Management

Chris Blackwell was appointed Chief Executive of Vectura in February 2004. He joined the Group in 2002 as Chief Operations Officer and Executive Director.

Chris trained as a scientist. Having achieved a first class honours degree in Applied Biology, Chris pursued a PhD at the University of Bath, where in 1988 he completed his doctorate investigating free radicals and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias in heart disease. Throughout both degrees, Chris was sponsored by ICI Pharmaceuticals (now Astra Zeneca), and worked in the fields of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Prior to Vectura he was Director of Drug Development and an Executive Director at Scotia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which he joined in 1998. Chris was previously at Hoffmann-La Roche, where he was UK Director, Global Project Management, and before that, at Glaxo in the department of Clinical Pharmacology.

Anne Hyland was appointed Chief Financial Officer, Company Secretary and Executive Director of Vectura in March 2002. Prior to this she was a Director of Corporate Finance at Celltech Group plc. Other positions held at Celltech included Group Financial Controller and Finance Director for the Celltech/Medeva UK Division. She joined Celltech following the merger with Medeva plc, where she was Finance Director for the UK Division.

Previously she was the Medeva Group Financial Controller where, through a period of rapid growth, she was responsible for managing treasury, tax, internal and external reporting, and acquisition and disposal activity. Anne joined Medeva from KPMG, London, where she was an audit manager and gained exposure to corporate finance, advisory and due diligence work.

She has a Business Studies degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ireland and a Fellow of the Institute of Taxation, Ireland and is a member of the Primary Markets Group of the London Stock Exchange.  She is also a Trustee of Sustrans, the charity that has created the National Cycle Network.  

Trevor Phillips joined Vectura as President of US operations in January 2010. Prior to joining Vectura he gained extensive international experience in organisational leadership, management and pharmaceutical drug development in a number of senior roles, including positions as CEO and President of the US publicly held company, Critical Therapeutics Inc, following six years as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer. During his time at Critical, Trevor was involved in setting up commercial partnerships, programme in-licensing and out-licensing, managing drug development, including NDA filings, manufacturing and mergers and acquisitions. Between 1986 and 2002 Trevor held a number of management positions at Sepracor, Scotia Pharmaceuticals, Accenture, GlaxoWellcome Research and Development and Simbec Research Limited.

Trevor trained as a research scientist at University of Reading, obtaining a PhD in microbial biochemistry from the University of Wales in 1986. He was awarded an MBA from Henley Management College in 1997.

Tim Wright joined Vectura as Commercial Director in March 2005. Prior to joining Vectura he gained a breadth of experience in business development and licensing in a number of senior roles at BTG plc, latterly as Vice President Business Development and Licensing, Oncology, and as Director of Business Development at DevCo Pharmaceuticals, where he was successful in building a portfolio of neuroscience development candidates.

Between 1986 and 1999 Tim held a number of management positions at GlaxoWellcome Research and Development, both in Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Operations, and in project management at Simbec Research Limited.

Tim trained as a research scientist at London University, obtaining a PhD in neuroendocrinology in 1987. He was awarded an MBA from London Business School’s Executive Programme in 1994.

Stephen Eason joined Vectura in 2002 as Director of Device Development.  He has overall responsibility for the development of Vectura’s inhaler technologies and leads a team of device engineers and designers based in Cambridge. Stephen joined Vectura from Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL), where in 1999 he had set up and led CCL’s Drug Delivery Devices Group.  The team carried out significant product developments in the areas of inhalation, injection and infusion products.  Before specialising in drug delivery, Stephen managed a number of healthcare, telecoms and consumer product developments for clients in Europe and the US.

Prior to joining CCL, Stephen worked in design and development for Baxter Healthcare.  He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.