Dr. Darrin M Disley
Chief Executive Officer and President
Darrin is a parallel business entrepreneur and has been involved in the start-up and growth of 10 business ventures. He has raised in excess of $80M of business financing and has closed business development deals totalling $200M.
At Horizon, he is responsible for corporate development, business strategy and investor relations; and since October 2007 has overseen revenue growth of 100% (CAGR; 2007-12) and a 364% increase in exports (2008-11).
Darrin holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge; has been the author of 6 papers, 7 patents and 36 conference abstracts and; has been an advisor on biotech commercialisation strategies around the world.
Darrin supports numerous academic, business plan competition and mentoring programs in the UK with financial and practical help. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School and Enterprise Fellow at the Institute of Biotechnology both at the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Chris Torrance
Chief Scientific Officer Horizon Founder SAB Member
Chris has significant oncology research and development experience, including six years as a senior manager at Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company, Vernalis. His principle expertise lies in cancer cell biology and drug discovery. In this field, he has led project teams taking drug targets from inception through to hit identification, lead optimisation and into preclinical studies.
Chris holds a PhD from East Carolina University and completed a Post-Doctoral position in the world renowned oncology laboratory of Professor Bert Vogelstein (Johns Hopkins University) where he pioneered the use of X-MAN™ cancer models in high-throughput screening and drug discovery.
Mr. Eric Rhodes
Chief Technology Officer, SAB Member
Eric has a strong background in gene regulation and gene editing. Prior to joining Horizon, he was Director of Business Development at Sigma-Aldrich Corp. where he helped Sigma in launching its nuclease based gene editing platform, and served for 10 years as Vice-President of Business Development and Alliance Management at Sangamo BioSciences. At Sangamo he was responsible for securing and coordinating large target validation and technology licensing projects with over 25 of the top pharma and biotech companies in North America, Europe, and Asia. Eric also has broad experience in growing small companies having participated in the successful launch of several start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Eric earned his degree in Microbiology and Immunology from UC Berkeley.
Mr. Richard Vellacott
Vice President, Finance
Richard has over 15 years’ experience as a chartered accountant, working with life science companies from start-ups to global pharmaceuticals. He also has a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.
Past roles include Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a listed hi-tech company with revenues of $1bn. During his time at CSR Richard had worldwide responsibility for finance, making significant contributions to the transformational acquisition and integration of a NASDAQ listed Zoran Corp., product portfolio management, R&D budgeting and business investment / divestment decisions. Before this, Richard was a Director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice, where he specialized in capital market transactions including IPOs, M&A and fundraising on both the UK and the US markets. Beyond his corporate responsibilities, Richard has advised the EC on funding for life science companies and presented at investor conferences and technical seminars on financial issues facing the life science industry.
Dr. Paul Morrill
Vice President, Products
Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the biotechnology and pharma sectors having held senior positions at Boeringher Mannheim, Roche and Acumen Biosciences. He has a strong track record in business and commercial development and, as a business entrepreneur, has help found numerous technology/biotechnology companies.
Paul holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge, is the author and contributor of several peer reviewed papers and patents in the fields of diagnostics, down-stream processing and imaging arrays.
Mr. Dan Cowell
Vice President, Operations
Dan has over 15 years’ experience in the contract research and biotechnology industries. He has been involved in 'hit to lead' discovery and the investigation of new technologies in the areas of automation, high-throughput catalysis, pharmaceutical solid form and lead generation.
Dan was co-founder of Pharmorphix, a specialist CRO in the area of solid form, which grew market share rapidly and was subsequently acquired by Sigma Aldrich in 2006. Following the sale of Pharmorphix he founded Hypoxium, a client focused CRO providing pre-clinical oncology research which grew its revenue at over 75% each year. He was appointed COO of Horizon Discovery following its acquisition in 2010.
Mr. Kam Dhaliwal
Vice President, Sales
Kam was previously at Evotec AG, where he was a senior member of the business development team for integrated drug discovery services throughout Europe. Prior to joining Evotec, he was Head of European Commercial Development for Acumen Bioscience Ltd (a subsidiary of The Technology Partnership) and a part of the management team that successfully positioned and established the Acumen brand within the competitive high-throughput screening market. He also helped Quadrant Healthcare Ltd establish a strong IP-position around its proprietary stabilisation technology platform.
