Advisory Board
Celtic Pharma has an experienced and distinguished business-oriented Advisory Board. The members provide representation from all relevant fields and provide seasoned advice across North America, Australasia, Continental Europe and the United Kingdom.
The Advisory Board includes:Jon R. Aisbitt
Jon Aisbitt was a partner and managing director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs. He has over twenty years of experience in international corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He advised large corporate and governmental clients throughout Europe, North America and Australasia.
He is a non-executive director of Man Group plc, a FTSE 100 company and a leading provider of alternative investment products and solutions. He is also Deputy Chairman and a non-executive director of Ocean Rig ASA, an Oslo listed deep water oil rig company.
Mr. Aisbitt graduated from Oxford University and then qualified as a chartered accountant before joining S.G. Warburg & Co. Ltd. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1986 and became the first head of the UK investment banking team.
He is a former member of the Primary Markets Committee of the London Stock Exchange and the Board of Trustees of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (the UK’s largest children’s charity).
Victor A. Bischoff
Victor Bischoff studied economics in Geneva and Florence, obtaining a doctorate. He completed his education with an MBA at Columbia University. From 1973 to 1986, Dr. Bischoff worked for Citibank N.A., carrying out various functions in the USA, Europe and Latin America, his last position being vice-president. From 1987 to 1993, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Sandoz AG in Basel. He served on the Executive Committee of the Sandoz – Family Foundation until 2002, with responsibility for financial matters. He is a member of the board of directors of Tiscali, Citco Group, Interoute Communications and ATP. His previous board memberships include: BB Biotech AG and BB Medteck AG.
Robert G. Easton
Robert Easton is a director and chairman of Stockton Holdings Limited, a Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance holding company. Mr. Easton serves on the board of directors and is an officer of Stockton Holdings subsidiaries, including Stockton Reinsurance, a Bermuda-based reinsurance company. Mr. Easton joined Commodities Corporation (the predecessor to Stockton Holdings) in 1979 as Senior Vice President. He became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1984, and Chief Executive Officer in 1986, a position he held until October 2001. Until April 30, 1997, Mr. Easton also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Commodities Corporation Limited, a Princeton, New Jersey based asset management subsidiary of Stockton Holdings Limited, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs
Prior to joining Commodities Corporation in 1979, Mr. Easton was Assistant Executive Director for Financial and Administrative activities of the American Bar Association. Previously he served as President of Farrington Manufacturing Company in Springfield, Virginia, makers of data processing and data imprinting equipment. He began his career as a systems analyst in the data processing division of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York.
Mr. Easton has held numerous leadership positions on futures exchanges, self regulatory organization boards, governmental advisory boards, and Industry associations. He holds degrees from Princeton (BSE), Columbia Business School (MBA) and Georgetown Law (JD).
Frederick Frank
Frederick Frank is Vice Chairman and a director of Lehman Brothers Inc. Before joining Lehman Brothers as a partner in October, 1969, Mr. Frank was co-director of research, as well as Vice President and Director, of Smith, Barney & Co. Incorporated. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of The New York Society of Security Analysts and a past president of the Chemical Processing Industry Analysts.
In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Board of Predix Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Frank is a director of Business Engine, Diagnostic Products Corporation, Digital Arts & Sciences, Inc., eSoft, Inc., Landec Corporation, and Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. He is Chairman of the National Genetics Foundation, a director of the Salk Institute, a member of the Yale School of Organization and Management Advisory Board, a member of the Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine advisory board, a member of the Board of Governors of the National Center for Genome Resources, Chairman of the Board of The Irvington Institute for Immunological Research, a member of the Advisory Board of The Harvard School of Public Health and also of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In 1998, Mr. Frank was honored for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Immunology by the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research, and, in 1997, he received the Biotech Meeting at Laguna Niguel Hall of Fame Award for Special Recognition for an Individual. He received his MBA from Stanford in 1958 and began his Wall Street career that year.
