since 2015. Mr. Kohlberg received his M.B.A. from INSEAD and LL.B. from Tel Aviv University. Isaac is Chair of the Strategy & Investment Committee and also a member of the Nomination Committee at Arix.
Robert Lyne
CEO and General Counsel
Robert has over 10 years’ experience working with high growth technology companies having spent several years working in listed venture capital. He joined Arix in 2017 as General Counsel and Company Secretary before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2019. He joined the Board in April 2021 and was appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer whilst continuing to perform the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary. He began his career as a lawyer at international law firm Bird & Bird LLP in London. He has worked on over 70 venture capital financings in Europe and North America as well as multiple trade exits and IPOs, working with both company boards and investors to successfully execute complex cross-border transactions. As an experienced plc Company Secretary, Robert has broad experience of public company governance. Robert joined Arix in 2017 from Touchstone Innovations plc where he worked with a number of venture-backed biotechnology companies, both private and public. Robert has a BA from the University of Oxford and an LLB from Oxford Brookes University.
Peregrine Moncreiffe
Chairman
Peregrine has extensive experience in investment management and investment banking. In his past career, Mr Moncreiffe held various corporate finance and trading positions in New York, London and East Asia within the Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) group over a ten year period, ending up as an Executive Director of CSFB in London in 1982. He held a number of trading management roles at Lehman Brothers as a Managing Director in New York and London until 1986 when he joined E F Hutton as Managing Director of International Capital Markets before it was acquired by Shearson Lehman in 1988. From 1990 to 2000 he was Chief Executive Officer of Buchanan Partners Ltd, a proprietary investment company which he co-founded. In 1998 he became Chairman of UA Group, the agricultural services and property investment business sold to Elphinstone in 2005. He was appointed as Chairman of North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust in 2008, having previously been a Director of the Company from 1993 – 2006 and is a director of Metage Funds Limited. Peregrine received an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford. Peregrine also sits on the Strategy & Investment, Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committees for Arix.
Maureen O’Connell
Non-Executive Director
Maureen O’Connell is a global business executive, Chief Financial Officer and corporate director recognized for significant value creation through strategic initiatives in a variety of industries including media, education, digital, retail, technology, professional services, biotech, pharma, homebuilding, real estate and insurance. From 2007 to 2017, Ms. O’Connell, served as the Chief Financial Officer of Scholastic Corporation, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. In her role as Chief Financial Officer, Ms. O’Connell had significant experience licensing rights, partnering with trademark and copyright owners and overseeing the protection and assertion of rights on a world basis. Earlier in her career, Ms. O’Connell served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Gartner Group the world's leading research and advisory company which has developed more than 300,000 business case studies of intellectual property since 1979. Maureen O’Connell has received numerous and diverse awards including CFO Studio’s CFO World Class Award in 2017, Treasury and Risk magazine’s 30 Outstanding Women in Business in 2012 and Irish Voice’s Top 75 Influential Women in 2009. Ms. O’Connell also served as an independent director, audit committee chair and transaction committee chair at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of highly specialized medicines, from 2013 to 2018 when it was acquired by Mallinckrodt in a $1.2 billion transaction. At Sucampo, Ms. O’Connell played a key role in evaluating the acquisition of highly specialized medicines in development resulting in the acquisition of two companies. She is currently an independent director at Harte-Hanks Inc. and previously served on the board of directors of Beazer Homes USA Inc. Maureen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Accounting and Economics (dual major) from New York University Stern School of Business in 1985 and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Dr Debra Barker
Senior Independent Director
Dr. Debra Barker is a seasoned International Life Sciences executive with more than 25 years’ senior experience in major pharmaceutical companies- Roche, SmithKline Beecham and most extensively Novartis where she held several senior scientific, operational and commercial roles over 17 years, including Development Head for Infectious Diseases, Immunology and Transplantation, Global Programme Head in Oncology and Head of Clinical and Medical Services. Biotech experience was gained in Chief Medical Officer & Head of Development roles and Debra was also the medical lead for the Swiss based Biotech Polyphor’s highly successful IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Debra is currently serving as a Non-Executive Director for three public Biotechnology companies listed in UK, EU & USA namely Destiny Pharma PLC, BergenBio ASA and CureVac NV. She has a Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine and received a MSc in Immunology from the King's College in London and a Medical Degree from the Queens’ College, Cambridge, UK. Debra joined the Arix Board in August 2022 and is Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of both the Nomination Committee and Strategy & Investment Committee.
Dr Benny Soffer
Non-Executive Director
Benny Soffer, MD is Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Consonance Capital Management, a healthcare-focused public equity investment management firm. He previously completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale and served in a variety of managerial roles at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr Soffer is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, receiving his MD at Emory University and his MBA at Yale University.
Andrew Smith
Non-Executive Director
Andrew Smith is an accomplished executive leader with over 30 years’ international experience within the bio-pharma sector. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer for Santhera Pharmaceuticals AG, a global specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines for rare diseases. Before joining Santhera he held the roles of CFO and COO Allecra Therapeutics GmbH and CFO at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc.. Together with previous senior financial and operations roles focusing on business improvement and transformation he has gained significant exposure to European and US markets working in public and private organizations with a focus on start-ups, spinoffs and growth and has been involved in a number of capital market transactions in excess of USD 700 million. Andrew is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He studied business and accounting at Liverpool John Moores University and Durham University Business School. Andrew joined the Arix Board in August 2022 and is Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nomination Committee.