Board of Directors

Cathal Friel is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with a long‐running and successful history in business. Cathal is Managing Director of Raglan Capital and Chairman and co‐founder of hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc). Cathal is also Chairman and co‐founder of Poolbeg Pharma plc, which was created as a spin‐out of hVIVO plc in 2021. Cathal also co‐founded Amryt Pharma plc which IPO’d on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 and was successfully sold to Chiesi Farmaceutici for $1.48bn in April 2023. Prior to that, he was co‐founder and Chairman of Fastnet Oil & Gas plc, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2011. Cathal began his working career a little earlier than most by having to step in to help run the family business in 1981 at the relatively young age of 16 due to a family illness. He went on to complete his education by taking night classes and received an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1990. Cathal then spent the following five years lecturing on a part‐time basis on International Marketing and Business Planning at the University of Ulster whilst in tandem running his own technology services business. In 2001, Cathal was part of the team that successfully established Merrion Stockbrokers in Dublin. Following Merrion’s successful trade sale in 2006, he founded Raglan Capital which is renowned for building in‐house companies that are quickly listed on the public stock markets and are scaled rapidly post‐IPO generally via M&A transactions. Cathal was a finalist in the international category of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.

Mo is CEO of hVIVO with over 25 years of experience in clinical research and the CRO industry. Mo has worked as a consultant assisting CROs to develop growth strategies and helping prepare companies for future expansion, both organic and through M&A activity. In addition, Mo worked with Private Equity firms providing insight in identifying potential targets and conducting due diligence in preparation for M&A activity. Prior to this Mo had a variety of senior roles at Pharm-Olam where he played a pivotal role in growing a small niche clinical monitoring business to a global full-service CRO with offices across all continents. In his time at Pharm-Olam Mo had leading roles in Clinical Operations, Project Management, Business Development and Executive Management functions. As a key member of the Executive Team Mo participated in the successful sale of the company in 2017, delivering substantial returns to its shareholders. Prior to this he worked at Innovex and Quintiles (IQVIA).

Stephen Pinkerton is Chief Financial Officer at hVIVO. Having worked at the company for six years, he has developed a strong end to end understanding of the business, working across all key commercial operational decisions. During his time at the company, he helped transform the financial reporting, monthly accounts and forecasting of the business, overhauled the project accounting system, developed pricing models for all the contracts that range in value from £2m to £15m, improved pricing and margin on contracts, oversaw forecast models for mergers, acquisitions and operational performance, and supported on the restructuring of the business to improve efficiencies. Stephen has an extensive career in a range of leadership positions. Prior to joining hVIVO, he worked in Thomson Reuters for eleven years, most recently as Finance Director for Enterprise Risk Management. He holds a Honours Degree in Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Cape Town.

Brendan was Chief Medical Officer of ICON plc until 2017, prior to which he co-founded Firecrest Clinical, a company which focused on improving the performance of clinical trial sites and in turn sold it ICON in 2011. While in ICON Brendan served as a member of ICON plc’s Executive Leadership Team and was actively involved in M&A targeting, assessment and diligence. A medical graduate of University College Cork (UCC) and a doctoral graduate in Biochemistry of Oxford University, Brendan has over 30 years’ experience in clinical research. He was a Director of the Health Products Regulatory Authority of Ireland between 2004 and 2011 and was a member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) from 2000-2003.

Senior pharmaceutical and biotech industry executive with a successful track record in science, investment, business development, and start-ups. Extensive global leadership experience including membership of the top senior global R&D management teams at Eli Lilly (US) and AstraZeneca (UK). Experienced in partnerships with venture, equity, and strategic collaborations. As Vice President Global External Research & Development (Lilly, US) had responsibility for staff located in the US, UK, Japan, China, and India. Global External R&D included the search and evaluation function, charged with the identification, evaluation, due diligence of external molecules and technologies. In addition, I was a key stake holder collaborating with strategic VC partners to create a portfolio of companies and develop molecules from Investigational New Drug to Clinical proof-of-concept. If successful, these could be licenced by Lilly to argument the portfolio or sold and Lilly shared the upside. Executed external risk share partnerships, to access to global innovation while balancing scientific and financial risk. member of the steering and investment boards of Capital Funds, Lilly Ventures, and Lilly Asian Ventures. Former positions include Co-founder and CEO of Carrick Therapeutics raised $95 million Series A. Vice-President R&D, Head of New Opportunities Therapy Area (AstraZeneca, UK), creating additional value from the AstraZeneca portfolio by repositioning molecules to other diseases and entering new therapy areas/diseases via spinouts, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions. Delivered over 250 collaborations and transactions including spinouts, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and multi-million US$ acquisitions. Extensive experience in executing deals world-wide including US, Europe, and China. Worked globally in US and Europe. Winner of the Ernst Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year (Ireland). Appointments: Member of the Supervisory Board of Evotec AG, Non-Executive Director of hVIVO plc, IP Group plc, Active Biotech AB and Nykode Therapeutics ASI and Chair of the R & D committee. In addition member of the Scientific Advisory board of Poolbeg Pharma. Committee memberships: Nomination, Audit & Risk, Remuneration and Chair of the R &D committee

Martin has more than 30 years of corporate finance and development experience in the CRO, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Martin is currently Chief Executive Officer at Oncimmune plc. Previously he held pivotal roles, including Global Senior Vice President of Syneos One, Head of Capital Solutions for Syneos Healthcare, Partner at Results Healthcare, Head of Lifesciences (UK) and Director of Corporate Advisory at BDO. Prior to this Martin was Senior Director of Corporate Finance and project lead for the M&A process in Europe for Quintiles. He was also Chief Business Officer at BenevolentAI and Sensyne Health. Martin has extensive experience buying and selling multi-billion dollar deals across Europe and the US, architecting end to end portfolio out-sourcing deals, and negotiating multi-year research partnerships. He holds a BSc in Genetics and has completed a range of post graduate management courses.