Board
Mr Osagie Imasogie LLB, BL, LLM
Chairman
Osagie has over 28 years of experience in the fields of law, finance and business management, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to co-founding Phoenix IP Ventures, an IP based Merchant Bank, Osagie conceptualized and established GlaxoSmithKline Ventures and was its founding Vice President. Osagie led GSK Ventures in concluding thirty (30) worldwide transactions, within a 3 year period, in which he invested various GSK R&D non-progressed assets into various companies and/or as the basis of starting new companies.Prior to this role within GSK, Osagie was a Vice President for Product Development Strategy at SmithKline Beecham. Prior to this role at SmithKline, Osagie was the Founding Senior Vice President for Business Development and General Counsel at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., a multi-billion dollar publicly traded specialist pharmaceutical company (NASDEQ: ENDP).
Osagie is Chairman of the Board of Directors of iCeutica Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Iroko Pharmaceuticals LLC. In addition, Osagie was a co-Founder and former Chairman of Ception Therapetutics. Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel products to address unmet medical needs which was recently sold to Cephalon (NASDEQ: CEPH).
In addition, Osagie is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Osagie is also a member of the Board of the Philadelphia Orchestra and, for six years (2000-2005), was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International House of Philadelphia. Osagie is also a member of the Wilson Council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in addition to a number of other non-for-profit companies and institutions. Osagie also served as a Senior Consultant to the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR), a unique initiative by the United States Government to have a direct, positive impact in the fight against the global Aids epidemic by committing over $48 Billion and a multifaceted approach to combating HIV/AIDS.
Osagie holds post-graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, is a member of the New York State Bar and has been the I Grant Irey Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he teaches a seminar on “Intellectual Property and National Economic Value Creation”
Mr Nathan Burkey
Member of the board
Nathan A. Burkey is a managing partner of Kew Capital. Before co-founding Kew Capital in 2008, he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, based in London where he was Head of Structuring for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa within the Bank's Fixed Income division. In this role, he ran a team of 16 professionals with over 30 dedicated regional client coverage officers having the mandate to provide bespoke financing solutions across the capital structure to companies in that region. During the six years he was at Credit Suisse, Nathan and his team were responsible for structuring products ranging from multi-billion dollar bilateral financings with embedded foreign exchange / interest rate / equity optionality, to illiquid equity investments in small and/or single-project companies.Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2002, Nathan was a fixed income derivatives trader within the Emerging Markets Group at Merrill Lynch in London, with whom he started as a graduate in 1996. Mr. Burkey received his B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.
Mr Jeremy Fletcher
Member of the board
Jeremy P. A. Fletcher is a managing partner of Kew Capital. Before founding Kew Capital in 2008, he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse for 13 years, where he headed up the Bank's global corporate advisory business in Metals and Mining. Before switching to Investment Banking in 2001, Jeremy was the European Steel Analyst and Chairman of global steel research team. He was ranked #1 in his sector in all the major European and global polls, including Extel, Reuters, Euromoney and Institutional Investor for five years. The global team was also ranked #1 in the first-ever global Institutional Investor poll in 1999/2000.Prior to joining CS in 1995, Mr. Fletcher was a strategy consultant for 14 years, focusing on the steel, metal transformation and engineering industries for corporate clients worldwide. He was a founding partner of the consulting boutique, Beddows & Company, now part of the Hatch Consulting Group. He started his career as a lawyer in a medium sized London law firm. Mr. Fletcher received his B.A. in English Literature from Oxford University.
Dr David C. U’Pritchard
Member of the board
Dr. David C. U'Prichard currently serves as a President of Druid Consulting LLC, consulting to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries from his base in Philadelphia, US, and as a Venture Partner at Red Abbey Venture Partners (Baltimore).During 2003 – 2006, he was a Venture Partner for Apax Partners Ltd. (London) and Care Capital LLC (Princeton).
From 1999 to 2003 he was CEO of 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Yardley PA. In March 2003, 3DP become a part of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D.
From 1997 to 1999, Dr. U'Prichard served as Chairman of Research and Development at SmithKline Beecham. Prior to SmithKline Beecham, he worked for ICI/Zeneca from 1986 to 1997, as Executive Vice President and International Research Director from 1994 to 1997. While at Zeneca and SmithKline Beecham, Dr. U'Prichard oversaw the discovery and development of a number of successful drugs including Seroquel®, Accolate®, Avandia® and Iressa®.
Dr. U'Prichard received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Kansas, and his B.S. in Pharmacology with first-class honors from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He has held academic appointments at Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow.
Dr. U'Prichard is Chairman of the Board of Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CYCC, Berkeley Heights, NJ) and Oxagen Ltd (Oxford, UK) and serves on the Board of Directors of Life Technologies Corp (NASDAQ: LIFE, Carlsbad, CA), Silence Therapeutics PLC (AIM:SLN, London, UK), Naurex, Inc. (Chicago, IL), Angstrom Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA), and Ocimum Biosolutions (Gaithersburg, MD and Hyderabad, India). Dr. U'Prichard was Chairman of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association 2004-2005 and has served on the boards of BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the Bioethics Institute of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. U'Prichard is a consultant for Booz & Co., and is a Trustee of the International House of Philadelphia and The Wilma Theater, also in Philadelphia.