Management Team

Tim Sharpington, CEO

Tim Sharpington is Chief Executive Officer of Microbiotica. He has established a track record of leading, developing and executing company strategy, with experience in product development, fundraising, M&A and licensing.

Tim brings over 30 years’ experience in leadership roles in pharma, biotech and CROs across Europe and the US. Prior companies include Vectura; Arakis , where Tim led the development of AD237 before its successful out license to Novartis; ICON and Sequus, where he led the development of DOXIL, an oncology product which was granted accelerated approval for ovarian cancer. His most recent role was COO of Open Orphan (formerly hVIVO) from 2018-2020.

Tim started his career as a postgraduate researcher at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before working as Clinical Programme Manager at Pfizer. He has previously held Non-Executive Director positions at Ixico and Clinical Force.

Trevor Lawley, Co-founder and CSO

Trevor Lawley is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Microbiotica. He is also Faculty Group Leader of the Host-Microbiota Interactions Team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI), where his research uses advanced metagenomic sequencing and deep culturing to investigate the microbial communities contained on and within host organisms that are associated with health and a range of diseases and syndromes such as infections, autoimmunity, irritable bowel syndromes and cancer. He has pioneered many aspects of the bacteriotherapy concept where defined mixtures of bacteria are used to cure intestinal diseases linked to pathological imbalances in the intestinal microbiota.

Trevor began his research at WTSI in 2007 as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Microbial Pathogenesis group, having received a Royal Society Fellowship to start a new research programme in C. difficile epidemiology and pathogenesis. During this time, he has worked with a global consortium from over 25 institutes to assemble a comprehensive C. difficile culture collection, now housed within the Sanger Institute.

Prior to joining WTSI, Trevor held a Canadian Institutes of Health Research post-doctoral fellowship, working in the Laboratory of Professor Stanley Falkow and Dr Denise Monack at Stanford University, USA, where he studied the impact of antibiotic treatment on Salmonella disease and transmission.

Trevor gained his first degree from Acadia University, Canada and his PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada, where he pioneered the use of genomics to study the origins and spread of antibiotic resistance in infectious diseases. He received the Canadian Society of Microbiologists Graduate Student of the Year Award for this work. More recently, Trevor was recognised by the Peggy Lillis Foundation with their Innovator Award 2015 for his ground-breaking work on developing bacteriotherapy for C. difficile infections.

Stuart Gibson, CFO

Stuart Gibson is Chief Financial Officer of Microbiotica. He is an experienced finance executive with over 25 years’ experience at Board level, managing financial teams, fundraising, M&A and commercial transactions in VC – and Private Equity-backed life sciences and technology companies.

Stuart played a key role in the growth of Arakis from 2001 through to its sale in 2006 to the Japanese pharma company Sosei. Following the sale he was appointed to the Board of Sosei and raised further funding on the Tokyo stock market. His experience includes contract negotiations with customers and business partners globally including North Africa, Middle East and China.

Stuart is a qualified chartered accountant and is a guest lecturer on finance on several MPhil Biosciences courses at Cambridge University. In addition to his role at Microbiotica, Stuart works with small portfolio of early-stage life sciences providing financial and corporate management support.

Ron Carter, CMO

Ron Carter is Chief Medical Officer of Microbiotica. He is experienced in global clinical development strategies, with over 30 years’ experience in Europe, the US, Latin America, and Asia. Ron is responsible for progressing the clinical development of the Company’s therapeutics and expanding its clinical footprint beyond the UK.

Ron was previously Chief Medical Officer at Mologen and Indivumed, and earlier, MaaT Pharma, where he progressed full ecosystem microbiome restoration therapy to cancer patients. His most recent role was Interim Senior Medical Director at Seres Therapeutics.

Ron holds an MSc, in Preventive Medicine from Dresden University, Germany, a MD from Hamburg University, and an interdisciplinary Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from UC Berkeley, California.

Matthew Roe, CBO

Matthew Roe is Chief Business Officer for Microbiotica. He has more than 30 years commercial and management experience in the biotech and life science industries, encompassing licensing, alliance management, acquisition and divestment, and sales and marketing in Europe, the US and Asia.

