Management Team

Mrs Emery has over 25 years management experience in the pharmaceutical and related industries, including both large multinational organisations and small entrepreneurial companies. Before working with GW, Mrs Emery was Group Quality Assurance Manager with Scotia Holdings PLC, where she was responsible for the creation and management of quality systems, that were involved in inspections and approval by both US and UK Regulatory Authorities. Prior to that she was Technical Affairs Manager for Sterling-Winthrop, now Sanofi-Synthelabo, where she was responsible for a variety of technical projects, including preparation of drug master files and Regulatory support.

Mrs Emery has particular experience with other natural products developed for use as pharmaceuticals, acting as the Expert in European regulatory dossiers. She has also been involved in technical transfer of product from R & D through to commercial manufacturing and distribution.

Mrs Emery is a Qualified Person, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of TOPRA (The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs)

Dr Gibson more than 25 years experience in pharmaceutical development, working with new chemical entities and generic products, in both contract research and established pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to joining GW Pharmaceuticals Dr Gibson was Director of Scientific Services for Elan Transdermal Technologies (UK) Limited (previously Ethical Pharmaceuticals Ltd) and was responsible for a wide range of technical and scientific activities for the company, including formulation development, analytical services, bioanalysis and information technology services.

Dr Gibson was co-founder of Bioanalytical Research Ltd in 1985, a contract research company specialising in bioanalysis for the pharmaceutical industry, which was sold in 1990 to Ethical Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Manuel Loureda has 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. He graduated as a Chemical Engineer in 1982 and went on to perform three years post graduate research at the British Gas London Research Station working on acid gas removal and desorption.

He then joined US multinational Merck at the MSD manufacturing facility in the UK. During his 20 year career with Merck he held positions in process development, capital project management, engineering management, health & safety and manufacturing. He was a project director on a £50M new product introduction with project responsibility from conception through to process validation on a new state of the art facility.

Manuel joined Genzyme, now a Sanofi company, in 2006 as Operations director at their manufacturing facility near Cambridge. He was responsible for all Manufacturing on site, Facilities, Engineering as well as Environmental, Health & Safety. He led a £22M manufacturing facility expansion and new product introduction followed by a successful FDA inspection.

Ms Mead is an attorney specialising in health care law. For eleven years prior to joining GW, she served as Legal Counsel to the California Medical Association, the largest state medical association in the United States. During that time, she has developed special expertise in the legal and regulatory issues surrounding the production of medicinal cannabis. She has also prepared detailed guidelines on the subject for the medical profession, which have been widely adopted throughout that State and the US generally.

Prior to joining the California Medical Association, Ms Mead served as a litigator for Morrison & Foerster and was previously a law professor at Arizona State University College of Law.

Professor Pertwee joined GW as Director of Pharmacology in March 2002, and at the same time has retained his position as Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Aberdeen. He is one of the world's leading cannabinoid scientists, having researched this area for over 40 years, and is the author of over 240 publications. He is frequently consulted on the therapeutic potential of cannabis and cannabinoids by parliamentary committees and leading medical organisations and has been involved with both the 1998/99 Royal Pharmaceutical Society working party on cannabis and the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee investigation into cannabis.

It was collaborative research carried out in the early 1990s by Professor Pertwee and Professor Raphael Mechoulam in Jerusalem that first led to the discovery of endocannabinoids.

Professor Pertwee is Co-chair of the International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Subcommittee on Cannabinoid Receptors, has served as chairman of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM; 2005-2007), as President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS; 1997-1998; 2007-2008) and is currently ICRS International Secretary and a member of the IACM board of directors. He was the recipient of the 2002 Mechoulam Award “for his outstanding contributions to cannabinoid research” and in 2005 was recognised as an “ISI Highly Cited Researcher”. In December 2011, Professor Pertwee became the 19th recipient of the Wellcome Gold Medal. Of the previous recipients, three have been Nobel Prize winners and 16 have been Fellows of the Royal Society.

Before joining GW as its first employee in 1998, Dr Potter had twenty three years research experience as a horticulturalist and agronomist. He also managed security at the research laboratory complex of a multinational company for three years.

Dr Potter gained his research PhD in 2009 at Kings College London, having studied the pharmacognosy of Cannabis sativa. He is a Chartered Biologist, a Fellow of the Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Dr Potter regularly acts as an expert witness and police advisor on cannabis issues and, in recognition of this service, he received a commendation from ACPO (The Association of Chief Police Officers) in 2007 and 2009.

Mr Potts has been with GW Pharmaceuticals since 2001 and has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 13 years. Prior to joining GW, Mr Potts worked for Astra Zeneca in Sweden and then for Napp Pharmaceuticals in the UK as a Clinical Research Scientist where his principal responsibilities and achievements included the conception, design and execution of Phase II, III and IV Pan European clinical studies, investigating schedule II controlled drug substances.

