24th Mar 2009 07:00
Embargoed: 0700hrs 24 March 2009
Imperial Innovations Group plc
("Imperial Innovations" or the "Company")
Portfolio Company Nexeon Announces New CEO
Imperial Innovations (AIM:IVO), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, announces the appointment of Dr Scott Brown as CEO of Nexeon Ltd ("Nexeon"), one of Imperial Innovations' core portfolio companies.
The appointment comes less than one month after Imperial Innovations led a £10m investment round in Nexeon, which is making significant technical progress in proving the viability of its silicon anode technology. Imperial Innovations itself invested £4m in the round, lifting its shareholding to 38.5%.
Dr Scott Brown is the latest strengthening addition to the Nexeon team. Having held senior management roles at Cambridge Displays Technology Ltd ("CDT"), Sumation (a 50:50 Joint Venture company between CDT. and Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd) and Dow Corning, Scott brings a strong track record of intellectual property management and licensing. Scott has worked in the US and more recently Japan, where most of the world's leading electronics companies are based. He was a key member of the executive management team during CDT's NASDAQ IPO in December 2004 and their eventual acquisition by Sumitomo Chemical in September of 2007.
Imperial Innovations' retained Executive Search partner, Chris Reichhelm of Lancor, led the search for Nexeon and included shortlisted candidates from the US, Europe and Asia.
Nexeon was co founded by Imperial Innovations with Emeritus Professor Mino Green of Imperial College London's Electrical Engineering Department and spun out, together with Dr Paul Atherton, Executive Chairman, himself a proven entrepreneur. Other recent appointments at Nexeon have included Dr Bill Macklin and Ian McDonald. Dr Macklin joined as Chief Technical Officer and is an expert in the field of lithium-ion batteries, having published and patented extensively in the lithium-ion battery field. Mr McDonald is Engineering Director and has extensive experience of managing the design and build of lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities.
Susan Searle, Chief Executive of Imperial Innovations, commented
"Building high calibre management teams for our portfolio companies is a key element in Imperial Innovations' strategy to build world class technology businesses. Scott Brown is an excellent appointment to Nexeon, one of our most significant investments, at an exciting time in their development."
For further information please contact:
Imperial Innovations
Susan Searle, Chief Executive
Diana Crisp, PR Manager
Tel. +44 (0)20 7594 6589
M:Communications
Patrick d'Ancona or Ben Simons
Tel. +44 (0)20 7153 1540
JPMorgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations)
Steve Baldwin
Tel. +44(0)20 7588 2828
About Imperial Innovations
Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology commercialisation and investment companies. Founded in 1986 and admitted to the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in 2006, Imperial Innovations' access to early stage technology and intellectual property is unparalleled. Imperial Innovations' integrated commercialisation approach encompasses the identification of ideas, the protection of intellectual property, the development and licensing of technology and the formation, incubation and funding, through investment, of technology businesses.
Based at Imperial College, London, Imperial Innovations' portfolio of equity holdings in more than 80 companies spans across its four core areas of Healthcare, Engineering, Energy & Environment and Software & IT.
Companies in the portfolio include: Nexeon (lithium ion battery technology), Circassia (allergy therapeutics), Polytherics (drug development), Evo Electric (electric motor and generator solutions), Respivert (respiratory drug development), Quantasol (solar concentrators) and Inforsense (business analytics)
Imperial Innovations has already realised significant value from its investments to date including from a recent trade sale in December 2008 when Thiakis Limited, a company in which Imperial Innovations had a 23.7% stake, was sold for up to £100 million to US-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
About Nexeon
Nexeon is refining novel battery technology, based on silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, to enable greater energy storage. The company is based on the research of Emeritus Professor Mino Green at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London. Following early experiments at Imperial College London, the Company has been filing a sequence of patents covering a unique solution to the well known cycle-life problem with Silicon. The company has been operating in stealth mode for nearly 3 years while focussing on scaling up and optimising the technology. Nexeon has developed a number of proprietary processes and machines for producing the material and for making electrodes. Nexeon now has 12 patent families in progress worldwide, the first of which is granted and others which are now being published.
Nexeon will provide batches of lithium-ion cells for testing by companies which might wish to license this technology from it on a non-exclusive basis.
A pilot plant has been successfully designed, built, commissioned and tested and is now in operation, It is fully automated and instrumented and allows Nexeon to demonstrate a clear understanding of the costs and the path to full-scale manufacturing. www.nexeon.co.uk
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Imperial Innovations Group