Scottish pharma venture names senior life sciences exec as chairman

A Scottish pharma business led by the former boss of Borders-based ProStrakan has appointed a senior life sciences executive as its chairman.

Gordon Cameron OBE, who has 25 years’ board-level experience in private equity and listed businesses, takes up the non-executive chair role at Kelso Pharma.

The business is headed by Tom Stratford, previously chief executive of Kyowa Kirin International (KKI), the European and US business arm of Japan’s Kyowa Kirin, which purchased ProStrakan Group in 2011.

Stratford said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Gordon to the Kelso Pharma team as our non-executive chairman. He brings extensive industry experience, as well as a deep understanding of growing businesses under private equity ownership.

“Gordon’s experience, skillset and knowledge demonstrate the calibre of people we’re looking to work with at Kelso Pharma. We aim to provide medicines that improve the lives of patients on a daily basis and we look forward to working with Gordon as we continue to grow the business.”

Cameron added: “I’m very excited to be joining Kelso Pharma at a busy and pivotal time for the business as they look to grow, both organically and by acquisition.

“With the aim of providing value-added medicines to the market in an ethical manner with people at the heart of decision making aligns with my own values and I’m looking forward to playing a part in driving Kelso Pharma’s growth.”

Cameron has spent the last 15 years as chief financial officer with Quotient Sciences, a private equity-backed international contract development and manufacturing organisation. During his time there, revenues grew 15-fold.