- Mr. Chris Cargill nominated for appointment as new Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer
- Mr. Shinichi Tamura will become Chairman of the Board, as a Director
- Ms. Miwa Seki nominated for appointment as new External Director
- Dr. Malcolm Weir and Dr. Tim Tasker to retire from Executive Officer roles and become ongoing consultants to the Company
- Several internal team members nominated for appointment to new Executive Officer roles in Japan and the UK
TOKYO, Japan and CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Feb. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sosei Group Corporation (“the Company”; TSE: 4565), today announces that its Board of Directors approved the nomination of candidates for its Representative Executive Officer, Directors and Executive Officers as stated below. The appointments are expected to be ratified officially, subject to the passing of resolutions to be made at the 32nd Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, scheduled to be held on 24 March 2022, and the subsequent Board of Directors meeting.
Shinichi Tamura, President and CEO of Sosei Heptares, said: “Succession planning is vital for the long-term growth and sustainability of any business. This is particularly important in the pharmaceutical industry, where the time between discovery and commercialization of new products can often be over a decade. As we plan for the future of Sosei Heptares, Malcolm Weir, Tim Tasker and I decided that now is the right time to hand over management of the business to the Company’s next generation of leaders. On behalf of the Board, I would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to Malcolm and Tim, who have made a tremendous contribution over the years to build Sosei Heptares into a global discovery and early development powerhouse. I am confident that the new executive team, led by Chris Cargill as President and CEO, will successfully drive the Company through the next stage of its evolution by successfully executing on our strategy to become a valued global business, accelerating the development of much needed medicines for patients, and generating sustainable returns for our shareholders.
“In addition, I am delighted to welcome Ms. Miwa Seki as a candidate to become a new Board member. I am confident that her unique experience, combining significant business expertise with a strong focus on ESG initiatives, will be extremely valuable for our future growth and development.”
1. Change in Representative Executive Officer
(1) Reason for the Change
The appointment of Mr. Cargill, an internal candidate, as President and CEO, will provide stability and continuity for the Company to (i) build on existing organic initiatives to accelerate the evolution of the operating model to support the discovery and development of new medicines for patients living with high unmet medical need; and to (ii) execute on strategic growth initiatives and corporate actions aimed at creating and delivering value for shareholders and stakeholders alike. Importantly, Mr. Cargill is a strong advocate for continuous innovation and for the responsibility of management to safeguard the Company’s status as one of Japan’s established biotech leaders.
(2) Content of the Change
| New position | Name | Current position |
| Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer | Chris Cargill | Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer |
| Chairman of the Board | Shinichi Tamura | Chairman of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer |
(3) Effective date of the Change
24 March 2022
| Curriculum Vitae of new Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO (Mr. Cargill) | |
| Feb. 2009 | Joined KPMG |
| Apr. 2010 | Joined J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. |
| Sep. 2017 | Head of IR and Corporate Communication, the Company |
| Jun. 2018 | Interim CFO, the Company |
| Jun. 2018 | Director, Sosei R&D Ltd. |
| Nov. 2018 | Executive Officer and Executive Vice President, CFO, the Company |
| Jan. 2019 | Director, Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. (to the present) |
| Apr. 2021 | Executive Officer, COO, CFO, the Company |
| Sep. 2021 | Executive Officer, CFO (to the present) |
2. Change of Directors
(1) Reason for the Change
The appointment of Mr. Cargill, an internal candidate, as Director is related to his concurrent nomination as candidate for Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO, effective as of 24 March 2022 – details are outlined above.
The appointment of Ms. Seki, an external candidate, as External Director, will enhance the supervisory function of the Board of Directors by leveraging her deep expertise, leadership, and global entrepreneurship in tech-enabled sustainable investing, with the aim of enhancing our overall approach to integrating and embedding ESG throughout the Group. Importantly, Ms. Seki is also one of Japan’s most skilled finance executives, with over 20 years’ experience across investment banking, equity capital markets, asset management, and most recently venture capital.
(2) Content of the Change
| New position | Name | Current position |
| Director | Chris Cargill | Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer |
| External Director | Miwa Seki | - |
(3) Effective date of the Change
24 March 2022
| Curriculum Vitae of new External Director (Ms. Seki) | |
| Apr. 1988 | Joined DENTSU INC. |
| Apr. 1989 | Joined Smith Barney |
| Sep. 1993 | Joined Morgan Stanley |
| Feb. 1997 | Joined Clay Finlay Limited |
| Jan. 2003 | General Manager, Tokyo Branch, Clay Finlay Limited |
| Apr. 2015 | Associate Professor, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Kyorin University |
| Jun. 2018 | External Director, World Co., Ltd. (to the present) |
| Jun. 2020 | External Director, Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. (to the present) |
| Apr. 2021 | Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Kyorin University (to the present (scheduled to retire at the end of March 2022)) |
| May 2021 | General Partner, MPower Partners Fund (to the present) |
3. Change of Executive Officers
(1) Reason for the Change
The appointment of Mr. Hironoshin Nomura, an internal candidate, as Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, provides stability and continuity with respect to capital management and capital allocation, strategic corporate actions, and the provision of investor relations and corporate communications activities to shareholders and stakeholders, both in Japan and internationally. Prior to joining Sosei Heptares, Mr. Nomura was one of the most experienced and respected research analysts with a focus on the Japanese biotechnology sector, enabling him to translate complex scientific concepts into investor-friendly insights.
