DIRECTORS

David Evans, CA, Non-Executive Chairman

Aged 47, David Evans has considerable experience within the diagnostics industry. He is responsible for chairing the Board of Directors and also chairs the Audit Committee.

As Financial Director he was a key member of the team that floated Shield Diagnostics Limited in 1993 and was Chief Executive Officer responsible for the merger of Shield Diagnostics Group plc with Axis Biochemicals ASA of Norway in 1999 to create Axis-Shield plc. In addition to his role as Non-Executive Chairman of Omega, he is also Non-Executive Chairman of BBI Holdings plc and Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings plc, which are both AIM quoted medical diagnostic groups operating in different areas of the industry from Omega.

Andrew Shepherd, BSc.(Hons.), Chief Executive

Aged 52, Andrew Shepherd is the Founder and Managing Director of Omega Diagnostics Limited. He is responsible for corporate strategy, general management, sales and marketing and technical direction.  He has been involved in the medical diagnostics industry for the last 33 years.

He started his career in 1974 by holding technical positions at G.D. Searle Limited and then attended university, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. He then moved into a sales and marketing position at Cambridge Life Sciences plc in 1981, before establishing his first diagnostics company, Cambridge Biomedical Limited in 1982. In 1986 he moved to Scotland to join Bioscot Limited and shortly afterwards, established Omega.

Mr Shepherd used his technical experience and knowledge of exporting to oversee the growth of the export of Omega products to exceed £2 million per annum. Omega now exports to over 100 countries around the world, and he travels regularly to many of the countries in which Omega customers are based.

Mr Shepherd is an active member of a number of relevant trade associations and was a member of the Scottish Exports Forum, a body which reported to the Scottish Parliament to oversee and guide the export activity of Scottish Development International.

Mr Shepherd is also a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s (BMGF) Global Health Diagnostics Forum, which provides direct guidance to BMGF in advising on future investments in worldwide diagnostics programmes for developing countries.

Kieron Harbinson, FCCA, Finance Director

Aged 43, Kieron Harbinson joined Omega in August 2002 as Finance Director. He is responsible for finance, information technology, human resources and operations planning.

Mr Harbinson joined Scotia Holdings plc in 1984. He qualified as an accountant in 1991, and became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 1997. He was at the company for approximately 14 years, during which time he held various roles including Group Financial Controller and Chief Accountant. These roles enabled him to acquire a broad range of knowledge in a high growth technology company, and experience in corporate acquisitions, disposals and intellectual property matters. He also gained experience in various debt and equity transactions, and was involved in raising over £100 million for the company. He was also head of Tax and Treasury, responsible for a treasury programme of cash investments of over £50 million and management of currency exposures.

Mr Harbinson then joined Kymata Limited, a start up optoelectronics company as Finance Director. Over a period of 18 months, he was involved in raising approximately US$85 million of venture capital funding. He was responsible for implementing financial controls and accounting systems, over which time the company grew to over 200 employees by the time he left in 2000. The company was sold in 2001 to Alcatel for €134 million.

Before joining Omega, Mr Harbinson helped to establish a company called I-Genomics Limited, set up to exploit an opportunity licensing certain intellectual property from the University of Glasgow.

Michael Gurner, FCA, Non-Executive Director

Aged 63, Michael Gurner led the flotation of the Company on AIM as Chairman and Chief Executive. He is responsible for acting as the senior independent Non-Executive Director and is responsible for chairing the Remuneration Committee.  He has reviewed numerous potential acquisition candidates before the Company entered into the Acquisition Agreement.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1967, before embarking on a career in merchant banking with Keyser Ullmann, M&A with the Ryan Group of Companies and senior management, including as Managing Director of a fully Listed company, Continuous Stationery plc, an acquisitive business forms manufacturer between 1986 and 1991. During this time, he was responsible for acquisitions, including Prontaprint, the photographic print retail chain where he led the turn around of its performance in the ensuing 18 months.

Mr Gurner thereafter focused on turning around under-performing and ailing businesses, in association with Postern Executive Group Limited (“Postern”), a leading UK turnaround specialist which provided management teams for troubled companies. At Postern’s request, he joined the board of several companies which were successfully turned around. Those beyond rescue are mentioned in paragraphs 2.7.1.4 and 2.7.1.5 of Part VII of this document. Successful assignments include Starmin plc in July 1994 (raising finance by way of a rights issue of £1.76 million in a £5.78 million fund-raising) and PSB Holding Limited, a pumped power plant business owned by the National Grid Company plc, where he negotiated in conjunction with Kleinwort Benson the sale of the business to a US buyer (Mission Energy of California) for around £600 million when the original guide price was around £300 million.

Michael Walker, BSc,(Hons), PhD, Non-Executive Director

Aged 61, Michael Walker graduated in Biochemistry at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.  Dr Walker worked as a hospital biochemist in the National Health Service and carried out research on the involvement of steroid hormones in male infertility.  Dr Walker completed his PhD at the Department of Medicine, University of Glasgow in 1976 and later gained a marketing qualification from the Richard Ivey Business School in Canada.

Dr Walker also filled marketing and sales roles with Serono Diagnostics Limited in Switzerland.

Dr Walker founded Genesis in 1994 with the aim of introducing new Diagnostic test kits and reagents.  Dr Walker founded CNS in 2001 with the aim of providing food intolerance tests and other pathology services direct to both the medical industry and to patients.  CNS developed the UK’s first IgG food intolerance test which used finger prick blood sampling.