Board of Directors
Christian Hoyer Millar, MA, Hons (Oxon)
Christian was awarded a scholarship to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. His career started at the Boston Consulting Group where he worked both in Europe and USA. He then moved to the UK Holding Company of the German/Dutch Conglomerate, Hoogovens as a director of a number of the subsidiaries in the UK, winning the Queen’s award for Exports. He then became a Vice President of Fox Pitt Kelton, where he worked on the mergers and acquisitions of US Regional Banks and after the company went public was headhunted to run a venture capital firm in conjunction with Ensign Trust PLC, owned by the Merchant Navy Pension Fund. Since then Christian has worked in Venture Capital and is the founder of one Ofex listed company and a founding shareholder in one AIM listed company. He is a director of TQP Technology Limited, a plant-based pharmaceutical standardization company. He has extensive experience in the USA and Asia.
Dr Alexandre Akoulitchev, MA (Oxon), PhD (University College London), FRSM
Sasha read mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1989, he was selected by the George Soros Foundation to study for a year at the University of Oxford along with 20 top Soviet graduate students. He then obtained his PhD in cell biology from University College London (with the research based at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund). He spent six years at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ, USA as a research assistant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Upon return to England he established his research laboratory at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. He was a University Academic Fellow (Research Council UK) and a Senior Fellow of Exeter College, sponsored by Cancer Research UK, Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Dr Heiner Dreismann , PhD (Westfaelische Wilhelms University)
Heiner read biology and gained his PhD in microbiology and molecular biology at the Westfaelische Wilhelms University. His career started as a post doctoral fellow in the French Centre for Nuclear Research in Saclay, Paris. He later moved to Roche Diagnostics in 1985 and held several top management positions - Head of the Integration Office, Head of the Business Unit PCR Europe, Head of the Business Unit microbiology and Vice President of Manufacturing. In 2000, he became the Head of Global Business Development for the $7 billion Roche Diagnostics in vitro diagnositcs business and between 2000 and 2006 he was the President and CEO of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. Under his leadership, the Roche Molecular Systems in vitro diagnostics business doubled its value and the business grew to $1.2 billion annually. He led 1600 staff and expanded the PCR business into new areas attracting $1 billion of investments.
Alison Caroline Kibble, BA, Hons (Oxon)
Alison read Biochemistry at New College, Oxford and she is the Oxford University director on the board. Her career stared as a product manager of R&D Systems Europe Limited in 1992. She then worked as General Manager of Quantum Appligene and as a consultant to Actigen Limited. In 2000, she became the sales director of eLabs Europe and in 2001 she became the CEO of Moecular Sensing plc. She transitioned Molecular Sensing plc from the R&D phase through project development to launch of their first commercial product. She was instrumental in technology transfer and eventual license of the technology to Roche. In 2005, she was recruited as the CEO of Femeda Ltd and raised funds totalling 2.5 million pounds.