About Us > Board of Directors
Ian Kent
Non-executive Chairman
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 Pulmagen Therapeutics Ltd. 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.
Dr Julian Gilbert
Chief Executive Officer
Julian has 24 years commercial and technical experience in the pharma industry gained at Arakis, Chiroscience, Mundipharma, BTG and SmithKline & French (now GSK). Prior to co-founding Acacia Pharma in 2007, he was co-founder and Commercial Director of Arakis, a low risk discovery & development company, which was sold to Sosei in 2005 for £107m. 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 (AD237 for COPD) and Mundipharma (AD923 for cancer breakthrough pain). Julian is a non-executive director of Iota Nanosolutions.
Pieter van der Meer
Non-executive Director
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. Pieter 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.
Dr Steven Powell
Non-executive Director
Steven is an Adviser to Gilde Investment Management with responsibility for Gilde’s UK portfolio companies. Previously, Steven was CEO at KS Biomedix plc 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. Steven is a non-executive director of Chroma Therapeutics.
Associate Professor Johan Kördel
Non-executive Director
Johan Kördel is Senior Investment Director at Lundbeckfond ventures. Previously he was co-founder and CEO of Sound Biotech ApS and co-founder and Senior Vice President of Research and Business Development of Biovitrum AB. Prior to these positions he worked almost a decade in the pharmaceutical company Pharmacia with management, research, early development, portfolio management, business development and alliance management. Johan is a board director of Syntaxin Ltd., Bone Support AB, Celladon Inc., and EQL Pharma AB. He is an associate professor in Physical Chemistry at the University of Lund, Sweden.
