FUSION ANTIBODIES - Key Persons


Charlotte Deane

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Structural Bioinformatics at the University of Oxford
Professor Charlotte Deane is currently a Professor of Structural Bioinformatics at the University of Oxford. Her research in the Oxford Protein Informatics Group covers several areas in protein structure and interaction networks, combining both theoretical and empirical analysis. Her detailed expertise means she will bring structural modelling, bioinformatics and library design experience to the SAP, as well as an insight key to the development of future machine learning algorithms.

Colin Walsh

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
  • Chief Executive and Founder of Crescent Capital
Colin Walsh is Chief Executive and founder of Crescent Capital and has been an active venture capital investor in the high-tech sector for the past twenty eight years. He has considerable experience of business strategy and governance issues, mentoring senior management plus the restructuring, growth and development of companies across many sectors. He has served on numerous boards including both as a director and chair of Andor Technology plc, an AIM listed company and Trafficmaster plc, a LSE main market listed company. A former chair of the CBI for Northern Ireland, he joined the Fusion Antibodies as a Director in 2007 as a representative of Crescent Capital. Colin is the chair of the Company's remuneration committee.

Hugh Morgan - COO

Job Titles:
  • Director of Operations
  • Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Hugh Morgan has over 15 years of experience working in the drug discovery field. He completed his PhD in structural biology in 2007 at Edinburgh University. Hugh then completed five years as a post-doctoral research fellow in drug discovery, generating more than 20 publications, including first author publications in both Nature and PNAS. In 2012, he transitioned from academia to industry, focusing on a career in developing antibody therapeutics. He joined Fusion antibodies in 2016 as a team leader for the protein purification and analytics department. Hugh was appointed Director of Operations in 2019.

James Fair - CFO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Member of the Senior Leadership Team
James Fair has over ten years' experience working in the bioscience sector. A mathematics graduate, James qualified as a chartered accountant in 1992 having trained with a Big Four firm. He has been head of finance with Fusion Antibodies for 8 years on a secondment basis and joined the Company as a Director full time on 1 August 2017, where he is responsible for all aspects of financial management including internal and external financial reporting. He has been involved in the growth of the business and previous raisings for the Company. James's previous experience has included senior management positions in internal audit, business and professional practice where his recent experience was in advising and supporting start-up and spin out companies from Northern Ireland entrepreneurs and local Universities.

Matthew Baker

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
Matthew Baker, PhD has more than 20 years' experience developing biologics in biotech and pharma companies and is a research expert in B- and T-cell immunology, including drug immunogenicity. He was the Chief Scientific Officer of Abzena until 2016 and previously held a Non-Executive Director role at Oxgene. He is currently CEO of NeoPhore, a private company focused on the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapies to treat cancer through stimulation of the immune system. Matthew brings detailed immunology and virus-based mammalian display knowledge as well as industry and market insight.

Richard Buick

Job Titles:
  • Chief Scientific Officer
  • Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Richard Buick has more than 19 years' experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. After graduating with a 1st Class Honours degree in Genetics, he spent 4 years at Randox Laboratories, discovering novel antibodies for diagnostics from synthetic libraries. Richard joined Fusion Antibodies in 2002, where he was responsible for overseeing the Company's Contract Research Services and production of all reagents required for the research and development of internal drug assets. Richard has a PhD from Queen's University Belfast in Immunology. He joined the Company as a Director and was appointed CTO in 2011, managing all scientific projects and Fusion Antibodies' patent portfolios. In addition, Richard has, since 2015, been appointed as a legal expert witness in a number of drug patent dispute cases.

Simon Douglas - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of the Board
Simon then became the CEO of the embryonic start-up company, DNA Research Innovations Ltd (‘DRI'), growing the company for four years which was acquired by the Invitrogen Corporation Inc for $65 million in 2004. After a period with Invitrogen Simon joined Fusion Antibodies in 2006 as the CEO and in 2011 moved to his current Chairman role. During that period he was also the Executive Chairman of Scottish based Lab 901 where he completed several rounds of funding and sold the business in 2011 to Agilent Technologies Inc. He is also currently the CEO of the VC backed diagnostic Company Biofortuna Ltd.

Sonya Ferguson

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
  • Senior Director
Sonya Ferguson is an experienced senior director working in the pharmaceuticals industry. She is currently Senior Director of Q2 Solutions, a Quintiles Quest joint venture, which is a leading global clinical trials laboratory services organisation. Her previous roles include Quintiles itself and over 18 years with Randox Laboratories. Ms Ferguson joined the Company as a Director in 2016 and is a member of the Company's remuneration committee.

Teresa Byrne

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Senior Leadership Team
  • Director of Production
Teresa Byrne has over eighteen years' experience in the biopharmaceutical industry specifically in mammalian expression both stable and transient. Teresa holds a B.Sci (Hons) in Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland Galway, and a PhD in Biomedical Chemistry from Queens University Belfast. Teresa joined Fusion Antibodies in 2003 focusing on the establishment and subsequent expansion of mammalian cell expression departments which have become a cornerstone of Fusion Antibodies core service offering. Teresa progressed her career from her initial role as a Senior Research Scientist role at Fusion to her latest appointment as Production Director in 2019.

Tim Watts

Job Titles:
  • Non - Executive Director
  • Non - Executive Director at Cellesce Limited
Tim has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors since 1990 with experience in both Big Pharma and both public and privately-held SMEs. Most recently, from August 2018 to September 2021 he was at AIM-listed Shield Therapeutics plc (L.STX), a company focused on commercialising its innovative iron deficiency therapy, where he was initially CFO and then latterly CEO and a director from April 2020. From 2012 to 2017 Tim was CFO and a director of Oxford BioMedica PLC (L.OXB), a world-leading cell and gene therapy company, when the management team grew the Group's market capitalisation from £30 million to £330 million and laid the foundations for the business it is today. Prior to Oxford BioMedica, from 2007 to 2011 Tim was CFO of Archimedes Pharma, a private-equity backed specialty pharma company, and before that from 1990 to 2007 he was in a variety of increasingly senior roles at AstraZeneca, including Group Financial Controller from 2002 to 2006. Tim is also a non-executive director at Cellesce Limited, which has invented and patented a unique bioprocess for the expansion of human-derived, normal and cancer organoids for a multitude of applications including drug discovery and organ-on-a-chip applications. Previously Tim was also a director of the UK's BioIndustry Association from 2013 to 2017.