Board of Directors
Mr. Bill Robinson (Non-Executive Chairman)
Bill Robinson joined the Plethora Board in March 2007. He has recently retired from the post of Executive Vice President of Global Operations for UCB, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for all of UCB’s global commercial and medical affairs. Before joining UCB in 2005, Bill spent 28 years with Eli Lilly in a variety of senior executive roles including VP Sales and Marketing based in Indianapolis and regional management in Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East. Prior to joining Eli Lilly he worked for Bourroughs Wellcome and Servier, both based in the UK.
Bill Robinson is Chair of the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
Dr. Steven Powell (Chief Executive Officer)
Steven Powell joined Plethora as CEO in 2004. Prior to this he was a director of the Gilde Healthcare Fund, a pan-European venture capital fund focused on investments in early-stage companies. In addition to his private equity experience, Steven has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector, latterly as CEO of UK quoted biopharmaceutical company KS Biomedix plc until its acquisition by Xenova Group plc. He has worked in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries in research and development, commercial and general management roles, initially for Beecham Pharmaceuticals (GSK) and subsequently with Whatman, Chiroscience, Celsis and Active Biotech. Steven has also helped to establish and finance a number of small life science businesses in a non-executive role.
Dr. Michael Wyllie (Chief Scientific Officer)
Mike Wyllie is a co-founder of Plethora. He has over 25 years of experience in senior management level positions within the pharmaceutical industry with American Home Products and Pfizer. He has considerable hands-on experience in all aspects of the drug discovery and development process and has been involved with new project inception, drug discovery and safety testing, early and late stage clinical development, regulatory filing and the successful commercialisation of products including Cardura® (doxazosin) and Viagra® (sildenafil). Dr. Wyllie sits on The Clinical Trial Design and Future Therapies in BPH Committees of the World Health Organisation International Consultations on Urological Disease and he is an assistant editor of the British Journal of Urology in the Sexual Medicine Section. He has over 100 publications and is named as the inventor of over 80 patents.
Mr Ronald Openshaw (Non-Executive Director and Interim Chief Financial Officer)
Ronald Openshaw has worked in the life sciences and healthcare sectors both in executive management and in an advisory role. He is the founder of the M&A and strategic consulting firm Lucia Capital LLP and previously he was an investment banker at Panmure Gordon & Co. Limited (latterly WestLB Panmure Limited) and then, most recently, Jefferies International Limited. He also served as CFO and acting CEO at Pharmagene plc until its merger with Asterand plc in 2006. Although not on the Board Ronald has advised the Board acting as Interim CFO at Plethora since February 2009 and he will continue in this role.
Ronald Openshaw is Chair of the Nomination Committee.