Dr. Karin Schmitt
Director of Genomics R&D
Karin has over fifteen years’ experience in research, management and business within the life sciences. Her expertise spans genomics, functional genomics and proteomics, and their applications in drug discovery as well as basic research. Karin previously worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Exelixis Inc., Open Biosystems and ThermoFisher Scientific.
Karin obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and completed her postdoctoral training as an EMBO fellow in the Genetics Department at Cambridge University.
Dr. Kyla Grimshaw
Director of Discovery R&D
Kyla was formerly at Astex Therapeutics where she was responsible for the cell biology on a number of different oncology projects and targets at various stages of the drug discovery process. Before that she was at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and GSK. Kyla’s focus has been in drug discovery and cell-based pharmacology within the oncology therapeutic area. The projects she has been involved with have ranged from assay development and generation of cell lines as a tool for new target projects, to in vivo biomarker development and compiling biology data packages to support IND submissions. Kyla obtained her PhD from Cambridge University and as Director of Assay Development & Screening has been responsible for the successful delivery of over 250 client projects in the CRO sector.
Mrs. Siobhan Shadwell
Director of Human Resources
Siobhan joined Horizon in November 2010 bringing over 15 years HR generalist experience. She is CIPD qualified and has worked for both small the large multinational companies including KuDOS Pharmaceuticals (a wholly owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca), Philips Electronics and Barclays Bank.
The last 10 years have been spent working in the biotech environment and she has a considerable amount of experience in setting up HR functions for small growing companies.
Mr. Chris Claxton
Director of Marketing
Chris has over twelve years’ experience in strategic and tactical marketing. Most recently Chris was Market Segment Manager at SAFC (a division of Sigma Aldrich), where he was responsible for marketing SAFC’s industrial cell culture offering. Previously Chris was Marketing Director at ArcticDx Inc. and Associate Director Strategic Marketing at Luminex Molecular Diagnostics (formerly Tm Bioscience). Chris has an Honours Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science degree and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Jon Moore
Head of Oncology
Jon joined Horizon Discovery to lead its oncology target validation and drug discovery efforts. Prior to this, he enjoyed 10 years at Vernalis culminating in a role as Head of Biology, where he was responsible for both cell biology and assay development activities. He also led the biology side of several innovative drug discovery programs and managed a major research alliance with GSK. Jon’s research interests include cancer metabolism, signal transduction and, prior to making the move to industry, he gained extensive postdoctoral experience in the cell cycle control field working with first Sally Kornbluth at Duke and then Nobel Prize winner, Tim Hunt, at Cancer Research UK’s Clare Hall labs. He holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology.
Mr. David Evans
Non-Executive Chairman
David is an entrepreneurial accountant who has been involved in various orgnanisations in the diagnostics and life sciences fields at an executive and non-executive level over the past 18 years. He has an established track-record of success across a number of different companies including BBI, IDS and DxS.
Dr. Darrin M Disley
Chief Executive Officer and President
Darrin is a parallel business entrepreneur and has been involved in the start-up and growth of 10 business ventures. He has raised in excess of $80M of business financing and has closed business development deals totalling $200M.
At Horizon, he is responsible for corporate development, business strategy and investor relations; and since October 2007 has overseen revenue growth of 100% (CAGR; 2007-12) and a 364% increase in exports (2008-11).
Darrin holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge; has been the author of 6 papers, 7 patents and 36 conference abstracts and; has been an advisor on biotech commercialisation strategies around the world.
Darrin supports numerous academic, business plan competition and mentoring programs in the UK with financial and practical help. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Judge Business School and Enterprise Fellow at the Institute of Biotechnology both at the University of Cambridge.
Mr. Richard Vellacott
Vice President, Finance
Richard has over 15 years’ experience as a chartered accountant, working with life science companies from start-ups to global pharmaceuticals. He also has a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.
