Executive Management

Tim Brears, PhD is Xention’s Chief Executive. Previously he was a Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Gendaq Ltd., a spin-out of the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and after the acquisition of Gendaq by Sangamo BioSciences, Inc, became Vice President for Business Development at Sangamo. From 1993 to 1999 he was Director of Licensing/Business Development at Novartis Inc. (formerly Ciba-Geigy Corporation) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He holds a PhD in molecular biology from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In addition, he is a Registered United States Patent Agent.

Patrick M Round, MB BS, FRCA, FFPM is Xention’s Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development. He has broad and substantial experience in development in both biotech and pharma, most notably as Senior Vice President at Cambridge Antibody Technology where he was responsible for all aspects of development including manufacturing, process development, quality, regulatory, clinical development and project management. Previously he was Director of Development at Celltech R&D and Director of Clinical Development at Glaxo Wellcome.

John W Ford, PhD is Xention’s Vice President of Programme Management. Previously, he was Team Leader for Receptors and Channel Hit Discovery at BioFocus plc in Cambridge, UK. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leeds where he worked on the structure and function of TRP channels.

David J Madge, PhD is Xention’s Vice President of Research. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer of NCE Discovery, a specialist chemistry company, and Principal Research Fellow of the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, London where he specialised in ion channel chemistry. Prior to that, he was a Senior Medicinal Chemist at the Wellcome Foundation, Beckenham where he was involved in the development of ion channel blockers for pain, epilepsy, neuroprotection and drug dependency. Dr Madge has advised a number of start-up companies including Arrow Therapeutics and Cerexus (later Vernalis). He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Imperial College.

Becky Hemsley is Xention’s Director of Finance. She is an experienced finance executive with extensive commercial experience. Most recently she was VP Finance at Camrivox Ltd, a software development company, and previously she was Associate Director of Finance at the clinical trial company PPD Ltd. She trained as a chartered accountant at Coopers & Lybrand and subsequently practised with PwC both in the UK and Australia. Miss Hemsley is a graduate of the Cambridge University. Her extensive experience includes financial management, raising capital, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border compliance and marketing and distribution of high-technology products.