Philip Holbeche
Chairman
Philip has been an executive and non-executive chairman and director of entrepreneurial companies for more than 20 years. He has specialised in finance, strategy and building effective management teams. In 2001 he co-founded Ceres Power, a fuel cell company, with Imperial College academics and was executive chairman until his retirement from the board at the end of 2007. Ceres raised more than £25 million in three funding rounds, including a flotation on AIM in 2004, and is recognised as one of the most successful British university spinouts of the past decade.
Phil Goodier
CEO
Phil brings over twenty years of executive leadership experience in technology focused companies. He previously served as Group Managing Director of Hexadex, a business delivering complex technology products to the international automotive market, and has also held a number of senior positions in the chemicals and polymer industry with companies such as ICI, Arch Chemicals and DuPont. He is a graduate of Oxford University, gaining a first-class honours degree in Engineering.
Mark Sutton
Chief Operating Officer
Mark joined Plaxica at the beginning of 2011 from Davy Process Technology, a process development and licensing company in the Johnson Matthey group. During his 20 years with Davy he held a number of technology and commercial management positions and most recently was Vice President responsible for Davy’s Syngas and Methanol business. Mark brings to Plaxica extensive experience in the development, commercialisation and licensing of technology in the process industries.
Dr Ed Marshall
Head of Research
Ed is a founding member of Plaxica and heads the company’s research activities. With more than 50 academic papers and patents to his name, and formerly a lecturer in the department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, he has been active in polymer chemistry since his PhD at Durham University. A major focus of his research has been the development of new catalysts for the synthesis of polymers from green sources. He was also previously the Director of Imperial College’s Master’s degree in Green Chemistry: Energy and the Environment.
Dr Dunstan Cooke
Business Director
Prior to joining Plaxica, Dunstan was Director, Intellectual Property & Licensing, at Thiakis, a biotech company focused on obesity and metabolic disease, where he was responsible for all aspects of global intellectual property strategy. He was integrally involved in all business development activities, including Thiakis’ £10m Series A Financing in 2006, and which culminated in the sale of the company to Wyeth for up to US$150m in 2008. Previously Dunstan was a Technology Executive at Imperial Innovations, the AIM-listed technology transfer, investment and incubation company.
Dr Martin Riediker
Non-Executive Director
Previously Chief Technology Officer, Chief Innovation Officer and a member of the executive committee of Ciba, Martin was also head of Ciba's US Polymers Division, and brings a wealth of experience to bear in his role as an independent industry expert serving as a non-executive director of Plaxica. Martin has a doctorate in Chemistry and conducted post-doctoral research at Princeton University before joining Ciba-Geigy in their central research group. Martin was also Vice-President and General Manager of the North American Resins Business Unit, Global President of the Consumer Care Division, and President of the Company’s NAFTA and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.
Dr John Hamlin
Non-Executive director
John has been at Plaxica from its inception. Before joining Plaxica, John worked for more than 25 years at BP holding several senior international business and technology positions. Most of his career has been in the chemicals and polymers sector and he brings an experience of the main value chain operators, manufacturing technologies and the various markets for speciality and high volume plastics.
Susan Searle
Non-Executive Director
Susan is the Chief Executive of Imperial Innovations Group plc, an AIM-listed company commercialising technology from Imperial College and other research organisations. She had previously worked at Montech (Australia), Signet Group plc, Bank of Nova Scotia and Shell Chemicals Limited in the UK and internationally in a variety of business development and commercial roles. Susan possesses over 20 years’ commercial experience and has served on the boards of 14 spin-out companies.
Robert Bahns
Non-Executive Director
Robert joined the investment team at Imperial Innovations in 2005. He has 20 years' experience in technology and investment and previously was a Director in the technology principle investment team at Nomura International, focussing on the semiconductor and hardware opportunities. He trained as an electronics engineer and spent seven years in Japan where he worked for Pioneer Electronics.
Alex Hook
Non-Executive Director
Alex is an Investment Manager at NESTA where he makes and manages investments in the Cleantech, Engineering and Healthcare sectors. Alex started his career in the creative industries before joining Foursome Investments in 1999. During his time at Foursome, Alex was involved in multiple transactions, across a number of sectors and geographies, with a predominant focus on early-stage environmental technology businesses.
Prof Vernon Gibson FRS
Chair of Advisory Board
A founder of Plaxica and Chair of its Advisory Board, Vernon is Chief Chemist at BP where he provides leadership to the large community of chemists and chemical disciplines, and maintains connections with world-class chemicals research through major academic and industrial partners. Previously Vernon was the Sir Edward Frankland BP Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial College London, responsible for the Catalysis and Materials research section. Whilst there, he was also a member of BP’s external Technology Advisory Council.