Past roles include Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a listed hi-tech company with revenues of $1bn. During his time at CSR Richard had worldwide responsibility for finance, making significant contributions to the transformational acquisition and integration of a NASDAQ listed Zoran Corp., product portfolio management, R&D budgeting and business investment / divestment decisions. Before this, Richard was a Director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice, where he specialized in capital market transactions including IPOs, M&A and fundraising on both the UK and the US markets. Beyond his corporate responsibilities, Richard has advised the EC on funding for life science companies and presented at investor conferences and technical seminars on financial issues facing the life science industry.
Mr. Peter Keen
Non-Executive Director
Peter is a chartered accountant with more than 26 years’ experience in the financing and management of biotechnology companies. He has a notable track record in the UK biotechnology sector and until March 2010 was corporate development and finance director of the private biotechnology company Serentis Ltd. He was co-founder and finance director of Chiroscience Group plc after which he helped establish the venture capital firm Merlin Biosciences Limited, where he was responsible for a number of early stage investments including Arakis Ltd, Ark Therapeutics Group plc, Cyclacel, ReNeuron plc and Vectura Group plc. On leaving Merlin he became chief financial officer of Arakis Limited, leading a £29m fund raising and then a successful trade sale in 2005; he then became a partner with the technology venture firm DFJ Esprit LLP before joining ex colleagues at Serentis.
Peter has sat on numerous company and advisory Boards and is currently chairman at Oval Medical Technologies Ltd and Exosect Ltd, the senior independent director at Abcam plc and a non-executive director of Ark Therapeutics Group plc and the Biotech Growth Trust plc.
Dr. Jonathan Milner
Non-Executive Director
Jonathan is an experienced entrepreneur and business leader with a background in genetic research. He is an active supporter of the Cambridge business community, is a founder of Abcam Plc and chairman of Cambridge Temperature Concepts (CTC). Jonathan gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath University.
Mr. Hugo Harrod
Non-Executive Director
Hugo is a partner at MVM Life Sciences LLP, a venture capital firm with over $500 million under management, investing in technologies and products for the life science and healthcare markets. Before joining MVM Life Sciences LLP, he qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients. Hugo has a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from Oxford University.
Prof. Alberto Bardelli
SAB Chairman, Oncology R&D, Translational Medicine
Alberto is Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Torino School of Medicine and Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the Institute for Cancer research and Treatment in Turin, Italy.
Recent work from Alberto’s lab has had a transforming effect on current clinical practice in the field of personalized medicine, with the discovery that K-Ras mutations impart both primary and secondary resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies in colon cancer and that the mutations can be detected not only in the tumor but also in the blood of the patients. A future focus of his lab is to find appropriately tailored drug combinations to overcome resistance to targeted therapies.
Dr. Chris Torrance
Chief Scientific Officer Horizon Founder SAB Member
Chris has significant oncology research and development experience, including six years as a senior manager at Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company, Vernalis. His principle expertise lies in cancer cell biology and drug discovery. In this field, he has led project teams taking drug targets from inception through to hit identification, lead optimisation and into preclinical studies.
Chris holds a PhD from East Carolina University and completed a Post-Doctoral position in the world renowned oncology laboratory of Professor Bert Vogelstein (Johns Hopkins University) where he pioneered the use of X-MAN™ cancer models in high-throughput screening and drug discovery.
Mr. Eric Rhodes
Chief Technology Officer, SAB Member
Eric has a strong background in gene regulation and gene editing. Prior to joining Horizon, he was Director of Business Development at Sigma-Aldrich Corp. where he helped Sigma in launching its nuclease based gene editing platform, and served for 10 years as Vice-President of Business Development and Alliance Management at Sangamo BioSciences. At Sangamo he was responsible for securing and coordinating large target validation and technology licensing projects with over 25 of the top pharma and biotech companies in North America, Europe, and Asia. Eric also has broad experience in growing small companies having participated in the successful launch of several start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Eric earned his degree in Microbiology and Immunology from UC Berkeley.
Prof. David Russell
SAB Member, Gene Targeting, Stem Cells
David is Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine.He is as a Special Member of the SAB with responsibility for leading Horizon’s future thinking in human gene-targeting.
David pioneered the use of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to introduce precise sequence changes at any endogenous chromosomal locus. This approach has revolutionized the speed at which human isogenic cell lines with defined genetic properties can be generated. David is also leading Horizon in developing strategies for the application of AAV technology in the in-vitro stem-cell field.
