Our Team
Dr Keith Phillips
Director of Executive Search
Keith
is a specialist in recruiting key scientists and senior technical executives
for the food and related industries. He has been in executive search since 1994
and has been recruiting scientists since 1987.
He joined the food industry in 1970 where he progressed from a bench scientist
to Director of International Licensing with two blue chip food companies. Before
he co-founded 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 during that time. He has had 12 years of industrial experience in a FMCG environment,
mainly in the areas of health and personal care, toiletries and household cleaning. He has 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 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 bringing 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 of focus included anti-microbials,
flavours, petfoods, fermented foods and many others. Joe has brought even more
candor and practical focus to CPL's business development projects as well as
an intimate understanding of personnel requirements to CPL's executive search
work.
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.
Jemma Tibble
Research Analyst
Jemma joined CPL in 2008 as a part of the Executive Search team.
Prior to that, she completed a thesis on breast cancer prevention though nutritional modification.
This increased her knowledge of nutrition and gave her research experience and search skills.
Other areas of her experience are functional food claims and FSA procedures, food product
development including recipe design and sensory analysis, food safety issues and community nutrition.
Jemma recently obtained her BSc in Nutrition, Exercise and Health from Oxford Brookes University. Previously, she lived in Mexico City for four years and she speaks fluent Spanish.
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 'healthly'
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.
Dr Steve Lisansky
Chief Executive of CPL Scientific Ltd and Director of CPL Business Consultants
Steve
was a co-founder of CPL in 1987 and he works on consultancy projects in the
food and agriculture industries. He has been involved in ~250 projects for ~105
clients in the past 16 years, focussed mainly on business development, market
and technical issues in food ingredients and crop protection and production.
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 CEO of a start-up company in agricultural diagnostics, 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 and Yale.
Mr Graham Carson
Finance Manager
Graham Carson looks after the business, the office, the accounts and the staff.
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.
