The Board
Frank M Armstrong
– Chair
Frank has held Chief Executive role for public and private companies. Starting his career at ICI Pharma/Zeneca, he moved to Bayer AG where he headed worldwide product development.
A Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Frank holds non-exec Chair positions at Faron Pharmaceutical Oy, Caldan Therapeutics Ltd, and NXD roles at Newcells Biotech Ltd, ECO Animal Health Ltd. He is also a member of the SAB for Healthcare Royalty Partners and Epidarex Capital as well as a member of the Court of the University of Edinburgh.
Starting his career at ICI Pharma/Zeneca, he moved to Bayer AG where he headed worldwide product development.Prior to his current appointments Frank held NXD roles at Redx Pharma, Mereo Biopharma and Juniper Therapeutics.
Jeremy Wheeler – Chief Executive Officer
Jeremy has a track record of bringing innovative medical devices to market, building and operating companies operating in the UK, US, Spain and Hong Kong.
As Operations Director at Aircraft Medical he was with the company from start-up through to sale to Medtronic Inc for $112M. He set up the company’s US distribution office in Houston, TX and Off-shore Quality team in Hong Kong. During Aircraft’s purchase of Morpheus Medical, Jeremy integrated the company in to the group.
Previously he has set up medical device companies in the field of Alzheimer’s disease detection and was appointed General Manager at Medstone International Ltd. taking the company out of receivership to profitability.
Stephen Little – Investor Director
A successful serial biotechnology entrepreneur, Stephen was CEO of DxS, an innovator in the field of personalised medicine, developing and manufacturing companion diagnostics. DxS exited to QIAGEN BV in 2009 for £85M where he became VP of Personalised Healthcare, responsible for developing companion diagnostic partnerships with the pharma industry.
Stephen also led Premaitha through its successful AIM listing in July 2014, becoming Vice Chair in 2018 when the company became YouGene Health PLC.
Prior to his leading role at DxS, he worked for 20 years in various senior positions in the diagnostic divisions of Astra Zeneca and ICI. He holds a PhD from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Stephen is an NXD for ClinspecDx.
Mark Bradley – Director
Mark is the University of Edinburgh Professor of High-Throughput Chemical Biology and holds an Honouree Professorship at the Queens Medical Research Institute with laboratories based in both locations.
He has an entrepreneurial track record as a founder of several successful spin-out companies, and has 15+ patent applications on technologies from polymers for hepatocyte/drug toxicology screening to innovative imaging agents for in vivo application.
In 1997 he was awarded a Professorship in Combinatorial Chemistry where he founded the Combinatorial Centre of Excellence. Over the past 10 years, Mark has been invited to speak at over 250 lectures, meetings and conferences. As well as academic lectures, Mark also gives public service and educational lectures.
Alison Williamson – Chief Finance Officer
Alison is a highly accomplished senior finance professional with over 30 years’ experience in financial strategy, M&A, business planning, risk management and financial modelling. Prior to joining BIOCAPTIVA, Alison was CFO at DYSIS Medical Ltd, a global medical device business developing cancer screening technologies.
Previously, Alison was Finance Director at Aircraft Medical, a specialist manufacturer of video laryngoscopes used for challenging intubations, initially in a part time capacity before joining the company full time in 2010, before it was acquired for $112 million in cash by the leading global medtech company, Medtronic.
Alison began her career at KPMG where she qualified as a charted accountant in 1988. Since then, Alison has held a number of roles in tax and corporate finance at accountancy firms RMD and Deloitte.