Trevor Nicholls
Trevor has over 40 years of experience building international businesses in the life science industry around translational research and the commercialisation of breakthrough technologies in the academic and pharmaceutical research sectors. He was Chief Executive of CAB International (CABI), a not-for-profit inter-governmental organisation owned by 48 member countries. Under Trevor’s leadership, CABI established itself as a leader in developing global capacity to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. The organisation has a strategic focus on providing knowledge to enable poor rural farmers in the developing world to grow more, raise quality and increase income.
In addition to his position at CABI, Trevor is a non-executive director of Conidia Biosciences, A CABI spin-out company as well as external non-executive roles at Iota Sciences Ltd, a spin-out from the University of Oxford plus two UK AIM-listed companies – as a director of hVivo plc a leading clinical research company specialising in respiratory disease research and also Chair of Avacta Group plc a company using patented technology to engineer novel binding proteins for use in research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Previously he was non-executive Chair of Oxford Nanopore Technologies a private company developing transformational, disruptive technology for direct, electronic detection and analysis of single molecules, particularly in the field of DNA sequencing.
He has also served as Chief Commercial Officer of Affymetrix Inc, based in California and, prior to that, CEO of Oxagen, a UK biotech company where he raised £50m over three venture-backed financing rounds and secured major commercial partnerships and academic collaborations. From 1991 – 1997, Trevor was Commercial Director of the Life Science business at Amersham International (now part of GE Healthcare) where he led the launch of several innovative technologies for genomics, sequencing and drug discovery.
Trevor holds a DPhil and BA in Biochemistry as well as diplomas from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the UK Institute of Directors
Trevor was a member of the Advisory Board from 2014 to 2021