Our Team
Dr Keith Phillips
Director of Executive Search
Keith
is a specialist in recruiting senior executives and key senior scientists and technologists
for the food and related industries. He has been in Executive Search since 1994
and has been recruiting scientists since co-founding CPL in 1987.
He joined the food industry in 1970 where he progressed from bench scientist
to Director of International Licensing with two blue chip food companies. Before
co-founding CPL, he worked as a regulatory affairs consultant in new food
ingredients. He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from Edinburgh University and
received additional training at the Henley Management College.
Dr Michael Lee
Managing Consultant
Michael joined CPL in 2006 and has worked
on a large number of executive placements as well as on acquisitions
in the animal feed sector and
biopesticides. He had 12 years of industrial
experience in a FMCG environment,
mainly in the areas of health and personal care, toiletries and household
cleaning. He held technical
roles in research and development, project management and technology
transfer as well as commercial
functions in finance, procurement and marketing at Gillette and Reckitt Benckiser. In addition,
Michael’s networks and knowledge of the fragrance industry further
augments CPL’s existing network
and expertise in the cosmetics industry.
Michael studied at the University of Hull, where he obtained a BSc in Chemistry and Computer Studies, and a PhD in Liquid Crystals Chemistry. He was also awarded a three year Postdoctoral appointment and worked on developing novel polymeric systems at the University of Manchester.
Dr Esther Hunter
Chief Operating Officer
Esther
has been the Company’s Chief Operating Officer since 2001 having worked
in both business development and executive search since joining CPL in 1997.
She has led and worked on ~80 business development projects for ~50 clients
in areas including food ingredients, health ingredients, biotechnology, agriculture
and fine chemicals. In executive search, she has worked successfully to place
senior people for global companies in the areas of food, OTC pharmaceuticals
and cosmetics.
Her areas of expertise include functional ingredients (prebiotics, probiotics, vitamins, rare sugars and fibres), food ingredients (hydrocolloids, sugars, sweeteners, dairy ingredients, antimicrobials, fruit preparations) animal feed additives (enzymes, acidifiers, probiotics) and biotechnology (DNA fingerprinting, enzymes from GMOs, biodegradable plastics, nematicidal genes) amongst others (polymer film technology, fine chemicals).
An experienced biochemist, Esther carried out academic and commercial research at Oxford University, Reading and Guy's Hospital in food allergy, immunology, endocrinology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology and oncology. She did her PhD at Reading in medical immunodiagnostics and her BSc in Biochemistry at Glasgow.
Dr Richard Tilbury
Principal Consultant
Richard
has been in Executive Search with CPL since 1995, specialising in scientists, technologists
and engineers for the healthcare and associated industries. Previously he gained
extensive recruitment experience as HR manager for blue-chip companies in the
food, speciality chemicals, agribusiness and healthcare sectors. This followed
a first career as a research microbiologist in the UK and overseas, leading
to consultancy roles. His BSc in Microbiology at the University of Bristol was
followed by a PhD at the University of Aston. He is a member of the Chartered
Institute of Personnel & Development and is a former Fellow of the Institute
of Food Science & Technology.
Mr Joe Hart
Principal Consultant
Joe
joined CPL in 2005 and over the past five years he has successfully carried out
a number of searches, with some focus on the animal feed sector, as well as
leading and participating in consultancy projects mainly in the area of health
and nutrition. Joe brought to CPL his 24 years of front-line experience in the food and
food ingredients industries. He held marketing and technical positions with
Danisco, Nestlé and Unigate where his areas included anti-microbials,
flavours, petfoods, fermented foods and others. Joe has brought
an experienced operational understanding of personnel requirements to CPL's Executive
Search work as well as candor and practical focus to CPL's consultancy projects.
Joe did post-graduate research at Reading's National Institute for Dairy Research and the University of Kent at Canterbury. His BSc in Applied Microbiology is from the University of East Anglia.
Mr Gurpreet Chand
Researcher
Gurpreet joined CPL in March 2010 and has a BA in Human Resource Management from the University of Westminster. He is currently a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is working towards gaining professional membership status. His previous experience in the financial sector will add a new dimension to the company and his formal training will help CPL work even closer in partnership with their clients.
Gurpreet is currently undertaking targeted training programmes to improve his technical knowledge of the ingredients business and is looking forward to leveraging this in new business opportunities.
Dr Steve Lisansky
Chief Executive of CPL Scientific Ltd
Steve has 37 years of experience in industrial business development and research.
He co-founded CPL in 1987 and now works mainly on consultancy. Around 300 projects
for 120 clients in the past 21 years have addressed many commercial and technical
challenges in ingredients for food, dietary supplements, feed, etc., as well
as in management consulting and biopesticides for crop protection. He has >220
publications as author and editor including private client reports,
multi-client studies, directories, books, journals, scientific papers, chapters,
articles and reviews plus lectures, seminars, and interviews.
He was previously founder and Director of Microbial Resources, a biotechnology
company in biopesticides
and before that was with Tate & Lyle Research. He did his academic work
at Brandeis (Biology) and Yale (Plant Physiology and Biochemistry). He has
qualifications and considerable experience, some of it good, in finance and
management.
Dr Robert Harwood
Principal Consultant
Robert
joined CPL in 2002 and has significantly strengthened the Company's capabilities
in financial and market analysis. He led CPL's team of industry experts in a
multi-million dollar distressed debt due diligence. He has worked on many 'healthy'
ingredients, acquisition strategies and trans-Atlantic partnerships covering
topics such as fine chemicals, soluble fibres, bulking agents and unusually,
intra-ocular lenses.
Before that Robert spent five years in new product development and regulatory
work with Inveresk (now Charles River), a contract research laboratory. Robert
did his MBA at Edinburgh University, his PhD at the University of Southampton
and his BSc at Imperial College, University of London.
Megha Chugh
Scientific Business Analyst
Megha joined the CPL Business Consultancy Team in November 2008 after being awarded an MSc in Biomedical Sciences with distinction from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, and a BSc in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University in Canada. She pursued a minor in Management while reading her BSc and has gained some understanding in the field of commerce. Her technical knowledge of microbiology enhances CPL’s knowledge in this field and her interest and enthusiasm in combining science and business contributes to her strength as a Scientific Business Analyst.
She comes from India and enjoys travelling, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. She is fluent in three South East Asian languages including Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil and is presently improving her French language skills.
Mr Graham Carson
Company Secretary and Finance Manager
Graham is Director and co-owner of Inca Financial Services, an Oxfordshire-based accountancy practice providing a range of finance functions to small businesses in the UK. Inca has been supporting CPL since 2007.
Prior to founding Inca in 2002, Graham was Managing Director of ORGA Card Systems (UK) Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of SIM cards for mobile phones and was additionally the ORGA Group’s global head of banking. He graduated with an honours degree in Electronic & Information Engineering from Queens University in Belfast.
In addition
In addition, CPL has access to the expertise of a number of well qualified and experienced professionals. Areas of expertise include pet food and animal feed, sugar esters, biological pesticides and entomology, immunology, biochemistry and marketing and market positioning.
