Encorium Group, Inc. Appoints Sari Laitinen to Board of Directors
November 13 2009 - 4:05PM
PR Newswire (US)
BERWYN, Pa., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Encorium Group, Inc.
(NASDAQ:ENCO), a full service multinational clinical research
organization (CRO) conducting studies in over 30 countries for many
of the world's leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,
today announced that it has appointed Sari Laitinen to its Board of
Directors effective November 7, 2009. Ms. Laitinen, age 43, will
replace Jyrki Mattila who has rendered his resignation from the
Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Ms. Laitinen
will serve as the Chair of the Nominating Committee and as a member
of the Audit and Executive Compensation Committees. With the
appointment of Ms. Laitinen, Encorium's Board of Directors will
remain at five members and will consist of a majority of
independent directors. Ms. Laitinen is the founder and owner of
Sari Laitinen, US Legal Counsel, a US legal services firm
established in 2006 in Espoo, Finland. Prior to 2006, Ms. Laitinen
served as Director, US Capital Markets, with Ernst & Young Oy
based in Helsinki, Finland. From 1999 until 2004 Ms. Laitinen was
an attorney at the Corporate Finance and Securities Practice Group
of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. where she was elected
partner in 2002. Ms. Laitinen was also previously an attorney with
Lindquist & Vennum LLP in Minneapolis, MN and King &
Spalding in Atlanta, GA. Ms. Laitinen serves on the Board of
Directors of Oy Free Drop Innovations Ltd, a privately owned golf
technology company in Espoo, Finland. Ms. Laitinen received her
B.A. and Juris Doctor degrees from the Hamline University, St.
Paul, MN and is licensed to practice law in two US states. She has
also written a book on legal risk management in the US. "We are
very pleased to be able to add someone of Ms. Laitinen's caliber to
our Board of Directors," commented Dr. Kai Lindevall, executive
chairman. "Her significant legal and capital markets expertise both
in the US and in Finland will be very beneficial to Encorium and we
look forward to benefitting from her strategic counsel." Dr.
Lindevall added, "I would also like to thank Jyrki Matilla for his
years of service to Encorium." About Encorium Group, Inc. Encorium
Group, Inc. is a global clinical research organization specializing
in the design and management of complex clinical trials and Patient
Registries for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device
industries. The Company's mission is to provide its clients with
high quality, full-service support for their biopharmaceutical and
medical device development programs. Encorium offers therapeutic
expertise, experienced team management and advanced technologies.
The Company has drug and biologics development as well as clinical
trial experience across a wide variety of therapeutic areas such as
infectious diseases, cardiovascular, vaccines, oncology, diabetes
endocrinology/metabolism, gene therapy, immunology, neurology,
gastroenterology, dermatology, hepatology, women's health and
respiratory medicine. Encorium believes that its expertise in the
design of complex clinical trials, its therapeutic experience and
commitment to excellence, and its application of innovative
technologies, offer its clients a means to more quickly and cost
effectively move products through the clinical development process.
This press release contains forward-looking statements identified
by words such as "estimate," "project," "expect," "intend,"
"believe," "anticipate" and similar expressions. Those statements
involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ
materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: (i)
the risk that we may not have sufficient funds to operate our
business; (ii) our success in attracting new business and retaining
existing clients and projects; (iii) the size, duration and timing
of clinical trials we are currently managing may change
unexpectedly; (iv) the termination, delay or cancellation of
clinical trials we are currently managing could cause revenues and
cash-on-hand to decline unexpectedly; (v) the timing difference
between our receipt of contract milestone or scheduled payments and
our incurring costs to manage these trials; (vi) outsourcing trends
in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries;
(vii) the ability to maintain profit margins in a competitive
marketplace; (viii) our ability to attract and retain qualified
personnel; (ix) the sensitivity of our business to general economic
conditions; (x) other economic, competitive, governmental and
technological factors affecting our operations, markets, products,
services and prices; (xi) announced awards received from existing
and potential customers are not definitive until fully negotiated
contracts are executed by the parties; (xii) our backlog may not be
indicative of future results and may not generate the revenues
expected; and (xiii) uncertainties regarding the availability of
additional capital and continued listing of our common stock on
Nasdaq. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking
statement. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the
result of any revision of these forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances after the date they are made or to
reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Please refer to the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and the Company's
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2009
for a more complete discussion of factors which could cause our
actual results and financial position to change. DATASOURCE:
Encorium Group, Inc. CONTACT: Philip L. Calamia, Chief Financial
Officer, Encorium Group, Inc., +1-610-989-4208 Web Site:
http://www.encorium.com/
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