Syncona announces expansion of leadership team

Syncona Limited

Syncona announces expansion of Syncona Investment Management Limited senior leadership team

17 June 2021

·  John Bradshaw, CFO to retire, with Rolf Soderstrom joining as CFO, bringing 30 years' experience from senior roles in finance, most recently at BTG plc

·    Markus John, M.D. will join as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D, effective 1^st July, bringing 20 years of pharma leadership experience to help expand and build the portfolio

·    Fiona Langton-Smith joins as Chief Human Resources Officer bringing 20 years' experience in Human Resources; she will play a crucial role in the organizational development of Syncona and the portfolio

Syncona Limited, a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding a portfolio of global leaders in life science, announces the expansion of Syncona Investment Management Limited's senior leadership team.  

John Bradshaw, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is retiring at the end of July having been with the Syncona life science business since its inception in 2012. Rolf Soderstrom will be joining the senior leadership team as CFO on 19 July 2021, bringing over 30 years' experience in finance and a track record of accelerating the growth of companies and delivering shareholder returns. He also has extensive strategic and operational experience including M&A, fundraisings and disposals. Most recently, he held the role of CFO of BTG plc from 2008 to 2018, helping to drive the successful transformation of the company into a fully integrated global manufacturing and sales organisation focused on specialist healthcare. John will work with Rolf to ensure an orderly transition.

Markus John, M.D. will join the senior leadership team as CMO and Head of R&D, effective 1st July. Markus is a senior physician-scientist with 20 years of pharma leadership experience, most recently as Global Medical Affairs Franchise Head of Immunology and Ophthalmology at Roche and before that as Global Medical Director at Novartis. In this role Markus will leverage his expertise in discovery, translational medicine, clinical development, regulatory environments and medical affairs to help further build and expand Syncona's portfolio of leading life science companies.

In parallel, Fiona Langton-Smith joins as Chief Human Resources Officer, bringing with her a wealth of experience from a career in Human Resources spanning over 20 years. Fiona spent much of this time at Biogen, most recently as Head of People Processes & Analytics, developing a deep network across the life sciences industry. Since leaving Biogen, she has run her own organisational consultancy in Switzerland, delivering solutions and advice on organisational strategy for start-ups in pharma, biotech and other industries. Fiona will be responsible for developing the overall human resources strategy, including culture and organisational development, operational model, diversity and inclusion, and performance management. She will also assist the team in continuing to attract global leaders to our portfolio companies.

Martin Murphy, CEO of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said, "I am delighted to welcome a series of important hires to our senior leadership team as the Company continues to scale. Markus brings significant medical expertise in academia and industry, which will be critical as we see the continued progress of our clinical-stage companies and the expansion of the portfolio, whilst Fiona will play an important role in developing our human resources strategy as we seek to develop our internal team, increase operational capability and bring the best people to our portfolio companies.

Today, we also say goodbye to John Bradshaw, who has made an invaluable contribution to the business and been a fantastic member of the leadership team, since he joined at the very beginning of Syncona in 2012. His great counsel and insight will be missed - we wish him well and know he will always remain a member of the Syncona family. We are very pleased that we have been able to attract someone of Rolf's calibre to take up the role of Chief Financial Officer. Rolf brings 30 years' experience in finance and a track record of accelerating the growth of companies and delivering shareholder returns. I look forward to working alongside him."  

John Bradshaw, CFO of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said, "Working as part of the Syncona team over the last nine years has been a great privilege and I am proud of what we have achieved. The business has grown from £200m to £1.3bn of net assets today and has delivered significant value for our stakeholders. I leave the Company well positioned with a strong capital base and a significant opportunity ahead, and I look forward to seeing its future progress."

[ENDS]

Enquiries

Syncona Ltd 

Annabel Clay / Fergus Witt

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7940

FTI Consulting

Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins / Tim Stamper

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000

Forward-looking statements - this announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the portfolio of investments of Syncona Ltd. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and forecasts. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast.

About Syncona

Syncona's purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life. We do this by founding, building and funding a portfolio of global leaders in life science, to deliver transformational treatments to patients in areas of high unmet need.

Our strategy is to found, build and fund companies around exceptional science to create a diversified portfolio of 15-20 globally leading healthcare businesses for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments for patients by working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and management teams. Our balance sheet underpins our strategy enabling us to take a long-term view as we look to improve the lives of patients with no or few treatment options, build sustainable life science companies and deliver strong risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.