LEADERSHIP

Led by an experienced Board of Directors and experts from both hVIVO (part of Open Orphan plc) and PepTcell.

Kimbell Duncan Director

Mr. Duncan is an investment professional with over 30 years’ experience in trading, principal transactions and early-stage venture investing.  He began his career as a trader at Goldman Sachs in 1987, moving to Nomura, Credit Suisse and Mizuho, leading teams conducting principal investment activities.  He has been an active angel investor since 2006, focusing on equity investments in promising, early-stage biotechnology companies, including Infirst Healthcare Limited, Pharmajet Ltd, Peptcell Limited and Curemark LLC.  He sits on the board of each of his portfolio companies.  He co-founded Rush Foundation in 2010, a charity focused on funding innovative solutions in the fight against the HIV pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.  Kim holds a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Yale University, a MS in Biotechnology from Georgetown University and a MS in Pharmacology and Physiology from Georgetown University.

Cathal Friel Director

Cathal is 56 years-old, and is an entrepreneur, starting work at 16 years due to his father’s untimely illness he went on to complete his education at night classes and got an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1990. He spent the following five years lecturing part time in International Marketing and Business Planning at the University of Ulster, while running his own new technology services business. In 2001 he was part of the team who successfully established Merrion Stockbrokers in Dublin and in 2007 he founded Raglan Capital. Cathal is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Open Orphan plc (now named hVIVO plc) which IPO’d on the London and Dublin stock exchanges in June In 2021, Open Orphan completed a spin-out of one of their assets to form Poolbeg Pharma plc. Cathal is Chairman of Poolbeg Pharma, an infectious disease company, with a capital light model. He also co-founded Amryt Pharma plc in 2015 along with Joe Wiley, which is listed on the London stock exchange since 2016 and which listed on Nasdaq in July 2020. Prior to Amryt, Cathal founded Fastnet Oil & Gas plc in 2011 which he IPO’d on the London stock exchange. Cathal was a finalist in the International category as part of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.

Richard Huston Director

Bsc Hons
Richard has over 30 years’ experience in the Financial Industry and in that time has held Executive roles in Asia, Europe and the UK. He has been involved in start-ups and small businesses in both the UK and the US and is currently MD of PepTcell, a pharmaceutical company and holds several related Directorships in Biotech.

Professor Brendan Buckley Director

Brendan Buckley is co-founder and non-executive Director at hVIVO plc. Brendan was Chief Medical Officer of ICON plc until 2017, prior to which he co-founded Firecrest Clinical, a company which focused on improving the performance of clinical trial sites and in turn sold it ICON in 2011. While in ICON Brendan served as a member of ICON plc’s Executive Leadership Team and was actively involved in M&A targeting, assessment and diligence. Amedical graduate of University College Cork (UCC) and a doctoral graduate in Biochemistry of Oxford University, Brendan has over 30 years’ experience in clinical research. He was a Director of the Health Products Regulatory Authority of Ireland between 2004 and 2011 and was a member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) from 2000-2003.