David has published over 60 peer-review publications in the field of gene-targeting and gene therapy, and is on the editorial board of four international peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Eric Hendrickson
SAB Member, DNA Repair, Gene Targeting
Eric is a Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. For the past 25 years he has pioneered studies in human somatic cells to investigate areas related to DNA double-strand break repair, including telomeres, DNA recombination and gene targeting.
His laboratory has made extensive use of rAAV technology to investigate telomere maintenance, V(D)J recombination, chemotherapeutic drug efficacy and gene targeting in human cancer cells.
Eric attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1987. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, before embarking in 1992 on a career as an independent principal investigator. He has published 45 primary research articles, two book chapters and seven reviews. Eric is very active as a reviewer for a large number of journals and as an ad hoc reviewer for NIH grant panels.
Prof. Daniel Von Hoff
SAB Member, Clinical Advisor, Translational Medicine
Daniel is Physician in Chief, Senior Investigator, Director, Translational Research Division, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and a pioneer in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory.
He and his colleagues were involved in the early stages of the development of many of the anticancer agents that are now routinely used, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib and others.
Daniel is leading the way in the areas of in vitro drug sensitivity testing and patient-stratified clinical trials to individualize treatment for cancer patients.
He is Editor in Chief of the world renowned scientific Journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, and has published over 542 papers, 133 book chapters, and 950 abstracts.
Prof. Alan Ashworth (FRS)
Translational Medicine & Synthetic Lethality
Alan is Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). He is also Professor of Molecular Biology and Leader of the Gene Function team in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the ICR.
After completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Imperial College, Alan achieved his PhD in Biochemistry at University College London. He joined the ICR in 1986 as a Post-Doctoral Scientist in the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology and in 1999 he was appointed the first Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre. The Centre is now recognised internationally and has more than 120 scientists and researchers working on aspects of the disease ranging from basic molecular and cellular biology through to translational research and clinical trials. Professor Ashworth’s Directorship ended in January 2011 when he took up the position of Chief Executive of the ICR.
Prof. Sabine Tejpar
SAB Member, Translational Medicine
After training in Internal medicine and Gastro Enterology and a Ph.D in the program of Molecular Oncology at the Center for Human Genetics, KULeuven, Sabine became an Associate Professor in the Dept of Gastro Enterology, Digestive Oncology Unit, UZ Leuven.
Sabine works as a part time clinician, part time researcher (Senior Clinical Investigator of the Fund for Scientific Research- Flanders (Belgium)), with a focus on basic and translational research in colorectal cancer. Her main research projects involve prognostic markers in adjuvant colorectal cancer and predictive markers for efficacy of EGFR inhibition.
Sabine has published over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She is also a member of the EORTC, is active in the Board Gastrointestinal Group, a Member of the EORTC NOCI Steering Committee, member of the Executive Committee of NOCI, member of the EORTC PAMM and Laboratory Research Division, Co-Chair of the EORTC-NCI-ASCO tutorial sessions, and a member of the AACR-NCI-EORTC planning committee. She is a member of advisory board of several pharmaceutical companies in relation to new drug development and translational research in gastrointestinal cancer.
Prof. Ben Ho Park
SAB Member, Clinical Advisor, Translational Medicine
Ben is Associate Professor of Oncology and Associate Director of the Medical Oncology Fellowship Training Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Center at Johns Hopkins University.
His career includes both basic and translational research in the field of cancer genetics, and he also plays an active role in patient care that is having a dramatic effect in the search for novel targeted and personalized cancer treatments.
The focus of his laboratory is to define mutated or altered genes responsible for breast cancer initiation and progression, as well as mutant genes that lead to chemo- and hormonal drug resistance.
Genentech Inc.
SAB Special Member
Founded more than 30 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. The company, a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group, has headquarters in South San Francisco, California.
Genentech is a minor investor in Horizon Discovery Ltd. with whom it has an ongoing strategic commercial alliance. Genentech have a special "floating" SAB role providing scientists with relevant expertise to the content of Horizon SAB meetings.
For additional information about Genentech, please visit <a href="www.gene.com">www.gene.com</a>
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