Board of Directors

David Brown PhD - Non-executive Director (Chairman)
David was appointed Chairman of Amura in October 2005.  He has over thirty years experience in the pharmaceutical industry both in research and in senior executive roles.  He served with four of the top ten Pharma companies: Zeneca, Pfizer, Glaxo, and most recently with F. Hoffman La-Roche as Global Head of Drug Discovery, Roche Pharma.  He has extensive experience of pharmaceutical R&D in all phases from early discovery through clinical trials and has experience of leading research in all major disease areas.  Whilst at Pfizer he was named co-inventor on the patent for Viagra, and he led the team that developed Viagra through to proof of concept (clinical efficacy) in man.  At Roche, David also served on the committee responsible for clinical drug development and he was a core member of the Business Development Committee responsible for in-licensing of products and for technology agreements and acquisitions.  David received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol.

Alan Goodman - Non-executive Director
Alan has considerable experience in the establishment and development of bioscience companies and has also held senior financial and general management roles within a number of major UK healthcare companies.  Over the last eighteen years Alan has founded or co-founded Agricultural Genetics Company, Medeva plc, Chiroscience Group plc, Acambis plc, Oxford BioMedica plc, CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, Core Group plc and Amura Limited.  Until recently he was non-executive Chairman of Oxford BioMedica plc and is currently executive chairman of CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, CEO of Avlar BioVentures Limited and a non-executive director of Paradigm Therapeutics Limited, Intercytex Limited, De Novo Pharmaceuticals Limited, Sterix Limited, and Amedis Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Louis Nisbet PhD - Non-executive Director
Louis was awarded a PhD in biochemistry by Imperial College, London and subsequently held senior management positions within major pharmaceutical companies such as Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo Group and SmithKline Beecham in the UK and the USA. In 1987, he founded and became CEO of Xenova plc, an emerging bio-pharmaceutical company, which listed on NASDAQ in 1994, and the London Stock Exchange in 1996. Since leaving Xenova in 1998, he has held directorships in a number of private companies operating in the health and bio-sciences field. Louis was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Strathclyde in 2000 and he was made Special Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham in 1994. Louis joined Sitka partners (now part of the Noble Group) in June 1999.  

Daniel Roach PhD - Executive Director (General Manager)
Daniel came to Cambridge in 1985 to join PA Consulting Group, becoming Business Development Manager for the Biotechnology Group. In 1993, he joined Advanced Technology Management Limited (ATM), a company established by Alan Goodman which has been involved in forming and seeding nine companies, seven of which subsequently listed on Stock Exchanges - Acambis, Chiroscience, CeNeS, Core, Lidco, Oxford Biomedica and Salix.  He was a co-founder of Peptide Therapeutics (now Acambis) in 1993 where he was Commercial Director, CeNeS in 1996 where he was CEO from 1997-2002, Amura in 1997 and Avlar in 1998. He is currently an investment director of Avlar, the ATM group of companies, Medical Device Innovations and Purely Proteins. He has recently been appointed Entrepreneur in Residence at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning and to the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) Operating Board.  In addition, he has been a board trustee of the Babraham Institute and Chairman of ERBI. He was one of the first students to read biochemistry at the University of Swansea and has a PhD in enzymology from Bath University, funded by Porton Down.

Manoj Ramjee DPhil – Executive Director (Chief Operating Officer)
Manoj obtained his first degree at Imperial College, London (1989) after which he conducted his D.Phil. at the University of Sussex (1989-1992).  He was Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (1992-1994) and then a research associate at the Department of Chemistry and Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.  He joined Peptide Therapeutics (Acambis) in 1996, eventually becoming Director of Biological Chemistry in 1999.  Manoj was a founding scientist of Incenta Ltd in 2000; which was eventually acquired by Amura Ltd. in 2002.  Manoj has published over twenty scientific articles, is an inventor on over eleven patent applications and has a postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration.