About us > Board
Non-executive Chairman – Ian Kent
Ian joined Acacia Pharma as Non-Executive Chairman in February 2009. He brings significant experience to the Company, having been Chairman and Non-Executive Director of a number of successful public and private life sciences companies. He is currently Chairman of Intercytex plc, Argenta Discovery Limited, and Avantium Holdings BV. He was previously Founder, Chairman and Executive Director of Imutran Ltd which was sold to Novartis in 1997. In addition, he was Chairman of Innovata plc which was sold to Vectura Group plc in 2007 and PIramed, sold to Roche in 2008. His previous Non-Executive appointments include Vernalis plc, Biofocus plc, Adprotech Ltd, LGC Holdings and Roslin Biomed Ltd.
CEO – Dr Julian Gilbert
Previously Julian was Co-founder and Commercial Director of Arakis, a low risk discovery and development company. Arakis 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. Julian has worked in the industry for more than 20 years and gained broad commercial and technical experience at SmithKline & French, BTG, Mundipharma and Chiroscience.
Non-executive Director – Pieter van der Meer
Pieter is General Partner in the Healthcare venture fund at Gilde, where he has had a focus on early stage investments in pharmaceutical and biotechnology based companies. Pieter joined Gilde in 1998 after several years working with KPMG Management Consulting where he led due diligence projects in the pharmaceutical sector. Pieter holds an MSc in Chemistry from Leiden University where he specialized in bio-organic synthesis and molecular modelling and also holds a degree in Commercial Economics. Mr van der Meer led investments in Ablynx, Agendia, Inpharmatica and BG Medicine. He represented Gilde on the board of Ablynx and is currently on the boards of Acacia Pharma, Agendia and BG Medicine.
Non-executive Director – Dr Steven Powell
Steven is Chief Executive Officer of Plethora Solutions plc. Prior to this he was a Director at Gilde Investment Management, and retains responsibility for Gilde’s UK portfolio companies. He joined Gilde from KS Biomedix plc, where he was CEO from 1999 until its acquisition by Xenova in 2003. He has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry since 1985, initially with Beecham Pharmaceuticals (now GSK) as a development scientist and subsequently with Whatman, Radiometer, Chiroscience and Active Biotech.