Oxonica - Management Team

Richard Farleigh
B Comm (honours 1)
NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Richard studied economics and mathematics, before working at the Australian Central Bank and then becoming an investment banker and hedge fund manager. In 1994 Richard branched out on his own as a private backer of emerging businesses. He has since backed over 50 young, mostly UK-based technology companies, including Amino Technologies, ARC International, Celoxica, ClearSpeed Technology, Cmed Group, Radiation Watch, Wolfson Microelectronics, Green Chemicals – and Oxonica. Richard is author of the investment book, Taming the Lion, and has appeared in the BBC series Dragon’s Den. He joined Oxonica in July 2007.

Kevin Matthews
MA DPhil CChem CSi MRSC MACS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Kevin was appointed Chief Executive Officier of Oxonica plc in April 2001. He joined Oxonica from Rhodia Consumer Specialties Limited and previously held roles with Albright and Wilson UK Limited and ICI Chemicals & Polymers. He has a D Phil in organic chemistry. He is a member of the Nominations Committee. Kevin is also a non-executive director of Elementis plc.

Richard Clarke
BSc FCA MBA
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: A chartered accountant, Richard has held a number of senior financial positions in the aerospace, electronics, optics and semiconductor industries. This has included acting as finance director for an international group of electro-optics companies listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, and as CFO of a London-listed semiconductor materials company.

Dr Michael Natan
Ph.D.
PRESIDENT, OXONICA INC & CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER: As CTO of Oxonica, Dr. Michael Natan guides technical development of the company’s product portfolio for the diagnostics and security markets.

Formerly CEO and Founder of NanoPlex Technologies, Inc., Michael has unparalleled experience in metal nanoparticle technology with more than 60 published papers and several issued patents to his name. Prior to NanoPlex, Michael served as Chief Technical Officer of SurroMed, Inc, where he led the creation and development of its integrated platform for comprehensive phenotyping and biomarker discovery.

Michael has also held positions as a full professor of chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University, and founder of Auspex Technologies, LLC, a technology holding company acquired by SurroMed. During his tenure at Penn State, he received a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Fellowship, and research funding from NIH, NSF, DARPA/ONR, EPA and USDA. Michael received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Yale University, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from M.I.T., and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University.

Dr Barry Park
BSc PhD CChem FRSC FIMMM
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, OXONICA & BUSINESS DIRECTOR, OXONICA MATERIALS: Following his PhD, Barry spent three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioengineering Unit at the University of Strathclyde working on development of novel biomaterials.

In 1977, Barry joined Raychem Ltd’s R&D division and was responsible for development of curable adhesives, piezoelectric devices, battery separators and polymeric electrolytes. From 1989 through 1990, he was seconded to Raychem’s Materials Division in the US prior to joining Materials Division in the UK as Technical Manager where he remained until 1999. From 1999 to 2000, Barry operated as a consultant and conducted business and market studies for Applied Market Information Ltd and also managed the nascent sunscreen project in Oxonica.

Barry joined Oxonica in 2001 and currently has responsibility for IP and regulatory issues as well as sourcing and supply of Oxonica’s sunscreen and fuel additive products. Barry is a co-author of 20 papers and is an inventor on over 30 patent applications filed in commercially important countries leading to over 120 patents granted worldwide.