Directors

Frank Armstrong

Independent Non-Executive Director

David Hallas

Chief Executive Officer

Joachim Hasenmaier

Independent Non-Executive Director

Tracey James

Independent non-Executive Director

Andrew Jones

Chairman

Christopher Wilks

Chief Financial Officer

Executive Leadership Team

Hafid Benchaoui

Head, Global Research & Development

Andrew Buglass

Business Unit Head, China and Japan

Seamus Long

Global Director, Operations

Ruth Mitchell

HR Director

Jordi Mora

Global Director, Technical Services

Piotr Postepski

Global Commercial and Corporate Development Director

Oscar Romero-Galindo

Head, Global Marketing

Set Yong

Head of Quality and Regulatory (Lifecycle)

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Frank Armstrong

Remuneration Committee Chairman
Appointed 1 May 2020
year of birth 1957

 

Frank is a medical doctor, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. He is currently Non-Executive Chair of Faron Pharmaceutical Oy (AIM), Non-­Executive Chair of BioCaptiva Limited, Non-Executive Chair of Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies Limited (BGT), Non-Executive Chair of Newcells Biotech Ltd, a Member of the Court of the University of Edinburgh, a Member of the Council and Trustee of the Royal College of Physicians and a Member of the Council and Trustee of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. He has previously held Non-Executive roles in listed companies with Summit Therapeutics (AIM and NASDAQ), Redx Pharma (AIM), Mereo Biopharma (AIM and NASDAQ) and Juniper Therapeutics (NASDAQ). He started his career at ICI Pharma/Zeneca Pharma before moving to Bayer AG where he became head of worldwide product development.

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David Hallas

Appointed 1 April 2022
year of birth 1964

 

David Hallas has over 30 years of experience in the animal health industry and is a qualified veterinarian. He was previously managing director of Sure Petcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Inc. providing digital based solutions to the companion animal sector with sales of over US$170m. Prior to this role, he was Associate Vice President of MSD Animal Health with full P&L responsibility for mid Europe which comprised a group of 7 European countries with a combined revenue of over US$450m; he has also held senior global, regional and business unit management roles in other animal health businesses within Merck, Schering Plough and Pfizer (now Zoetis) and lived and worked overseas including in the USA. David has substantial experience managing profitable growth through the introduction of new products, including vaccines, and successful merger and acquisition integrations.

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Joachim Hasenmaier

Appointed 12 february 2024
year of birth 1960

Joachim Hasenmaier is a highly experienced commercial leader with more than two decades in the international animal health industry. From 2001 to 2019, he held a variety of senior roles within the animal health division at Boehringer Ingelheim, concluding as member of the Board of Managing Directors responsible for the entire animal health division. During this time he led successful transformation initiatives including the integration of the former Sanofi animal health business Merial, spearheaded key product launches and supported rapid global growth and expansion. Dr. Hasenmaier has also served as Chairman of the Board at IMV Technologies since 2022 and as a Member of the Supervisory Boards of Invetx. He served on the Board of NASDAQ-listed Heska prior to its acquisition by Mars Petcare and also held senior positions at Hoechst Roussel Vet and McKinsey & Company. Dr. Hasenmaier is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and holds a PhD in Immunology from Ludwig-Maximillians University in Munich and an MBA from Northwestern University, USA.

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Tracey James

Audit Committee Chair
Appointed 1 December 2021
year of birth 1962

 

Tracey is a Chartered Accountant who has spent 26 years with Grant Thornton UK LLP, with the last 14 years as an Audit Partner. Tracey was a member of Grant Thornton’s Oversight Board and also served on the Audit & Risk and Pensions Committees. She was also previously Finance Director of Karl Storz Endoscopy Canada (1999-2000). Tracey is currently a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at specialist Engineering and Technology recruitment solutions business, Gattaca plc.

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Andrew Jones

Nomination Committee Chairman
Appointed 1 December 2017
year of birth 1960

 

Andrew has over 35 years commercial experience in the life science sector and has held a range of senior positions, including CEO Europe for Arysta Lifescience, CEO Phoqus Pharmaceuticals plc, Principal at Cap Gemini Ernst and Young. He started his career in ICI Agrochemicals (now Syngenta AG). He is also Non-Executive Chairman at Fargroup Limited a specialist horticultural distribution business supplying the UK market and Non-Executive Chairman of RootWave (Ubiqutek Ltd) a UK company developing technology and products that use electricity to kill weeds to provide a sustainable alternative to chemical herbicides. He currently runs his own consulting Company, Trioza Limited, which provides strategic advice to the animal health, crop protection and seeds sectors. Andrew has a BSc degree and PhD in agricultural biology. Andrew brings substantial strategic marketing and business development experience and skills to the business.

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Christopher Wilks

Appointed 3 September 2019
year of birth 1964

 

Chris has considerable experience in the fields of both finance and science. Chris began his career after graduating from the University of Durham with a BSc in Applied Physics and Electronics. Initially he joined Marconi Space Systems, applying his degree skills to the design of power systems for spacecraft. He then trained as a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Young (now EY), and after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in audit, he became a manager in its Corporate Finance team. Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He is also currently a Non-Executive Director (and Chair of the Audit Committee) of Kromek Group plc, an AIM listed worldwide supplier of radiation detection technology and was previously Chief Financial Officer of Signum Technology Limited, a leading group of specialised engineering businesses operating in the safety and critical service flow control sector, which he co-founded. Prior to Signum Technology, Chris was Chief Financial Officer at Sondex plc, a specialist developer of technical instruments for the oil and gas industry.

