BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Ockham Biotech Board of Directors

Andy Short, Executive Chairman.

Andy Short is the Executive Chairman, co-founding Ockham Biotech Limited in 2006 and commercialising the company from a pure research business. Andy points to the compelling science behind the organisation’s invention and regards the opportunity provided for potential investors as extremely attractive.

Andy's background includes mergers and acquisitions within healthcare, life sciences and medical device sectors. In 2002, he founded Acorn Care and Education Limited, a group of day and residential special education schools and foster agencies.

He is also the Director of Adept Healthcare Limited, a group of domiciliary healthcare companies providing critical care for the elderly within patient's homes and mental healthcare to residents within a residential setting.

Professor Jo Fothergill, Development Director.

Prof. Fothergill is an expert in the development of cutting-edge therapeutics targeting chronic infections, with a particular focus on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a major pathogen associated with infections in people with cystic fibrosis and other long-term respiratory conditions. Her work is dedicated to creating innovative treatments aimed at tackling the most challenging infections, including those resistant to current therapies.

Prof. Fothergill has led multiple high-impact projects aimed at understanding pathogen behaviour and developing tailored therapeutic interventions. Under her leadership, Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain-level diagnostic tests have been developed for use in the NHS, enhancing diagnostic precision and treatment outcomes.

She leads the PIPE-CF Research Centre and is the Director of the Microbiome Innovation Centre at the University of Liverpool. Prof. Fothergill holds numerous advisory roles in the healthcare and antimicrobial resistance space, including with the CF Syndicate in AMR, the CF Trust Scientific Advisory Board and the UK CF Infection Biorepository.

David Cavalla, PhD MA, Commercial Director.

David Cavalla has 35 years’ experience in various senior scientific and commercial roles within the pharmaceutical industry. He is currently involved with a number of biotech companies at Board level. Previously he was founder of Numedicus Ltd, a company focused on therapeutic switching; earlier affiliations include Glaxo Group Research Ltd and Napp Research Centre.

He is author of Modern Strategy for Pharmaceutical R&D – Towards the Virtual Research Centre and Off-Label Prescribing: Justifying Unapproved Medicine and editor of Drug Repurposing (RSC). He is one of the first advocates of drug repurposing and has used this strategy to create three first-in-class developmental products to have successfully passed human proof of concept clinical stages. He frequently contributes articles on pharmaceutical strategy and is on the editorial board of Drug Discovery Today. Formerly he was Chairman of the Society for Medicines Research. He obtained a first degree and PhD at Cambridge University and spent two years as a visiting Fellow at the NIMH, Washington, DC. He is the author/inventor of over 80 published papers and patents.

Professor Jeremy Turnbull, BSc, Ph.D., FRSB, FRSC Scientific Director.

Jeremy Turnbull is a Professor of Glycoscience at Keele University and of Proteoglycans and Extracellular Matrix at the Center for Glycomics, University of Copenhagen. He is a world-leading expert on the biology and therapeutic applications of heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) and related polysaccharides.

He obtained a BSc in Biochemistry (University of Wales) and undertook Ph.D and postdoctoral studies at Manchester University working with Professor John Gallagher on analysis of heparan sulfates. From 1996-2001, he was an MRC Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University, after which he was appointed to the Johnston Chair of Biochemistry at Liverpool University in 2003. His research has focussed on HS in biological processes and disease and development of innovative technical strategies for studying HS/heparin structure-function relationships. This has led to development and early stage translation of next-generation heparin and heparin-mimetic drugs. With colleagues he founded IntelliHep as a University spin-out, exploiting patents on novel “engineered” heparins for discovery of new drugs and in biotechnology applications.

He has an h-factor of 60 from 166 scientific publications with 10 patents. He has also been a speaker at >120 conferences, and organised many international conferences, including tree prestigious Gordon Research Conferences as a peer-elected Chair. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (in 2012) and Fellow of the Royal Society for Biology (in 2011) and been a consultant for a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Julie Warneck, PhD, Project Manager.

Julie Warneck (Director, Protogenia Consulting Ltd) is a toxicologist and pharmaceutical development consultant with 35 years’ experience working in and with mid-pharma, virtual biotech companies and academic spin-outs.

Julie has an established background in developing small molecules, including antipsychotics), peptides, ATMPs and drug re-profiling programmes in a variety of therapeutic areas, including inflammation, pain, endocrinology, ophthalmology, diabetes/weight loss, dermatology, CNS disease, women's reproductive health, anti-infectives, emesis, NASH, GI disease, oncology and via various routes of administration (oral, IV infusion, ocular (topical and IVT), subcutaneous, dermal, inhalation.

Julie established her consultancy company in 2019 to provide strategic expertise in designing non-clinical development programmes to take products through First in Human to MAA/NDA as well as supporting development programmes through project management, non-clinical study monitoring and preparing dossiers for regulatory submissions and scientific advice.

Mrs Annette Mead, Company Secretary.

Annette is an experienced business entrepreneur and joined the company in 2009.