Board Attendee
Paul Sandland: Acting Chief Financial Officer
Committee Membership: Not applicable.
Skills and Experience: Paul qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 2005. He spent five years post qualification at KPMG, during which time he was part of the team which advised the Group on its acquisition of VetXX in 2008.
Background: Paul was appointed as Acting Chief Financial Officer on 3 April 2019. Prior to this he was the Dechra Veterinary Products EU Finance Director. He was the Group Financial Controller of Dechra and Finance Director of Dechra Laboratory Services and Dechra Specialist Laboratories between January 2010 and April 2015.
External Appointments: None.
Pets:
Senior Executive Team
The Senior Executive Team comprises the Executive Directors, the Acting Chief Financial Officer and the following:
Dr Susan Longhofer: Business Development and Regulatory Affairs Group Director
Background: Susan joined the Group in June 2005. A veterinarian with 30 years' experience in the industry, she leads a team of approximately 50 staff around the globe responsible for registering new products and maintaining the registrations of our existing products. She has assumed the Business Development role in 2015, searching out new products to continue to fill our product development pipeline.
Prior to joining Dechra, Susan worked for Virbac Corporation, Heska Corporation and Merck Research Laboratories. Susan holds an MS and a DVM in Veterinary Science and is a Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She is located in Kansas, USA.
Pets:
Mike Eldred: President North America
Background: Mike joined Dechra in 2004 and is responsible for Dechra Veterinary Products' North American business. Mike has more than 20 years' experience in the animal health sector, having held senior positions in business development, sales and operations at Virbac Corporation, Fort Dodge Animal Health and Sanofi Animal Health.
As our first employee in the USA, he has built the USA and Canadian team to 181 people and has grown sales revenue to £177.8 million. Mike has also been involved in several commercial agreements and acquisitions for the Group including Pharmaderm, DermaPet, Phycox Animal Health and Putney. Mike has a BA in Business, and an MBA. He is located in Kansas, USA.
Pets:
Giles Coley: Dechra Veterinary Products International Group Director
Background: Giles joined Dechra in January 1999 as sales and marketing manager for Arnolds Veterinary Products having previously spent 14 years primarily involved in dairy farming business consultancy. During his time at Dechra he has been responsible for the launch and market development of our leading brand Vetoryl, as well as a number of our other key brands. Giles has also been an integral member of the teams that ensured fast and smooth integrations of several of our acquisitions, and in particular as lead in the integration of Apex in 2016 and Venco in 2019.
In his role of Dechra Veterinary Products International Group Director, his responsibilities are extremely varied and involve managing and growing our existing business through ANZ and Latin American business and distribution partners, as well as further developing our Dechra International strategy through product registrations and market development. Giles has a BSc degree in Agricultural Technology. He is located in Sansaw, UK.
Pets:
Katy Clough: Group HR Director
Background: Katy joined Dechra in April 2014 from AppSense Ltd where she was the Vice President of HR Europe and Rest of the World. With over 15 years operating at Director level within Software, Health, Travel and Finance industries, Katy brings with her a wealth of HR expertise gained in both blue chip corporates and smaller entrepreneurial companies.
She has strong international, leadership and M&A experience and has taken responsibility for driving the global people agenda for the Dechra Group. She is located at Head Office, Northwich, UK.
Pets: None
Simon Francis: Group Manufacturing and Supply Director
Background: Simon joined Dechra in 2019. He has over 20 years' experience in various senior roles within the Pharmaceutical industry. After completing a chemistry degree, Simon started his career with Bayer in Quality Control. He had a variety of UK pharmaceutical roles within quality, supply chain, production and operations, before moving to China as the site head for Boehringer Ingelheim. He then moved to their German headquarters, subsequently joining Sandoz (Novartis) as a Managing Director covering three German generic manufacturing sites. Latterly, Simon was the Head of Strategy Global Solids and a Novartis Senior Executive Team member based in Switzerland, responsible for product strategy, supply chain and product lifecycle across 35 manufacturing sites.
Simon is responsible for our manufacturing sites in Europe and the USA.
He is located at Head Office, Northwich, UK.
Pets:
Melanie Hall: Company Secretary
Committee Membership: Disclosure
Background: Melanie joined Dechra in January 2010 as the Assistant Company Secretary, and was promoted to Deputy Company Secretary in May 2015 and Company Secretary in July 2017. Prior to joining Dechra she has gained over 25 years' experience in various company secretarial roles including at GKN plc, TRW Automotive Inc and Pendragon PLC. Melanie is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. She is located at Head Office, Northwich, UK.
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