The Team – Carus Animal Health

Takaaki Takai

President, Kyoritsu Seiyaku Corporation & Director, Carus

Experience:

Takaaki is a charismatic figure who started Calmic Japan Limited, a joint venture with Rentokil Initial PLC UK, in 1969 and rapidly grew this into a successful business which employs 700 people with an annual sales turnover of £97 million. In 2011, Takaaki became the President of Kyoritsu Seiyaku Co. Ltd. Established in 1955, with 600 employees and a turnover of £310 million, Kyoritsu Seiyaku Co. Ltd is the number one animal health company in Japan and ranked eleventh globally. He values relationships with people and has an extensive network in multiple sectors which he uses to strengthen business development opportunities. Takaaki has a driven leadership style that is focused on achieving targets.

Personal: He is a huge rugby fan. Attending the Brighton Community Stadium on 20th September 2015, he cheered the Japanese National Team on with a strong belief of victory when no one believed it possible they could beat South Africa!

Ron Long

Chairman & CEO

Experience: Ron brings a wealth of experience from the Life Science and Pharmaceutical industry and sits on the Board of a number of companies. Ron began his career working for the Wellcome Foundation PLC for 22 years culminating in a number of Divisional Director and Managing Director appointments. These included serving on the Board of Coopers Animal Health, a top five global health company created following a merger between Wellcome and ICI’s veterinary businesses. The company’s Japanese partner was Kyoritsu Seiyaku.

Ron went on to join Amersham PLC as a Board member from 1990 to 2001, holding a number of senior roles including CEO of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and Executive Vice Chairman of the Group.

Since leaving Amersham, Ron has held a range of Executive and Non-Executive roles with various Life Science Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic companies in the UK and Sweden. Ron is currently Chairman of Better All Round Ltd, Chairman and CEO of Euro-Diagnostica AB and Executive Chairman of Sky Medical Technology Ltd. Ron was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA in March 2010.

Personal: In rare moments when he is not working, Ron spends most of his spare time with his family. He enjoys music (playing the guitar and piano), gardening and the occasional spot of fishing.

Jolian Howell

Chief Commercial Officer

Experience: Jolian Howell is commercial director at Carus Animal Health. He has over 20 years’ experience in the animal health sector with several leading companies including MSD, Zoetis, Pfizer, Novartis and Leo in a variety of commercial positions both in the UK and the EU.

Jolian began his career in animal health as a sales representative, then moved into marketing to manage the Rimadyl (Carprofen) brand. Following the creation of a central European function at Pfizer, Jolian relocated to Paris to take on the newly created role of European Brand Team Leader, launching both Cerenia and Trocoxil across the EU region.

Since 2007 he has led teams at a European level and been a member of the European Business Unit leadership team. This involved working in a variety of European marketing and strategic planning positions across multiple species sectors, to bring new medicines from clinical trial development to a pre-launch, and subsequently to full commercial launch. In 2010 he led the integration process between the Pfizer and Fort Dodge equine business units. This involved supporting local countries to develop operational teams and establish a business unit portfolio through new product development, phase IV planning, geographic expansion and licensing.

Following a return to the UK in 2013, Jolian led the marketing and technical team that oversaw the launch of Bravecto, a novel innovation in the ectoparasiticide sector. To further broaden his healthcare experience, he entered the human health dental sector with Simplyhealth leading the marketing team for Denplan.

Carus focuses on developing an innovation led portfolio and novel life science technology platforms for application in the animal health sector. Jolian is looking forward to shaping this strategy and partnering with organisations to achieve these goals.

Personal: With four children he has a busy home life keeping the peace but when he does find the time enjoys cross country and water sports.

Etsuko Hosaka

Finance & Administration Manager

Experience: Etsuko has 20 years’ experience working in the pharmaceutical industry, initially in Japan for Amersham K.K. before moving to the UK headquarters in 1996 to manage the liaison office for the JV between Sumitomo Chemical and Amersham International PLC, (latterly GE Healthcare).

Etsuko has held various roles both in commercial and manufacturing operations, including business development, in-licensing, business intelligence, strategic development and quality management in the global supply chain – working with major manufacturing sites in the UK, Norway and North America for product supply into the Japanese market. Etsuko left GE Healthcare Ltd in 2009, taking up a consultancy role to manage pharmaceutical product supply, GMP quality management and auditing for her Japanese client, Nihon Medi-Physics Co. Ltd.

Personal: Married with two sons, Etsuko has various interests outside work including devoting a considerable amount of time to her role as PSA Vice Chair of the Japanese Saturday School in London.

Greg Firth BVetMed, CertVOphthal, PhD, MRCVS

Veterinary Advisor

Experience: Greg is a veterinary surgeon with experience in both first and second opinion practice. He graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1992 and was appointed House Surgeon at Glasgow University Veterinary School. Following his return to London as a Wellcome Trust Veterinary Clinical Training Scholar, he was awarded a PhD and went on to work as a molecular biologist for Nycomed Amersham PLC.

Greg subsequently returned to a clinical career path, initially working in mixed general practice before founding a companion animal practice, of which he remains a director.

Personal: When not working, Greg enjoys spending time with his family, exploring the natural charms of the Peak District National Park and playing sport and music.

Keiko Hattori

Non-executive director

Experience: Keiko brings a rich experience from the Life Science and Pharmaceutical industry. She began her career working for Hoffman la Roche in Japan and then moved to a Swedish pharmaceutical and life science company Pharmacia, which later merged with Amersham and was acquired by GE Healthcare. Keiko held various marketing/commercial and management roles in those companies.

Since leaving GE Healthcare, Keiko has been employed in a range of management positions in international life science companies covering the genomics, proteomics and transomics product portfolio.

Personal: Married with one son, Keiko enjoys gardening and occasional travel.

Howard Wilder

Non-executive director

Experience: Howard Wilder is an entrepreneur and Chartered Director, plus an animal health specialist. With more than 30 years’ experience in industry, he has held sales, marketing, strategy formulation and general management roles in local and multi-national pharmaceutical and agribusinesses, predominantly in the B2B and B2C veterinary sector.

In the first half of his career he was engaged both in the UK and overseas in blue chip big pharma companies such as Dow Agriculture, Duphar, Solvay, American Cyanamid and Fort Dodge. He held responsibilities for new product development and procurement, as well as for establishing Europe and Asia-wide distribution and marketing strategies. He has also played a key role in merger and acquisition activities and for developing integration strategies for global marketing and distribution post purchase. He has run businesses of a scale up to $50 million including those with the complexity of production facilities and multiple national organisations.

He founded Genitrix in 1997 and grew it from scratch into a top 20 UK veterinary pharmaceutical company which was exited via a trade sale to Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC in December 2010. An award-winning board director and chairman, he was elected twice to serve as Chairman of NOAH, the industry association for the vet pharma industry. He is now investing in private limited companies on his own account, providing strategic advice and using his Chartered Director qualification to help various organisations to develop effective boards and winning strategies. Howard was part of teams that achieved very successful exits in Lintbells and Slate Hall Veterinary Practice.

Awards: 2006 Animal Pharm Awards Informa Winner Outstanding Contribution by SME
2009 IoD Director of the Year

Personal: Howard lives in Horsham, West Sussex, has two successful adult daughters and is a keen scuba diver and yachtsman.