Non Executive Director & Chairman
John graduated in Engineering Science and joined Unilever, initially he followed a technical career in Engineering, R&D and as a factory General Manager. This was followed by a switch into consumer marketing where he had responsibility for a number of food brands including PG Tips, Colman’s, OXO & Calve & sat on the Board of Unilever’s UK Foods Company. He has been MD of Unilever Ventures since 2002, currently he is Chairman of 4 portfolio companies, IOTA NanoSolutions, Rahu Catalytics, Hydra Polymers & Brandtone
Non Executive Director
Stephen is an Investment Principal with Unilever Ventures. Prior to joining Unilever Ventures in 2006, Stephen worked as a strategy consultant with particular focus on commercial due diligence for private equity clients and debt providers as well as advising corporate clients on a variety of strategic business issues. Stephen has a 1st class honours degree in Business from the University of Bath and also acts as a Non-Executive Director for Froosh AB, another Unilever Ventures portfolio investment.
Non Executive Director
Akbar currently serves as Head of Corporate Finance of QIB (UK), the London based subsidiary of Qatar Islamic Bank. He has spent over 3 years with QIB Group, both in Qatar and the UK, where he was involved in and led a number of their proprietary and third-party transactions, totally over US$ 8bn. Prior to joining the QIB group, Akbar spent time with Euromoney, the leading banking finance and capital markets intelligence house. Before that, he spent several years with Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, where he was involved in advisory, debt capital markets and structuring, helping clients raise over US$30 billion from the capital markets. His career began at Nomura, followed by a spell at Dawnay Day Lander. Akbar is a non-executive director of DC Energy, a pan-African renewable energy company and an observer on the Board of B3 International, a UK based manufacturer of personal care.
Non Executive Director
Sami is a Corporate Finance Manager with QIB (UK) Plc. Sami has been working with the QIB Group for more than three years in both Qatar and the UK. While in Qatar, Sami’s primary focus was on debt financing where he worked on major infrastructure, LNG and real estate projects. In the UK, Sami works on various Corporate Finance transactions including private equity investments as well as advisory and arranging mandates for Middle Eastern and UK based clients. Prior to joining QIB, Sami spent a short time at Merrill Lynch and an international law firm. Sami has a legal background and has completed his GDL and LPC at the University of Birmingham and the College of Law respectively.
Non Executive Director
Dr. Gilbert brings over 20 years of commercial and technical experience in the pharmaceutical industry to the role having previously held positions at SmithKline & French, BTG, Mundipharma and Chiroscience. Currently Dr Gilbert is co-founder and CEO of Acacia Pharma, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of product opportunities for cancer supportive care. Prior to this, he was co-founder and Commercial Director of Arakis, a low risk discovery and development company. Arakis successfully raised £49m in private equity and developed a pipeline of five clinical phase opportunities. Its most advanced product opportunities were out-licensed to Novartis (AD 237 for COPD) and Mundipharma (AD 923 for cancer breakthrough pain). Arakis was sold to Sosei in 2005 for £106m.
Non Executive Director & Cofounder
Steve has over 16 years experience within industrial R&D (Cookson, Courtaulds, Unilever). He is currently a professor at the University of Liverpool Department of Chemistry. He is a cofounder of IOTA NanoSolutions Limited, having led the development of the technology within Unilever, Port Sunlight Laboratories where he held a number of senior research and management positions including Unit Leader for the Molecular Sciences Unit, Science Area Leader for Functional Ingredients and Discovery Platform Director for Molecular and Nanotechnologies for the HPC division. He was also the first recipient of the RSC/MacroGroup Young Researcher of the Year Medal for his branched polymer research in 1998 and held a Royal Society Industry Fellowship for 4 years. Steve is the co-inventor of over 50 patent filings and co-author of over 55 scientific publications.