The appointment of Mr. Kieran Johnson, an internal candidate, as Executive Officer and Chief Accounting Officer, provides stability and continuity with respect to the complex technical accounting environment that the Company operates in globally, as well as ensuring effective monitoring of investments, treasury management, financial controls, and broader risk management. Importantly, Mr. Johnson is experienced at realizing business process improvements which will be important in delivering changes as the Company evolves for the future.
The appointment of Dr. Matt Barnes, an internal candidate, as Executive Officer and President of Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. provides stability and continuity to build on existing organic initiatives to accelerate the evolution of Heptares Therapeutics as an agile R&D organization and support the discovery and development of new medicines for patients living with high unmet medical need. Importantly, Dr. Barnes will prioritize the implementation of an integrated translational medicine-led approach to be embedded across the Company’s drug discovery and early development functions.
(2) Content of the Change
| New position | Name | Current position |
| Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer | Hironoshin Nomura | Senior Vice President, IR & Corporate Strategy Department |
| Executive Officer, Chief Accounting Officer | Kieran Johnson | Senior Vice President, Group Financial Controller, Finance & Procurement |
| Executive Officer, President of Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. | Matt Barnes | Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery, Head of R&D Portfolio Management |
(3) Effective date of the Change
24 March 2022
| Curriculum Vitae of new Executive Officer (Mr. Nomura) | |
| Apr. 2009 | Joined Mitsubishi Research Institute |
| Jan. 2015 | Joined Mizuho Securities |
| Sep. 2020 | Senior Vice President, IR & Corporate Strategy, the Company (to the present) |
| Curriculum Vitae of new Executive Officer (Mr. Johnson) | |
| Jan. 1992 | Joined KPMG (UK) |
| Oct. 2002 | Founded Amberley Consulting |
| Apr. 2004 | Joined GSK (UK) |
| Sep. 2017 | Senior Vice President, Group Financial Controller, the Company (to the present) |
| Jan. 2019 | Director, Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. (to the present) |
| May. 2019 | Director, MiNA (Holdings) Ltd. (to the present) |
| Curriculum Vitae of new Executive Officer (Dr. Barnes) | |
| Mar. 1998 | Joined Celltech R&D (now UCB) |
| Jan. 2003 | Joined Takeda Pharmaceuticals [formerly Paradigm Therapeutics] |
| Aug. 2016 | Joined Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. |
| Jan. 2022 | Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery, Head of R&D Portfolio Management, the Company (to the present) |
4. New Management Team (to be appointed)
(1) Directors
Shinichi Tamura, Chairman of the Board
Chris Cargill, Representative Executive Officer
Tomohiro Tohyama, External Director
Kuniaki Kaga, External Director
David Roblin, External Director
Noriaki Nagai, External Director
Rolf Soderstrom, External Director
Miwa Seki, External Director
(2) Executive Officers
Chris Cargill, Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer
Hironoshin Nomura, Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer
Kieran Johnson, Executive Officer, Chief Accounting Officer
Kazuhiko Yoshizumi, Executive Officer, Chief Compliance Office
Matt Barnes, Executive Officer, President of Heptares Therapeutics Ltd.
Tadayoshi Yasui, Executive Officer, Representative Director and President, Sosei Co. Ltd.
About Sosei Heptares
We are an international biopharmaceutical group focused on the discovery and early development of new medicines originating from our proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR® technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. We are advancing a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, gastroenterology and inflammatory diseases.
We have established partnerships with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and multiple emerging technology companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Biohaven, Genentech (Roche), GSK, Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda and Verily. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with corporate and R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK.
“Sosei Heptares” is the corporate brand and trademark of Sosei Group Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). Sosei, Heptares, the logo and StaR® are trademarks of Sosei Group companies.
For more information, please visit https://soseiheptares.com/
LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco
Enquiries:
Sosei Heptares – Media and Investor Relations
Hironoshin Nomura, SVP Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy
+81 (0)3 6679 2178 | Hironoshin.Nomura@SoseiHeptares.com
Shinichiro Nishishita, VP Investor Relations, Head of Regulatory Disclosures
+81 (0)3 5210 3399 | IR@SoseiHeptares.com
Citigate Dewe Rogerson (for Japanese Media)
Yas Fukuda
+81 (0)3 4360 9234 | Yas.Fukuda@citigatedewerogerson.com
MEDiSTRAVA Consulting (for International Media)
Mark Swallow, David Dible, Eleanor Perkin
+44 (0)203 928 6900| SoseiHeptares@medistrava.com
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei Group Corporation’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
