Former student becomes company chairman (From Warrington Guardian)

Former student becomes company chairman

A FORMER student of Sir John Deane's has become chairman of a pharmaceutical company in America, which develops new cancer chemotherapies.

Robert Ashley, who lived in Snowdon Street, Barnton, also became chief executive officer and president of the privately owned AmpliMed Corporation in Tuscan, Arizona.

He has had a 24-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, encompassing large and small companies.

After getting exceptional A level grades at Sir John Deane's one year early, he graduated with a masters degree in biochemistry from Oxford University.

He then joined Amersham International plc, where he served in numerous roles and was responsible for the launch of several new radio pharmaceutical products.

From there he joined Squibb Corporation and was responsible for launching new contrast agents in various radiological specialties with a primary emphasis on improved cancer diagnosis.

In 1994 Mr. Ashley joined a venture-backed start-up company, CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc, as its second full-time employee, rising to vice president of commercial development as the company grew into a profitable, publicly-traded specialty pharmaceutical company with 160 employees and sales in excess of $50million.

He is the author of several scientific papers and is the inventor of several granted and pending patents.

Dr Evan M Hersh, founding member of the AmpliMed team said: "We are extremely pleased Mr Ashley has agreed to join AmpliMed as the company's chief executive officer.

"His experience of the complexities of pharmaceutical development and marketing is exactly what AmpliMed needs to coordinate the company's activities and to develop its promising new drugs as rapidly as possible."

Robert said: "This is the most exciting time in the growth of a pharmaceutical company and I am honoured to be granted the opportunity to lead such a renowned group of scientists and clinicians in the development of new therapeutics for the treatment of cancer."