Over the past 5 years, Mr Potts has successfully expanded GW Pharmaceuticals’ clinical operations into Mainland Europe, Eastern Europe, Canada and the USA. He has disease area experience in Pain, (neuropathic, inflammatory and nociceptive), Multiple Sclerosis, Asthma and Hypertension.

Mr Pritchard is a veteran of the Pharmaceutical industry, having joined Amersham International Plc in 1990 as part of their UK based clinical diagnostic and nuclear medicine imaging operations, and latterly for GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences.

More recently Mr Pritchard joins GW from Penn Pharmaceuticals where he acted as head of clinical, commercial and controlled drug Logistics operations for a broad range of clients, products and dosage forms from clinic to market. Previously, Mr Pritchard led Aseptic Manufacturing and Materials Management Operations within the industry and he has accumulated over 10 years’ experience operating as part of Pharmaceutical plant senior management teams.

Mr Pritchard has developed a significant GMP and GDP end-to-end supply background, both cool-chain and ambient, and is an experienced Lean and CI practitioner. Mr Pritchard’s prior achievements and leadership relating to scaled-up, commercial supply to an exacting and international client base will prove invaluable for GW’s future growth requirements.

Mr Pritchard joined GW in 2012 and has current responsibility for the global supply of commercial Sativex.

Dr Robson is an expert in the therapeutic potential of cannabis and cannabinoids. In 1996 he was commissioned by the Department of Health to carry out a critical review of the relevant scientific literature and in 1998 was called on to submit both written and verbal evidence to the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee investigation into cannabis.

Prior to joining the Group, Dr Robson was for the previous ten years, a Consultant Psychiatrist in Oxford and Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry. In addition to his duties as Director of the Cannabinoid Research Institute, Dr Robson retains the position of Senior Research Fellow in the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry.

Prior to taking up his psychiatry posts at Oxford, Dr Robson worked for eight years within the pharmaceutical industry, initially as a clinical pharmacologist and then as Director of Clinical Research at Wyeth Laboratories.

Mr. Schultz has close to 25 years of experience in investor relations, financial communications and media relations. Most recently, from January 2011 to March 2013, Mr. Schultz served as Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Amarin Corporation plc (Nasdaq: AMRN), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the commercialization and development of therapeutics to improve cardiovascular health.

Prior to Amarin, Mr. Schultz served as the Executive Director of the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts, a not-for-profit organization aimed at promoting artistic creativity and education. Mr. Schultz’s extensive investor relations and corporate communications experience also includes senior-level roles at Acusphere, Shareholder.com (a Nasdaq company), Manufacturer’s Services Limited, Wang Global and The ForeFront Group. Mr. Schultz holds a B.A. degree from St. Lawrence University.

Renuka has 22 years’ experience working in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Over these years Renuka has gained experience in Gastroenterology, Dermatology, Respiratory, Ophthalmology, Rheumatology and Multiple Sclerosis therapies. She has worked in partnership with the NHS over these years and been a part of the constant transition of the NHS gaining valuable insight into the relationship between Pharmaceutical companies and the NHS.

With her past sales and commercial experience Renuka joined GW this January to manage Sativex globally. This involves alliance management with our marketing partners’, key opinion leader development for the brand and development of the additional value of Sativex versus comparators for future indications. Renuka works closely with all our marketing partners for Sativex launches and to facilitate reimbursement across the globe.

Renuka is a member of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and works within their guidelines.

Mr Stott has been with GW since January 2001 and has twenty-two years experience in the pharmaceutical industry covering a wide range of new chemical entities, biotechnology products and plant-based medicines, with 20 years experience of clinical development and 14 years experience of preclinical development.

Prior to joining GW, Mr Stott was Clinical Programme Manager & International Project Leader at Napp Pharmaceuticals Ltd, leading an international joint development programme of a plant-based medicine. Prior to this he was Clinical Projects Manager at the plant medicines company Phytopharm plc between 1996 and 1999, managing clinical and pre-clinical development programmes. Mr Stott also has experience gained at Astra Zeneca, Schering-Plough Limited, Genzyme (UK) Limited and Alpha Therapeutics Limited (now Grupo Grifols).

Mrs Thompson has been with GW since 1999 and has worked in the field of management of regulatory affairs for over 14 years. Before joining GW she worked at Novartis as Manager, Regulatory Affairs, in the veterinary products division. Prior to entering the life sciences industry, Mrs Thompson worked for 10 years in the agricultural arena, including chairing working parties in Brussels and London involved in feed additive legislation.