Prior to working with Microbiotica he was SVP Category Marketing and executive team member at Abcam with responsibility for commercialisation of research antibodies, kits and assays, leading a global team managing target selection, quality, pricing, content, and partnering. Previously Matthew was CBO at Crescendo Biologics with responsibility for partnering and business strategy during their successful Series A fundraising.

Matthew worked at Genzyme for 23 years in business development, and sales and marketing during its transition from an entrepreneurial start-up to a leading multi-national biotechnology company. He negotiated and managed more than 30 technology agreements in the USA, Europe and Japan.

Matthew started his biopharmaceutical career in Regulatory Affairs at Glaxo and Wyeth, managing approval of antibiotics and oral contraceptives. He obtained his MBA from Warwick University and his BSc in Biochemistry from Brunel University.

Claire Birrell, VP Clinical Development

Claire Birrell is VP Clinical Development of Microbiotica, responsible for managing clinical development and operations activities in the company, including the clinical and regulatory oversight and execution of our clinical programs.

Claire has over 25 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with 16 of these spent in the clinical development of biologics. At the beginning of her career, Claire worked in clinical pharmacology at SmithKline Beecham and subsequently GSK, moving into conducting large observational studies in psychiatric medical genetics. She then gained biologics experience in Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc and MedImmune, leading the clinical development program for a number of novel antibodies in a variety of indications. This was followed by a move to VHsquared, working on oral antibodies for inflammatory bowel disease.

She holds a BSc in pharmacology and PhD in behavioural neuropharmacology from the University of Dundee, UK.

Ro Gardner, VP Operations and Company Secretary

Ro Gardner is VP Operations and Company Secretary for Microbiotica. She has particular expertise in operational management, business administration and marketing/communications, gained from working with organisations of varying sizes and across a range of industry sectors, including life sciences, telecommunications and software.

Ro’s most recent roles include 10 years as Head of Operations and Company Secretary for Actigen, four years as a consultant for MedImmune and six years as Chief Operating Officer at the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA), with responsibilities including corporate governance, human resources, finance, legal, insurance and facilities. Previously she spent eight years as Director of Corporate Communications for Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc (AstraZeneca plc), overseeing integrated financial communications through a number of significant corporate events, including NASDAQ listing, re-financing, High Court litigation, merger and acquisition.

Ro has a Bsc in Biochemistry from the University of York and a Diploma in Marketing. She is a non-Executive Director of One Nucleus, and Trustee of Uttlesford Community Action Network and a Member of the Institute of Directors, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Mat Robinson, SVP Research

Mat Robinson is SVP Research for Microbiotica, responsible for understanding how the microbes interact with and impact the host, as well as the company’s immuno-oncology program.

Mat brings more than 20 years’ research experience across academic and industry. Mat previously led pre-clinical programmes and teams in many disease areas in the Oncology and RIA (Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmune) departments at MedImmune/AstraZeneca. This included strategic roles in inflammatory bowel disease and immuno-oncology. In addition, he was part of the clinical develop teams for abrilumab, brakinumab and olcelumab, which delivered successful studies in ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and a number of oncology indications.

Mat holds a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath and PhD in Immunology from the University College London. His postdoctoral research at Cancer Research UK and National Institute of Medical Research focused on how the sensing of microbes by the innate immune cells triggered inflammation and instructed the adaptive immune response.

Adam Wilkinson, VP Pre-Clinical Development

Adam Wilkinson is VP Pre-Clinical Development at Microbiotica. Adam is responsible for managing Pre-Clinical Development activities in the company including novel manufacturing and analytical technologies for Microbiotica’s pipeline of live bacterial products. He has more than 16 years’ experience within the biotech and biopharmaceutical industry, including developing microbial engineering technologies, manufacturing process development and transfer, toxicology, project management and regulatory submissions.

Adam was previously Head of R&D at Phico Therapeutics and oversaw all activities from Discovery through to Clinical Development, including all aspects of CMC, PK/PD, regulatory submissions and established an extensive IP portfolio for novel live bacteriophage anti-bacterial products. He has latterly worked as a consultant supporting biotech start-ups and academic groups in establishing their pre-clinical development programs and in overseeing GMP manufacturing.

Adam holds a degree in Microbiology from the University of Reading and a PhD in Bacterial Quorum Sensing from the John Innes Centre, Norwich UK. He undertook post-doctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in yeast mRNA splicing mechanisms, and at University of East Anglia in DNA ligases.