Mark T. Finn
Mark Finn has devoted his professional career to providing investment advisory services to the business community. He began at Virginia National Bank in 1968 where he rose to Trust Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. He became a member of the State of Virginia Pension Plan’s Investment Advisory committee in 1983, and served as its chairman from 1984-1994. Mr. Finn is a former member of the board of directors of RF&P Corporation, a privately held railroad and real estate company. From 1990 to 1994 Mr. Finn served on the Alaska State Retirement System and was the Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee from 1993-1994. He was a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Advisory Committee on Managed Futures and from 1996 to 2000 was a member of an advisory board to Rowan & Blewitt Incorporated, an international consulting firm. Mr. Finn served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer for Lindner Asset Management from 1999-2001. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Performance Review Committee for Citibank’s $50 billion Citifunds where he has served as a trustee since 1990. He has taught finance at the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden Graduate Business School and teaches at the College of William and Mary’s graduate business school, where he received his MBA in 1987. In 1975 he joined the Vantage Consulting Group (an investment strategy and asset allocation firm advising pension funds and endowments) as an outside consultant and was invited to become the group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1986, a capacity in which he continues to serve today.
Donald E. Nickelson
Donald Nickelson is Vice-Chairman and Director of Harbour Group Industries Inc., a leveraged buy-out firm. He served as President of PaineWebber Group, an investment banking and brokerage firm. He also serves as a director of Adolor Corporation and First Advantage Corporation, as lead trustee of the Mainstay Mutual Funds Group, as well as serving on the board of several private companies.
Previously, Mr. Nickelson was the chairman of the boards of National Car Rental, Braniff Airlines, Omniquip International, Inc., Greenfield Industries, Vie Financial Group, and Flair Corporation. He served as Director for W. P. Carey & Co., LLC, Royalty Pharma AG, Allied Healthcare Products, DT Industries, as well as Selectide Corporation and SUGEN, Inc. and numerous other public and private companies. In addition, he served as Chairman of the Pacific Stock Exchange and Director of the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Rory Riggs
Rory Riggs is the Managing Member of Balfour, LLC a firm specializing in early-stage entrepreneurial activities in healthcare and biotechnology. He is also Chairman of Royalty Pharma AG. He recently served as the president and director of Biomatrix Corporation (NYSE Ticker: BXM) until it was sold to Genzyme Corporation in December, 2000. Mr. Riggs launched Biomatrix’s lead product, Synvisc, which is currently the third largest product for the treatment of osteoarthritis sold in the US. Prior to joining Biomatrix, Mr. Riggs was a director, president and CEO of the RF&P Corporation from 1991 to 1995. RF&P was sold in 1995 to the real estate arm of Lazard Freres. Prior to that Mr. Riggs was a managing director in Mergers and Acquisitions at Paine Webber and an associate with Strategic Planning Associates, the predecessor company to Mercer Management Consulting. Mr. Riggs has been involved in the start-up of many companies including: Genenews Limited, Cibus Genetics, Fibrogen, Inc., Royalty Pharma AG, Selectide Inc., Sugen Inc., eAppeals, LLC, Medrium, Inc., Pharmaceutical Partners, LLC and Pacific Media. Mr. Riggs received a BA from Middlebury College and MBA from Columbia University.
Angus Russell
Angus Russell joined Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) after graduating and qualified as a chartered accountant. He joined ICI’s Pharmaceuticals Divisions in a management accounting role and subsequently a production accounting role. He transferred to the Corporate Planning Department where he worked on several global business strategies, executed a number of M&A deals, coordinated defense work and oversaw business activities in the Americas, Middle East, Africa, India and Pakistan.
He was appointed Group Investor Relations Manager for ZENECA Group plc and later was appointed Group Treasurer for ZENECA Group plc with responsibility for treasury, investor relations and the group’s captive insurance company, IC Insurance. Mr. Russell was also appointed a trustee director of the ZENECA UK Pension Fund, where he served as Chairman of the Investment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. He played a key role in the merger of Astra and Zeneca in 1998 and was subsequently appointed VP of Corporate Finance. In 1999 he was part of a small team, which negotiated the Syngenta agrochemicals merger with Novartis.
Mr. Russell joined Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc in December 1999 as Group Finance Director responsible for finance, IS, risk management, corporate communications and investor relations, in which position he serves now. He is a non-executive director of the City of London Investment Trust plc and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a fellow of The Association of Corporate Treasurers. Mr. Russell is a member of the CBI’s Economic Affairs Committee and a past chairman of the Society of International Treasurers.