Company Directors
Dr Hudson is an internationally experienced entrepreneur, corporate director and builder of distinctive life science and healthcare businesses. For almost 20 years he ran international businesses in health, nutrition and bio-ingredients for Unilever, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Royal Numico before joining the private equity/venture sector in 2000. He has advised on / led over 20 transactions and strategic partnerships with a combined value of over $2 billion including sales, listing, mergers, acquisitions and integrations whilst serving on boards in UK, USA, Sweden, Netherlands and Singapore. Mike has also supported governments in UK, New Zealand and Malta and multiple University/Public Sector Research Institutes in developing life science strategies. Mike obtained a BSc, PhD, DIC and ARCS in Life Sciences from Imperial College, where he was awarded a Scholarship in Life Sciences, an Exhibition in Science and the Governors Graduation Prize. His PhD was sponsored by Tenneco Corporation and he was awarded a Spencer Scholarship to collaborate with Oregon & Washington State Universities. He also completed the Unilever Business Education Programme and the International Leadership Programme at The Graduate School of Business, Indiana University sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Professor Sir Christopher Evans is a renowned scientist and highly successful entrepreneur with numerous prestigious awards and medals for his work over the last 30 years during which time he has built more than 50 medical companies from start-up and floated 20 new medical businesses on stock markets in six different countries. He has created 11 successful academic spin-outs and companies worth over $2.4 billion, and has raised $2.6 billion from disposals. He directed the raising of approximately $450 million for Merlin Biosciences Funds and $2.6 billion from disposals including the sale of BioVex Group, Inc. to Amgen Inc. and Piramed Limited to Roche Group. Through Merlin Ventures Limited, he co-founded and advised Biotech Growth Trust plc. Arakis Limited, one of the companies developed by Professor Sir Christopher Evans was sold to Sosei Co. Ltd for $187 million. Chris Evans has founded notable companies such as Chiroscience, Celsis, ReNeuron, Vectura, Biovex and Merlin Biosciences Ltd. Appointed an OBE in 1995 for services to medical bioscience he was knighted in 2001 for services to bioscience and enterprise. Latterly he was founder of Arix Bioscience plc (LSE:ARX), of the oncology specialist Ellipses Pharma Limited and of Excalibur Healthcare Services Ltd.
Jason Holt is an experienced director and accomplished leader with a business focus on providing clarity and consistently ensuring the governance and delivery of imperatives such as safety, customer satisfaction and cost control in challenging markets. During 2020 and 2021 Jason was the UK’s Chief Executive for coronavirus testing responsible for briefing the Prime Minister, Cabinet of the United Kingdom and the Secretary of State, with an £18bn budget and around 30,000 staff. Jason oversaw the initial launch of nation-wide testing including the establishment of the first ‘Megalab’ including genomics testing for Covid variants and the introduction of testing in 30,000 schools leading to record performance of up to approximately 800,000 tests per day. Between 2017 and 2020 Jason was Senior Vice President Global Transformation of Swissport International and then Chief Executive of Swissport Western Europe, where he also played an instrumental role in establishing the aviation sector’s Covid19 testing at airports. Following an initial career in the RAF, where he became a squadron leader, Jason subsequently held senior business transformation roles with airline companies including Virgin Atlantic, BMED, Arik Air, Easy Jet and Cargolux. Jason holds an MBA from London Business School, Massachusetts’ Institute of Technology & Harvard Law School, an LLB from University of London and a BSc in Psychology.
Professor Jones has had a distinguished career in the pharmaceutical sector, biotech industry and academia. Professor Jones was head of development at The Boots Co Ltd prior to joining The Wellcome Foundation where he was a board director for research and development, responsible for the successful development of a number of significant new products, managed over 2,500 staff covering all scientific, technical and medical specialities 17 as well as quality assurance and patents/agreements. He was also involved in the share offering by The Wellcome Trust, and was responsible for the disposal of Wellcome’s interests in vaccines to Medeva and the subsequent reintegration of ‘biotechnology’ into the mainstream Wellcome/GSK business where he also led inlicensing of new products. For 10 years until August 2004 Professor Jones was Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry where he directed government relations on behalf of the 100 national and international pharmaceutical companies in the UK. He has served on numerous boards and is currently Chairman of the Oxford based e-Therapeutics plc and a director of Ascension Healthcare plc and California based TechImmune LLC. He is also an advisor to The Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APS), a senator for The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS), a member of the board of The UK Stem Cell Foundation, a visiting professor at King’s College, London and a member of the vice Chancellor’s Advisory Board of The University of Surrey having held visiting Chairs at Strathclyde University and the University of North Carolina. He holds honorary degrees / Fellowships/ Gold medals from 7 universities, was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Pharmacological Society, elected to the French Academie Nationale de Pharmacie, elected as a Fellow of The Academy of Medical Sciences and as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. He has published extensively and is on the editorial board of a number of journals.
Martin is a highly experienced corporate leader and company director with a 35 year-long career in finance & investment. He has completed multiple life sciences transactions. Since 2017, he has been Chairman and CEO, Bradshaw Consulting Ltd, a Strategic Advisory group assisting companies and shareholders in creating, generating and realising value from investments in life sciences and tech sectors. He has acted as fractional CEO or CFO of several companies including Actimed Therapeutics Ltd, (leading 2 funding rounds in 2023 and 2024) QuantuMDx Group (negotiating China rights and global distribution agreements, and the sale of the company to a strategic buyer), He is a director of Interrad Medical, a Minneapolis-based medtech company and was a board member of the Liverpool Life Sciences Accelerator Partnership from 2014 until 2023.
Martin was Vice Chairman of Simbec-Orion Group a specialist CRO which sold to private equity for a 4x return on cash. He has been Executive Chairman, Iota Sciences Ltd, a spin-out from Oxford University with revolutionary technology in microfluidics for single-cell isolation. With Professor Sir Chris Evans he founded Arix Bioscience in 2016 and listed on the LSE in 2017. He was co-founder and CEO of Arthurian Life Sciences Ltd, the manager of the top-decile Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund, an innovative hybrid of private and public equity. It’s biggest success to date was the rescue funding of Verona Pharma at an £8m valuation in 2014, sold to Merck for $10bn in July 2025. Previously, he had a highly successful 25-year career in investment banking and investment management, latterly as Vice Chair of Toronto-Dominion Bank in charge of Wholesale (Commercial and Investment) Banking for Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Senior Leadership
Eric has worked in the life sciences sector for more than 25 years, building and leading commercial business units for companies from start-ups to global industry leaders including GSK, Novartis, ViroPharma, Bio Products Laboratory, Ethypharm and Rosemont Pharma.
John is a laboratory director with significant experience in laboratory management and regulatory compliance. His scientific expertise covers several disciplines including digital pathology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and genetics. He has specialised in the cancer arena with a focus on breast, lymphoma and urological neoplasms.
