Appointments to the Board
09 October 2002
RiboTargets Holdings plc, the structure-based pharmaceutical research company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Harry Finch as an executive director on the Board and Barry Ross as a non-executive director and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr Harry Finch has been Director of Research at RiboTargets since February 2001. Prior to this, he spent 24 years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), latterly as Director of Chemistry for UK Research. During his time with GSK he chaired/co-chaired international meetings of the Gastrointestinal and Inflammatory Diseases and the Cardiovascular Research Committees. He is co-inventor of the long acting asthma drug, Serevent that is also a component of Serotide, a new b-agonist/steroid combination treatment. Dr Finch, who is also a scientific advisor to Charterhouse Therapeutics Ltd, has a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Manchester University and was a committee member of the Fine Chemicals and Medicinal Chemistry Group of the RSC.
Dr Barry Ross worked with GlaxoSmithKline for 17 years. He progressed through the Company to the position of Director, Group Research Strategy and Alliances, being part of the team that directed GlaxoWellcome's global research activities. Dr Ross spent his last year with the company in California as CEO of the Affymax Research Institute, preparing for its spin-out. He was also involved in the acquisition of this company in 1995. Since retiring from GSK in 2001, he now works as an independent scientific and business advisor to early stage and medium sized companies and is on the Board of a number of US and European biotechnology companies. Dr Ross has been a member of several committees such as the Medical Research Council and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Technology Committee. He has a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry gained from Imperial College, London.
Commenting on the appointments, Simon Sturge, Chief Executive of RiboTargets, said: "We are delighted to appoint two people of this calibre to the Board of RiboTargets. They bring with them a wealth of scientific expertise and experience within the industry, which will be very valuable to RiboTargets as it develops."
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