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NextGen Sciences Ltd (Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom) appoints Tim Sutton as Chief Financial Officer
15th February 2003 – NextGen Sciences Ltd. (Huntingdon,
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom), a
company developing and manufacturing platform technologies for protein research, today announced
the appointment of Mr Tim Sutton (FCMA) as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer and his
appointment to the Board of Directors.
Mr Sutton has operated at Board and senior financial level in the commercial technology sector with
company’s such as T-Mobile UK, the mobile phone network operator, and NASDAQ-listed Adaptive
Broadband Corporation (as Finance and Operations Director). He was the Finance Director responsible
for the turnaround and successful trade sale of the UK telecom business of Quante Aktiengesellschaft
(listed in Germany), and integrated the UK business of new partner Hachette while Group Financial
Controller of EMAP Frontline (a media joint venture between FTSE100 EMAP
plc, the BBC and
Haymarket).
“Tim Sutton brings a great deal of experience and expertise in the technology sector to NextGen
Sciences.” explained Dr Kevin Auton, CEO. “He has a strong grasp of this sector, how it brings
products from concept to customer in a very short time and how this is achieved in an ever changing
market place. The biotech sector can learn much from what the telecoms sector did well – and not so
well – over the last 10 years. His experience in strategic financial planning, forecasting and control
enables NextGen Sciences to strengthen and extend its infrastructure and prepare for the next phase
of the Company’s development.”
NextGen Sciences was founded in mid 2000 and has grown steadily from 4 to 32 employees. The
Company now operates from a 13,000 sq.ft facility which houses its integrated development teams for
informatics, bioresearch and mechanical design. Unusually, the Company operates its own fast turnaround
prototyping facility to support its philosophy of bringing its technologies to market ahead of the
field. This successful approach was demonstrated with its first product, the ProteinArray Workstation
which was developed under a Corporate Partnership with PerkinElmer (announced 12th March 2002).
“Our ability to rapidly develop and then manufacture our own products in-house is a strong advantage
over other technology-rich boutiques.” said Dr Auton. “However, you need a team of skilled leaders to
operate such an organisation. Mr Sutton’s expertise in financial management in the technology sector
combined with our existing operations management expertise from Mr Dave Wigley (Operations
Director) places NextGen Sciences in a very strong position as we deliver our next two products; the
automated 2D electrophoresis system (a2DETM) and our automated system for protein expression (the
ExpressionFactoryTM).”
“With its first product selling well, this company has successfully brought together two really key
things: (1) useful, saleable IP that saves drug researchers’ time and money, with (2) the project and
commercial professionals to deliver and exploit the value created.” confirmed Mr Sutton. “We intend
to pursue a number of commercial and financial opportunities to release the full potential of this
Company as it moves into its second phase of growth.”
“The Company has already achieved considerable success. In 2002, for example, NextGen Sciences
successfully achieved its development and revenue objectives and made a modest operating loss of
just £162,000 ($260,000) off revenues of £2 million ($3,200,000) – a strong performance for a startup
company, against the poor economic backdrop of 2002.” Mr Sutton explained further. “This near
break-even result comes from profitably exploiting its first product while at the same time creating its
next generation of products. These new products will build a fast-growing and profitable revenue
stream from this year, which means that the Company can remain self-sufficient in terms of inward
investment if it needs to.”
“There are several opportunities for NextGen Sciences to assimilate other complementary technologies
that build on its core business, adding new areas of intellectual property to create future product lines
in a market where solution sales are highly attractive. It should be an exhilarating and very busy
time. I am very much looking forward to working with this team as NextGen Sciences executes its
business plan.” stated Mr Sutton.
Mr Sutton joins the Board at NextGen Sciences alongside Dr Kevin Auton (CEO), Dr Linda Cammish
(Director of Business Development) and Mr Dave Wigley (Director of Operations).
For further information, please contact:
Dr Kevin A Auton (CEO)
t: +44 (0) 1480 410 855 e: kevin.auton@nextgensciences.com
or
Tim Sutton (CFO)
t: +44 (0) 1480 410 859 f: +44 (0) 1480 410 858
e: tim.sutton@nextgensciences.com
w: www.nextgensciences.com
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