Chief Executive Officer
Sara has leadership experience both financially and operationally with a focus upon developing and commercialising life science products. She was the CEO of LungLife AI a diagnostic company for early stage lung cancer. Prior to that she was with Bruin Biometrics, a LA-based medical device company as EVP Business Operations and previously CFO. In her role at Exosome Diagnostics, a venture-backed personalised medicine company the focus was upon the development of non-invasive liquid biopsy diagnostics in cancer and the company was successfully sold to Bio-Techne Corporation in 2018. She was previously CFO at AusAm Biotechnologies developing diagnostics in kidney disease. Prior to working in the US, she worked for British Telecom in London in business development and strategy.
Sara received her B.A. from Lancaster University and she is qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She has also qualified with Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Sara was appointed a director of the Company on 19 August 2020.
Non-Executive Chairman
Member of the remuneration committee
Julian currently is Deputy Non-Executive Chairman of EKF Diagnostics Holdings Plc and Non-Executive Chairman of Trellus Health plc and Verici Dx plc. Julian has significant experience in the life science industry. He has over 20 years' experience as CEO of EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc and BBI Holdings plc. Before joining EKF, he undertook a management buyout at BBI in 2000, a flotation on AIM in 2004 and was responsible for selling the business to Alere Inc. (now part of Abbott Laboratories) in 2008 for c. £85 million. At EKF he successfully completed a number of fund raisings, acquisitions and subsequent integration of businesses in seven countries. He oversaw the spin out of businesses from EKF including Renalytix plc which listed on Nasdaq in 2020. In 2016 he was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for services to the life sciences industry. Julian has previously held the position of Non-Executive Chairman of Renalytix Plc between 2018 and 2020.
Non-Executive Director
Member of the remuneration committee and CEO of Renalytix AI plc
James has experience building emerging technology companies in both the public and private sectors with specific expertise in the life-sciences industry. His skills include equity and debt capital formation, strategic development and partnerships, executive team structuring, regulatory issues and marketing. The Renalytix IPO was completed in November 2018, raising over £22,000,000 for the company. Following successful progress in validatory development, regulatory discussions, reimbursement, pricing and insurance coverage determinations, a follow-on fundraise was arranged in July 2019 at over double the IPO price, enabling expansion of the team and acceleration of key workstreams. In July 2020, Renalytix successfully dual-listed on Nasdaq with a market capitalisation of £65.12 million after raising a further $85 million (approximately £68 million).
Prior to his role at Renalytix, James was Chief Executive Officer of Exosome Diagnostics, a venture backed personalised medicine company developing non-invasive liquid biopsy diagnostics in cancer. Exosome Diagnostics was acquired by Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) in 2018. James is also a managing partner of Renwick Capital, LLC (“Renwick”), a management consulting firm specialising in assisting emerging healthcare technology companies with strategic planning and business execution.
James received his B.A. from Boston University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. James is currently Chairman of BalletNext, a performing arts company in New York City.
James was appointed a director of the Company on 22 April 2020.
Non-Executive Director
Member of the remuneration committee and representative of Mount Sinai on the Board
Dr. Lium is President of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP) and Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Innovation Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. He is also Non-Executive Director of Renalytix. Dr Lium represents Mount Sinai on several private company boards and previously served as a member of the investment review committee for the Accelerate NY Seed Fund. Dr Lium also serves as chairman of the board of managers of Kantaro.
Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Lium served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Innovation, Technology & Alliances at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the UCSF Principal Investigator for the Bay area National Science Foundation I-Corps node and Assistant Vice Chancellor of. Dr. Lium served as President of LabVelocity Inc. prior to its acquisition in 2004. He pursued post-doctoral research at UCSF in the laboratory of J. Michael Bishop, MD, and earned a PhD with honours from the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular and Biophysical Studies at Columbia University in the laboratory of Dr. Saul J. Silverstein. Dr. Lium holds a BS in Biology from Gonzaga University.
Dr. Lium was appointed a director of the Company on the 19 August 2020.
Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Chair of the audit committee and nomination committee
Sir Ian Carruthers holds a number of chair and non-executive board and advisory roles in the public and private sectors. He was previously Chief Executive of NHS South of England, comprising three health bodies: South West, South Central and South East and his career in the National Health Services spans over 40 years. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to health in 1997 and a Knighthood in 2003 for services to the NHS and in 2006 he took over as Interim Chief Executive of NHS England, amongst the largest organisations in the world with over 1.3 million employees and a budget in excess of £100 billion. He has been the lead author on several papers on reviewing and improving the NHS and is seen as an international expert on healthcare systems and service delivery.
He is currently Chancellor of the University of the West of England, and was formerly Chair of Healthcare UK, Chair of the Innovation Health and Wealth Implementation Board, Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia and Non-Executive Director of Bioquell plc.
Sir Ian Carruthers was appointed as a director of the Company on 19 August 2020.
Independent Non-Executive Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Dr Lorenzo Gallon is Professor of Medicine (Nephrology and Hypertension) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation), and currently is the Medical Director of the Translational Medicine Program, the Director of International Relations and the Director of the Renal Transplant Fellowship at Northwestern University, and also an alumnus of the University of Padua Medical School, Italy.
Dr. Gallon has decades of experiences in Nephrology, Hypertension as well as Organ Transplantation. He acts as an advisor / consultant for numerous Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies, such as Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Horizon Therapeutics, Inc., and Argenx Pharma. He is also a member of the Editorial Board at Nephron since 2019. In 2012, Dr Gallon was part the Northwestern Medicine transplant team that conducted the first successful removal and implantation of a kidney from one patient to another after the organ failed in the first recipient. The findings of the case were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In March 2021, Verici Dx unveiled that it has partnered with Dr Gallon, together with Dr Milagros Samaniego at Henry Ford Health System and Dr Daniel G. Maluf at the University of Maryland, Baltimore in order to initiate the first US clinical trials for its two lead products, Clarava™ and Tuteva™.
Dr. Gallon was appointed as a director of the Company on 9 August 2021.
Member of audit committee and nomination committee
Company Secretary
Salim is a Chartered Accountant with leadership experience in a number of companies. Salim has been with EKF over the last 10 years serving in various capacities, currently as Company Secretary and Head of Corporate Affairs dealing in all matters in respect to M&A, investor relations and governance. Salim has extensive experience providing strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, fundraising and IPOs, cost reduction and tax planning. Salim has played instrumental roles in the public listings of Renalytix, Verici Dx and Trellus Health and serves as Company Secretary for all these companies. Salim recently served as a CFO for Trellus Health. Prior to these roles, Salim has also served as the Finance Director for Quotient Diagnostics and the Wilton Group.