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Hafid Benchaoui

Hafid is a veterinarian with a PhD in veterinary pharmacology gained from the University of Glasgow Veterinary School. After one year of postdoctoral fellowship, he joined the animal health industry in 1996, first at Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis) where he worked for 11 years within the Veterinary Medicine Research and Development (VMRD) division. He then joined Novartis Animal Health (NAH) in Switzerland where he held positions of increasing responsibility, including a 2.5-year secondment in the US as head of NAH’s New Product Development department based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Upon returning from the US, Hafid became head of NAH’s Global R&D Site Network overseeing R&D operations across multiple research centres located in Switzerland, Australia and the US. After integration of NAH in Elanco’s corporation, Hafid took on the role of Head of Global Research and Technology Acquisitions at Elanco. In 2016, he decided to join ECO Animal Health to build a multi-disciplinary R&D team focused on the discovery and development of vaccines and biologics. He has since been driving the development of ECO’s R&D pipeline with the double mission of addressing important livestock infectious disease targets and diversifying the company’s product portfolio.

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Andrew Buglass

Andrew has over 25 years’ experience in the animal health industry, focussing on production animals. He spent 13 years at Merial (now part of Boehringer Ingelheim) in a variety of sales, marketing and sales management roles in UK and ROI before joining ECO in 2011. After roles as European Sales Director then Global Sales Director, in 2019 he moved to his current position as Business Unit head: China & Japan where he is responsible for creation and implementation of ECO’s strategy in the number one global pig and poultry market with full P&L responsibility, reporting to CEO David Hallas. He is lead Board Director for Zhejiang ECO-BIOK joint venture and ECO Animal Health Japan.

Andrew grew up on a mixed livestock farm in the south of Scotland and qualified from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc Hons in Agricultural Science. He is a board director of the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH).

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Seamus Long

Seamus has over 30 years’ experience in Supply Chain/Operational roles. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Munster Technological University (Cork, Ireland) in 1991. In 1992, Seamus moved to the United Kingdom joining Eterna Lighting Limited (a manufacturer and supplier of utility lighting to UK & IRELAND), taking up a role within the technical team which encompassed activities from product development through to launch. He moved to roles of increasing responsibility during his time there, including most recently as Operations Manager, with overall responsibility for UK in-house manufacturing and contract manufacturing within the UK and overseas.

Seamus joined ECO Animal Health in September 2001, and has been the Global Director of Operations since May 2019. In this role, Seamus is responsible for leading the Operations team and the development and implementation of strategic global plans for the efficient production and distribution of the company’s products in line with the overall ECO Animal Health marketing and sales plans.

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Ruth Mitchell

Ruth Mitchell has over 20 years’ experience as a HR professional. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team reporting into the Board, she has strategic and operational responsibilities. She has built HR functions from scratch, developing and implementing People Strategies and HR Policy and Process across organisations. Ruth is a HR Generalist with experience of working in the private and charity sector in both standalone and department leadership roles. She has supported and advised Boards and line managers on the full employee life cycle and has particular strengths in the area of employee engagement and culture development. Ruth is a Chemistry graduate from Southampton University and a qualified Level 7 CIPD professional.

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Jordi Mora

Jordi graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Barcelona in 1992 and one year later completed an MSc in Pig Production at the University of Aberdeen. From 1995, Jordi worked for Hypor moving to roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Global Production Manager. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the technical, commercial, operations and management field of pig breeding.

Jordi Mora has been the Global Technical Services Director for ECO Animal Health since 2014. In this role, he is responsible for leading the Technical Service team to add value to the Company’s portfolio by providing technical support to customers and distributors.

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Piotr Postepski

Piotr Postepski leads global commercial operations and corporate development at ECO Animal Health. He joined ECO in 2013 and served in roles with increasing responsibility throughout his career, including Director of EMEA, Director of South and Southeast Asia, and Global Sales Director. Before ECO, Piotr led Novartis Animal Health in Poland and held various marketing positions at Pfizer. During his career, Piotr worked in the livestock and companion animals sectors. Piotr worked in the US, Europe, and Asia. He developed a very good understanding of the global animal health business and expertise in sales and strategy.

Piotr is a qualified Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and chartered marketer (CIM). He studied business at the Warsaw School of Economics and the London Business School.

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Oscar Romero-Galindo

Oscar graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. He started his career in the Animal Health industry in 1989 at The Upjohn Company (now part of Zoetis) and held different positions of increasing responsibility in both Mexico and LATAM.

Oscar moved to the USA in 2005 as the Group Director of the Swine Business Unit for Pfizer (Zoetis) then led the Global New Products Marketing efforts for swine vaccines. He later worked for Norbrook as Vice President of North America and LATAM before joining ECO AH in 2019 as Head of Global Marketing.

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Set Yong

Set Hui Yong is passionate about culture of quality and driving compliant yet pragmatic solutions. She is Malaysian, graduated from the University of Nottingham, UK with a BPharm (Hons) and PhD. Set Hui Yong is a UK registered pharmacist and an eligible pharmaceutical qualified person with over 20 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry in managing Product Lifecycle and Quality Management Systems. She received her PhD in advanced drug delivery focusing on antibody targeted therapy for cancer treatment and diagnostics. She has been on various manufacturing licenses and pharmaceutical settings which includes NHS Clinical Trial Unit, Phase I Clinical Research Organisation supporting First-in-Man-Trials, Late phase Clinical Research Organisation, Commercial pharmaceutical organisation for both human and veterinary products, manufacturing of Specials and unlicensed medicines. She has extensive experience managing product lifecycle and certification of various dosage forms including solid (tablets, capsules, granules, powder), semi-solid (gel, cream, ointment) and liquid (sterile for injection and non-sterile oral/external use).

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