Oxford Biomedica boss announces retirement
John Dawson, the boss of Oxford Biomedica plc, the leading gene and cell therapy company which has been manufacturing the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19, has announced his intention to retire after more than 13 years of service.
The Board has initiated a formal search for a successor.
John Dawson was honoured with a CBE for services to UK Life Science as part of the Queen’s New Year Honours List this month.
John joined Oxford Biomedica’s board as a non-executive director in August 2008, and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in October 2008.
Prior to this he held senior management positions in the European operations of Cephalon Inc., including Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Development Europe.
While at Cephalon he led many deals building the European business to over 1,000 people and to a turnover of several hundred million US dollars.
In 2005, Mr Dawson led the $360 million acquisition of Zeneus by Cephalon. Prior to his time at Cephalon he was Director of Finance and Administration of Serono Laboratories (UK) Limited.
Oxford Biomedica is based across several locations in Oxfordshire, UK and employs more than 740 people. Last September the company announced that revenues increased by a record 139 per cent to £81.3 million.
