Adrian Rawcliffe to Succeed James Noble as Adaptimmune Chief Executive Officer
June 27 2019 - 8:00AM
Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq:ADAP) today announced
that Adrian Rawcliffe, currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of
the Company, will succeed James Noble as Chief Executive Officer
(CEO). This transition will occur when James retires from his
executive duties and transitions to a non-executive director role
on the Company’s Board on September 1, 2019. Adrian will join the
Board of Directors from the same date.
“Following James’ request early last year, the Board has been
planning for leadership succession. Today, I am pleased to announce
Adrian’s appointment, following a rigorous global selection
process,” said David Mott, Adaptimmune’s Chairman of the Board. “We
were very fortunate to have Adrian as a candidate, not only given
his role as CFO, covering a wide range of responsibilities from
manufacturing to information management, but also his previous
experiences at GSK. I want to thank James for his leadership,
energy and drive, which has delivered the Company’s science,
current pipeline, manufacturing expertise, and strong teams. Based
on these strengths, Adrian will now lead the Company towards
commercialization.”
“I am delighted and privileged to have been chosen to succeed
James as CEO. Since I joined Adaptimmune, I have been intimately
involved in building the Company working alongside the Executive
Committee and the Board. The opportunity for cell therapy to
transform the lives of cancer patients is profound. Over the next
two months, I will work with James and the other Company leaders to
ensure a smooth handover. I am excited about the future and look
forward to delivering rapidly the promises of our investigational
therapies, focussing on SPEARHEAD-1, our next-gen trial, and
advancing our allogeneic platform” said Adrian Rawcliffe.
James Noble said: “Over the past 20 years leading Adaptimmune
and its predecessor company Avidex, I am proud to have built
technologies, teams and partnerships to create strong R&D
platforms and a rich pipeline. Now that the Company is about to
start SPEARHEAD-1 and our first next-gen trial, it is the right
time to hand over the CEO role to someone to lead Adaptimmune’s
next phase towards delivering our first approved product to
patients. Having worked with Adrian over the past four and a
half years, I have confidence that he is the best person to do
this. I look forward to continuing being involved in the next steps
of the Company’s journey, as a non-executive Board member.”
The Company has started a global search for a new CFO, which
will be the subject of a separate announcement.
Since he joined Adaptimmune as Chief Financial Officer in March
2015, Adrian has led the Company’s financial strategy and
operations, as well as investor relations, corporate
communications, manufacturing and supply chain, product
development, information management and facilities. He currently
serves as a non‑executive director of WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ:
WVE). Before joining Adaptimmune, he held various senior roles at
GSK, after joining the pharmaceutical company in 1988. His most
recent role at GSK was Senior Vice President, Finance of the North
American Pharmaceuticals business. Other roles at GSK included
Senior Vice President Worldwide Business Development and R&D
Finance, where he was responsible for all business development and
finance activities for GSK’s Pharmaceuticals R&D business and
Managing Partner and President of SR One Ltd, GSK’s venture‑capital
business. Adrian qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and
holds a B.Sc. degree in Natural Sciences from the University of
Durham, U.K.
After co-founding the Company, James Noble has served as
Adaptimmune’s full-time Chief Executive Officer since March 2014,
and part-time CEO from July 2008 to March 2014. During the same
period, between July 2008 and March 2014, Mr. Noble was also CEO of
Immunocore. He has 30 years of experience in the biotech industry.
He has held numerous non-executive director positions, including at
CuraGen Corporation, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford
GlycoSciences plc, MediGene AG, and Advanced Medical Solutions plc.
He is also Deputy Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:
GWPH). He qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse
and spent seven years at the investment bank Kleinwort Benson
Limited, where he became a director in 1990. He then joined British
Biotech plc as Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1997. He was
previously Chief Executive Officer of Avidex Limited, a privately
held biotechnology company that was Adaptimmune’s predecessor, from
2000 to 2006. He holds an M.A. from the University of Oxford.
About AdaptimmuneAdaptimmune is a
clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development
of novel cancer immunotherapy products for cancer patients. The
Company’s unique SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity
Receptor) T‑cell platform enables the engineering of T-cells to
target and destroy cancer across multiple solid tumors. For more
information, please visit http://www.adaptimmune.com.
Forward-Looking Statements AdaptimmuneThis
release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA). These
forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties.
Such risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements, and include, without limitation: the success, cost and
timing of our product development activities and clinical trials
and our ability to successfully advance our TCR therapeutic
candidates through the regulatory and commercialization processes.
For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could
cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed
in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to
our business in general, we refer you to our Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
on May 6, 2019, and our other SEC filings. The forward-looking
statements contained in this press release speak only as of the
date the statements were made and we do not undertake any
obligation to update such forward-looking statements to reflect
subsequent events or circumstances.
Media Relations:Sébastien Desprez – VP,
Communications and Investor RelationsT: +44 1235 430 583M: +44 7718
453 176 Sebastien.Desprez@adaptimmune.com
Investor Relations: Juli P. Miller, Ph.D. –
Senior Director, Investor RelationsT: +1 215 825 9310M: +1 215 460
8920Juli.Miller@adaptimmune.com
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