Board & Management

Ken Cunningham has over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He is currently also Chairman of Abzena plc, and a Non-Executive Director at Verona Pharma plc. Previously he was Chief Executive Officer of Skyepharma plc and before that Chief Executive Officer of Arakis Ltd, Vice-President European Affairs at Alza Corporation and Vice-President Clinical Development at Sequus Inc. Earlier in his career he held a variety of clinical development and commercial strategy roles at GlaxoWellcome plc and WarnerLambert. He holds a Medical Degree from St Mary’s, Imperial College, London University.

Mark Payton is CEO of Mercia Technologies PLC, having led the flotation in December 2014 and before that the management buyout of its precursor Mercia Fund Management in 2010. Latterly he led the acquisition in 2016 of Enterprise Ventures. Mark chairs the executive committee and the boards of Mercia’s wholly owned fund management businesses (Mercia Fund Management, Enterprise Ventures and EV Business Loans). Mark also sits on the board of portfolio company Oxford Genetics and has portfolio responsibility for PsiOxus Therapeutics.

Prior to Mercia, Mark was at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, and then afterwards played leading roles within Oxford University Innovation (OUI, formerly Isis Innovation, the technology transfer operation of the University of Oxford), facilitating the spin out of BioAnalab, Oxford Immunotec, Oxitec and Natural Motion. Three of these companies were sold and one other was listed on NASDAQ. After OUI Mark was vice president corporate development at Oxxon Therapeutics Inc prior to its sale to Oxford BioMedica plc. Mark gained his PhD jointly between the University of Oxford (Worcester College) and the University of London (King’s College). He also has an MBA from the University of Warwick, has IMC parts I and II, is a Royal Academy of Engineering Sainsbury’s Management Fellow (Life Sciences) and is FCA accredited.

Dr Navdeep Bains is the Director of Research & Impact Services at the University of Warwick, one of the UK’s leading universities. Warwick has an acknowledged reputation for excellence in research and innovation, and for the strength of its partnerships with business and industry. Navdeep works alongside the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) in the development and delivery of the University’s strategy for research and impact. She has extensive expertise in the development of research grants and contracts, protection of intellectual property, research ethics, governance, sponsorship and the formation of research partnerships at international, national, and regional levels. Navdeep has over 17 years’ experience in research management, having held a number of senior research support and technology transfer roles at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and Leicester.

Fran Crawford is a serial entrepreneur who has been closely involved in the growth of several life science businesses including Altacor (ophthalmology) as founder, Spirogen (oncology) and Sirus Pharmaceuticals (CNS). Fran is co-founder and CEO of UCL spin-out company Somaserve, pioneering the development of targeted nanomedicines.
Fran is a PhD clinical pharmacologist who, following two post-doctoral posts entered the pharmaceutical industry in clinical research. For over ten years she was responsible as R&D director for transdermal patch development and manufacture, taking mono and combination products from the bench to market in several countries. She also has experience of growing hospital and retail sales teams for product commercialisation in a specialty pharma setting. She has led and participated in multiple seed and series A funding rounds, M&A and created exits for the benefit of shareholders and investors.

John Burt was previously CEO of Abzena plc, a contract research, development and manufacturing organization, where he led multiple financing rounds, including an AIM IPO in 2014, and grew the business by acquisitions in the UK and US. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Thiakis, a company that he sold to Wyeth in 2008. John has degrees in Natural Sciences and Molecular Biology from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, respectively, and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant. His early career included finance, business and corporate development roles with Vanguard Medica, Glaxo Wellcome / GlaxoSmithKline and Imperial Innovations.

David Haddleton is a Professor of Chemistry at Warwick University and is the Founder of Medherant. His research focuses on polymers for healthcare and therapeutics, and controlled free radical polymerisation. He has published about 450 papers and is an inventor on about 20 US and European patents. He has also been awarded the Chemistry World, “Entrepreneur of the Year” prize, and the Lord Stafford award for Best Spin Out Company (2005). He was the Founder of Warwick Effect Polymers Ltd which is now part of Abzena plc.

Karolina Afors is a Consultant Gynaecologist with over 17 years of experience working in the NHS. She has a strong track record in research and development specifically within the field of pelvic pain and endometriosis and has published over 25 peer reviewed publications. She is considered a key opinion leader in women’s health and has served as principal investigator on various studies. She was appointed Chief Medical Officer of Syrona Health, a digital health company focusing on health and well-being in the workplace, where she has developed innovative care models leveraging technology to optimise access and delivery of healthcare.

James Robson has 27 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries holding CFO roles with a significant commercial and operational element. He has worked for Shionogi, Reckitt Benckiser and Boots Healthcare International, both in the UK and overseas. Alongside Medherant he supports other innovative start-ups and growth companies in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and medtech sectors to develop, fund and execute their financial business plans. He is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.