Board of Directors

At Blueberry Therapeutics

Screenshot 2024 02 21 at 13.45.00

Adrian Howd

Executive Chairman

Adrian Howd has served on the Board since early 2020 and took on the Executive Chairman role in January 2024. He has over 20 years of strategic financial and commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, having led multiple asset and corporate business development transactions, as well as numerous equity capital market fundraises totalling over €430m. He has held various senior roles including Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer at investment firm, Malin plc, where he led the Company to its debut on the Irish stock exchange in one of the largest European life science initial public offerings to date. At Malin, Dr Howd led investment in and served on the boards of Immunocore and Kymab, two “platform to therapeutic” UK-based companies that both achieved multibillion USD exits. Dr. Howd is currently CFO/CBO at BiVictrix Plc, an Alderley park based Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Therapeutic business.

Rita Dobmeyer

Rita Dobmeyer

Board Member

Rita Dobmeyer is the CEO of the European CRO Galenus G&H AG. Prior to this she was Director of European Consulting and Client Relations for Parexel GmbH, and Director of Phase IV Clinical Services and Post-Marketing Surveillance at IMS Health. Rita is the founder of eight companies and has networks with investors and key opinion leaders around the world. She is a graduate of the University of Kaiserslautern, with a PhD in infection from the German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg.
James Stearns

James Stearns

Board Member

James is a Managing Director in the Transactions team at China Medical System Holdings (CMS), International Investment and Operations with a focus on pharmaceutical assets acquisition, product licensing in/out, international business development, and asset management. He has spent the last 20 years in banking and fund management based in both London and New York, having started his career at Goldman Sachs. More recently, James was part of the Healthcare corporate advisory team and Panmure Gordon and prior to that was a fund manager at Livingbridge, with a focus on small growth companies as well as early stage companies held in the Baronsmead Venture Capital Trusts.

Adrian Howd

Marc Shirman

Investor Director

Marc Shirman joined the Blueberry Board in July 2023 as an Investor Director. Marc is the CEO of BEXS Capital Limited, an arranger of private equity investment based in Manchester, UK. He is formerly the Co-Head of UK Private Capital at Muzinich & Co and previously Head of Financial Sponsors at NatWest Markets.

Bob Clay

Advisor to the board

Bob Clay is a pharmacist with more than 30 years of experience in drug development, leading the global regulatory approval of many products across a range of therapy areas, including more than 15 new active substances. Previously, he was VP of Global Regulatory Affairs at AstraZeneca with responsibility for oncology, infection and personalised healthcare. Bob is a Fellow and Board Member at TOPRA (President in 2017) and a member of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee for Medicines for Malaria Venture. Bob has held significant leadership roles in regulatory affairs in regional and global functions at Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Kinapse.

Friedrich K. Mayer

Advisor to the board

Friedrich K. Mayer has ~50 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, both in drugs and vaccines. Starting in the Sandoz Research Institute, later Novartis, he took six NMEs from research through registration to life cycle management. These include terbinafine (Lamisil®), the gold standard for the treatment of onychomycosis, and the first allylamine antifungal, naftifine (Exoderil®/Naftin®). Since then, Friedrich worked with various biotechnology firms. He has extensive experience in the areas of dermatology and infectious diseases and holds a Dr.Sc. (chemistry) from the University of Technology in Vienna, and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau.

Vijay Curthan

Board Observer

Vijay Curthan is an Investment Director with Catapult’s GM&C Life Sciences Fund. Vijay started his career at Schroders before working for Citigroup in London and New York. He then joined GSK as a strategy consultant before moving to the corporate finance team at Deloitte as an Assistant Director. He also held positions at Emirates NBD in Dubai, the Oman Investment Authority, and as a VP at the Investment Corporation of Dubai, managing over $10b of assets. More recently, Vijay led a $400m private equity fund focused on healthcare investments across sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Omar A. Ibrahimi

Board Observer

Dr Omar A. Ibrahimi is an internationally recognized dermatologist and is the founding Medical Director of the Connecticut Skin Institute. His clinical practice focuses on the surgical treatment of skin cancers and the use of lasers for birthmarks, scars and other complex conditions. He has served in leadership roles in several US medical societies in dermatology and aesthetic medicine and is frequently consulted by industry on the development of novel dermatologic therapeutics and devices. Omar heads a syndicate of successful and well-known US dermatologists who have invested in new pharmaceutical and device-based technologies in the dermatology space. He is a graduate of the MD-PhD program at NYU School of Medicine and completed his postgraduate dermatology residency training at Harvard Medical School.

Jun Katsura

Board Observer

Jun Katsura has more than 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and previously served in senior Executive Director roles at AstraZeneca, Japan and Merck Serono, Japan. Based on this experience, he evaluates the potential of new drug and medical device digital health enterprises and provides marketing strategy advice. Through his experience working at global headquarters in multi-national pharmaceutical companies, he possesses broad networks in the healthcare field not only in Japan, but also Europe, Israel, the US, and China, as well as high-quality marketing capabilities.

Simon Robb

Board Observer

Simon Robb is a Portfolio Manager for Maven Capital Partners, who are the mandated Equity Fund Manager for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. He has over 30 years’ experience working in the Financial Services sector and currently manages a number of investments in the Life Sciences and Medical Technology sectors, including Blueberry Therapeutics, with investments ranging from £150k through to £3.5m. In previous roles Simon has worked with some of the largest global multinationals, assisting in M&A transactions in the technology sectors.