Management Team

Jerel Whittingham; Interim CEO

Mr  Whittingham is Managing Director of Amphion Innovations UK and leads their activities in the UK. He has extensive technology commercialisation experience in investor, start-up and opportunity development roles with companies including Amphion, VennWorks, Generics Group PLC, Durlacher PLC, and a materials science start-up. He has worked on commercialisation projects at a number of universities and leading European companies in diverse areas including media technologies, biosensors, diagnostics, materials science and medical imaging.

Mr Whttingham has spoken at a number of conferences and chaired sessions of both Nanomed and the World Nano-Economic Forum. His commitment to company building in the tech sector builds on earlier career experience in R&D and then strategy development roles. He is a graduate of London, Cranfield and Brussels Universities and is also on the boards of Amphion Innovations UK Ltd, of DSC Ltd where he chairs the compensation committee, and of Myconostica Ltd where he is currently CEO.

David W. Denning FRCP FRCPath; Research Director

David graduated from Guy's Hospital in London in 1980 and trained in London and Glasgow in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases gaining additional experience in Paediatrics, Haematology, Gastroenterology and Immunology.

From 1987-1990 he undertook a 3-year Fellowship in Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Stanford
University (Santa Clara Valley Medical Center) with Professor David Stevens. Here he sub-specialised in Mycology and in particular in Aspergillus infections. Since 1990, he has worked at the University of Manchester, building a group with expertise in susceptibility testing of fungi, diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of fungal infections, preclinical models to assess new antifungal agents, the pathogenesis of invasive aspergillosis, molecular typing of fungi and latterly the genomics of Aspergillus.

He leads the international consortium sequencing the Aspergillus fumigatus genome. He has a continuing interest
in the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and has been closely involved in the conduct and analysis of clinical trials
of itraconazole, voriconazole, Amphotec (Amphocil), caspofungin and micafungin.

Currently he works as a clinician at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, and runs the Aspergillus website, in addition to his research activities. He has published >300 research publications, and book chapters, runs a 15 strong research group with grants from the UK, USA and Europe, as well as multiple pharmaceutical companies. He has consulted with all the companies involved in antifungal development and/or been closely involved in their development, since 1987. He is a former Board Director of the antifungal discovery company F2G Ltd, which he co-founded 1998, and continues to be Chairman of their Scientific Advisory Board.

John Thornback PhD, FRSC; Chief Operating Officer

Dr John Thornback began his career with AERE Harwell in 1979. In 1988 he joined Medgenix as Director of R&D and subsequently held a number of senior positions within the Company including being responsible for the global In vivo products business and UK Division where he turned the company into profit through a sales expansion of over 300% in 2 years. In 1994 he became Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Resolution Pharmaceuticals in Canada for 6 years. During this period, he raised C$10 Million by Private Placement to refinance the company. In February 2000, he was appointed as Managing Director of Hammersmith Imanet Ltd, which is a 75%/25% Joint Venture between Amersham plc and the UK Medical Research Council.

The company is a multi-faceted business with 85 employees and an annual turnover of approximately $11 Million.
In September 2003 he was given the additional role as Chief Technology Officer for the Global Imanet business which involves developing the strategy for future expansion beyond PET. In 2005 John was appointed CEO of Enigma Diagnostics, a start up formed to exploit technology for the in field detection of harmful pathogens developed by the UK Ministry of Defence at Porton Down. He oversaw the transformation of the company's lead product from concept to launch in March 2006.

John has a B.Sc and Ph.D from Imperial College, London where he worked with Professor Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, Nobel Laureate, He has held academic positions at a number of Universities, including Lecturer in Chemistry at Chelsea College, University of London(1981-3) and Loughborough University(1983-8), Visiting Professor, Faculty of Medicine Imperial College, London 2004, Visiting Fellow, Harvard University 1987-88 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1986 and Adjunct Professor, Dept of Chemistry, McMaster University, 1997-2000.

Spencer Kerry; Chief Financial Officer

Spencer is a Chartered Accountant who joined Myconostica as Chief Financial Officer in April 2008. He graduated in Law from Magdalene College, Cambridge University in 1996 and trained as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte & Touche in Glasgow, qualifying in 1999. >Spencer was awarded the Best In Class prize from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

On qualification he worked with Deloitte’s Corporate Finance team in Glasgow and Manchester before leaving practice and working in financial roles with several blue-chip organisations such as the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Spencer joined Scottish bio-pharmaceutical business Ardana plc in 2005 shortly after its flotation on the main market of the London Stock Exchange and was involved in the company’s placing and open offer in October 2006 which raised £11 million. His role at Ardana involved controlling over £25 million R&D and commercial spend and included supporting sales & marketing on sales force expansion and product launch.

Martin J.Hughes PhD ; Director of Quality, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs

Martin gained his PhD from Nottingham University in 1991 in molecular biology. He then undertook 7 years
of postdoctoral research in academic laboratories in Japan (RIKEN), Cambridge University (Biochemistry)
and Canada (McMaster) on subjects ranging from plant photoperception through cell biology to DNA vaccination, publishing research in a range of international journals.

Upon returning to the UK, Martin joined the vaccine company, Microscience Ltd. where for 5 years he held
the posts of senior scientist, and subsequently project leader. In this role he worked on both protein sub-unit
vaccine and monoclonal antibody projects, seeing the company grow from an early start-up discovery group
to a successful development-based organization.

In 2002 he joined the Manchester-based antifungal drug discovery company F2G Ltd, where he held the posts
of both Projects Manager and Research Manager, overseeing the target discovery, screening and medicinal
chemistry operations.

Mike Wraith; Director of Operations

Mike Wraith, a Manchester graduate, gained his Masters Degree by developing an immunoassay method for investigations of blood pressure problems in kidney patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He took this experience forward to Shell Research where, as a Senior Scientist, he was instrumental in establishing a development team that created novel immunoanalytical methods for chemical adducts of DNA, biopolymers and pesticide trace-residues.

His industrial R&D experience culminated in a patented anti-counterfeiting technology upon which a Shell step-out company, Biocode, was established. Here he followed through development projects into manufacturing and began his operations management career. This experience was reinforced with 5 years at Tepnel, an early University of Manchester molecular biology spin out. He then went on to join Drew Scientific, taking on all aspects of operations management, being responsible for the manufacture and world-wide distribution of the company's range of diabetes and haematology reagent kits.