James Culverwell was previously Director of European Healthcare Research at ABN AMRO (1982-1994) and from 1994-2005 was First Vice-President Merrill Lynch Equity Research; Head of European Healthcare Research; and Global Coordinator Pharmaceutical Research. Together with Nigel Barnes, he was consistently ranked in the leading investor opinion polls throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He played a significant role in European Pharmaceutical corporate activity, including the mergers of SmithKline with Beecham, Astra with Zeneca, and Aventis with Sanofi. He was also involved in a number of successful IPOs and listings including Alcon, Biocompatibles, Serono and Wellcome.

Nigel Barnes was previously a Director of Pharmaceutical research at ABN AMRO (1987-1994) and First Vice President Merrill Lynch European Healthcare Equity Research (1994-2004). He has a PhD in pharmacology and has previously worked in the research laboratories of ICI Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca) and Glaxo. In addition, he gained pharmaceutical Sales & Marketing experience at Glaxo Laboratories in the UK. Nigel has a comprehensive knowledge of the healthcare industry and, working with James Culverwell, played an active role in a number of the leading corporate transactions, including a number of the major European sector mergers, IPO’s and capital raises.

Tony Brampton was previously Managing Director, Corporate Finance at JPMorgan Cazenove, with overall responsibility for healthcare. Tony has an MSc in Biochemistry from Oxford and joined the City in the early 1980s as a pharmaceutical analyst and a contemporary of Nigel and James. During the period 1994-2006 he was actively involved in numerous IPOs, follow on fund raisings, and mergers and acquisitions, including the GlaxoSmithKline merger, UCB’s acquisition of Celltech, AstraZeneca’s acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology and Imperial Innovations’ private placement and subsequent flotation.