Ambrose Healthcare is delighted to announce the appointment of five exceptional senior leaders to its executive and operational team, marking a significant step forward in the company’s growth and strategic trajectory.
These appointments bring together deep expertise across finance, strategy, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, and intellectual property, further strengthening Ambrose’s capability to advance its rare disease pipeline and deliver long-term value to patients and investors.
Ali Elsley: Chief Financial Officer
Ali joins Ambrose as Chief Financial Officer, bringing extensive experience across biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in both private and public markets. Alongside her current role as CFO at Laverock Therapeutics, where she supported the successful raise of over £20 million in seed funding, Ali has held senior leadership positions at Acacia Pharma Group plc, focusing on equity fundraising, M&A, and financial operations.
Her earlier career includes a decade at PwC Cambridge specialising in early-stage biotech and pharma, including IPO advisory. Ali is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Clarissa Sowemimo-Coker: Chief Strategy Officer
Clarissa brings over 20 years of leadership experience spanning biotech, capital markets, and global corporates. As former CEO of Octavian Therapeutics, she led the company through a successful £16.5 million IPO on the London Stock Exchange and raised over £20 million in total funding.
At Ambrose, Clarissa will lead portfolio strategy and capital planning, aligning development priorities with investor strategy and long-term value creation.
Wendy Richings-Barrow: Regulatory Director
Wendy is a highly experienced regulatory leader with deep expertise across UK, EU, FDA and international markets. Her career spans both start-ups and established pharmaceutical organisations, with leadership roles in regulatory affairs, licensing, and lifecycle management.
She has been instrumental in new chemical entity registrations and orphan drug designations, and has served as a founding and board member of two pharmaceutical companies.
Janette Thomas: Director of Manufacturing Operations
Janette brings a distinguished career across pharmaceutical R&D, having served as CEO, Founder, Board Director and advisor across multiple biotech companies. Most recently CEO of Five Alarm Bio, she successfully secured pre-seed investment and grant funding while building a high-performing scientific team.
Her experience spans drug development, manufacturing, operations, fundraising and commercialisation across multiple therapeutic areas, including orphan indications.
Sally Curran: Chief of Intellectual Property
Sally joins as Chief of Intellectual Property with over 25 years of experience across big pharma, biotech and private practice. Most recently Vice President and Global Head of Pharma Patents at GSK, she led global patent strategy across marketed and pipeline assets.
Her previous roles include Head of IP at Bicycle Therapeutics and senior leadership positions at AstraZeneca, where she led IP strategy within the Respiratory & Immunology franchise.
Elevating Ambrose’s Leadership – and Its Mission
Notably, these appointments further strengthen Ambrose’s leadership with an exceptional cohort of senior women leaders, reflecting the company’s commitment to diversity, excellence, and inclusive leadership within the biotechnology sector.
Collectively, this expanded leadership team brings decades of experience in building, funding, and scaling biotech companies, significantly enhancing Ambrose’s ability to execute its strategy, advance its clinical-stage assets, and deliver innovative therapies to underserved rare disease patients.
These appointments position Ambrose Healthcare strongly for its next phase of growth, including the successful delivery of its current funding round and progression of its pipeline.
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