Board of Directors

Eddy Littler PhD

Executive Chairman

Eddy is an expert virologist with a career spanning over 40 years in both academia and industry. He has held senior positions in both the Wellcome Research Laboratories and GlaxoWellcome. In 2000, Eddy left GlaxoWellcome to join his first biotech company becoming Senior Director at Medivir AB where he led the UK site and also Lead Discovery in both Sweden and the UK. At Medivir, he was part of several out-licensing deals with a total value of over $360m. He led the team that developed Olysio which was licensed to Janssen for the treatment of hepatitis C virus which had peak sales of over $10B.

Eddy became the Chief Executive Officer of Domainex in May 2008 where he helped develop the Company to become one of the UK’s leading drug discovery CROs. Under his leadership, Domainex also developed a pipeline of drugs aimed at inflammation and cancer.

In October 2016 Eddy joined ReViral, initially as CEO, leading a series B fund raise of $55m in June 2018. In 2019 he became the COO of ReViral as the Company moved into Phase 2 development. Eddy became Non-Chairman of Domainex in June 2020 and then Executive Chairman in August 2022.

Steve Harris

Deputy Chairman

Steve Harris is an experienced non-executive director with a range of private and public companies in the life sciences sector. His expertise lies in fundraising and IPOs, with extensive international pharmaceutical and biotech experience, focussing specifically on business development and licensing.

While Steve has gained experience working for US companies such as Eli Lilly and Merck Sharp, the majority of his career has been with UK-based pharmaceutical companies, or their subsidiaries, all at an early stage of development. Steve has been involved in multiple fund raisings and three successful IPOs, and has extensive experience as a NED of AIM listed companies, fully listed companies and private companies.

Barry Knight

CFO and Company Secretary

Barry Knight is a Chartered Accountant with more than thirty years’ experience as Finance Director, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer with companies operating in the Life Sciences sector.

He first worked with Domainex in 2014 as a consultant and later joined the management team as part-time CFO and Company Secretary, returning to that role in 2019 after a brief spell as part-time CFO for Small Pharma, a London-based biotech. Since 2015, Barry has also been part-time CFO and Company Secretary for Edinburgh Molecular Imaging, a biotech company developing a molecular targeted systemic radiotherapy treatment.

After graduating from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Physics, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Josolyne Layton Bennett, a predecessor firm of Ernst & Young and then moved into commerce and industry, joining the head office of Cope Allman International plc, holding a number of finance roles and ultimately being appointed Group Chief Accountant in 1985.

In 1989 he made the move into Life Sciences, becoming Finance and Administration Director of KeyMed, one of the UK’s biggest suppliers of medical equipment, seeing it through ten years of significant growth before joining Trigen, a biotechnology start-up in the cardiovascular field, in 2000.

Barry has subsequently worked for two consultancies serving the Life Sciences sector, as Chief Operating Officer for Kinapse Ltd and as Finance Director for AIM-listed Fulcrum Pharma plc.

Prof. Laurence Pearl PhD

Non-Executive Director

Laurence Pearl is Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Sussex. His laboratory studies the structural biology of DNA repair, signal transduction and molecular chaperones. Laurence is also Head of the Division of Structural Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research.

Laurence began his research career at Birkbeck College working with Prof Sir Tom Blundell, and after postdoctoral research at the Institute of Cancer Research Laboratories in Sutton, started his own laboratory at UCL in 1989, becoming Professor of Structural Biology in 1996. He joined the Institute of Cancer Research Chester Beatty Laboratories in Chelsea in 1999 where he became Professor of Crystallography and Chairman of the Section of Structural Biology. From 2009-2017 he was Head of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex, relocating his laboratory to the MRC Genome Damage and Stability Centre, where he now holds the position of Professor of Structural Biology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, an elected member of EMBO, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and a scientific advisor to Abingworth.

Judith Hills PhD

Non-executive Director

Judith Hills PhD, has served on the Board of Domainex since 2016. Judith retired from full-time involvement in the sector in 2018, however, previously, Judith was Senior Vice President at Ipsen Biopharm Ltd., where she led a skilled team responsible for Corporate Business Development. Judith brought to Ipsen Biopharm Ltd., her skills and experience from over 30 years within the industry, to align deal activity to the company strategy, playing an integral part in the execution of many transformational deals, including M&A and marketed compound acquisitions as well as development stage medicines partnerships. Prior to her role with Ipsen, Judith worked for many years to add value to medicines pipelines and marketed products, while holding senior level VP roles leading Business Development, Strategic Alliances and Global Search teams within GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol Myers Squibb. 

Judith started her career in industry after completing her PhD in Neuroscience at University College London and postdoctoral research positions also within the University of London, UK. Judith holds a BSc honours degree in Pharmacology from Aberdeen University.

As a well-known BD professional, Judith has a deep understanding of the basic science, disease landscape, therapeutic intervention strategies, and the current regulatory and competitor environment. 

Frank Bury, MBA

Non-executive Director

Frank Bury is managing partner at Bury Fitzwilliam-Lay & Partners LLP (BFLAP), a UK-based venture capital partnership focused on early stage technology investment. BFLAP has backed a number of successful UK tech companies that have gone onto a listing including Bango plc, Financial Objects and Servicepower Technologies plc.

In addition to Domainex Ltd, Frank is a director of Smartlogic Holdings, I-Solutions Global and TS Lombard. Prior to founding BFLAP Frank spent 10 years in the City; first at Cazenove & Co and then at Sloane Robinson Investment Management where he was a partner. Frank has an MBA from IESE in Barcelona.

Edward Beckett

Non-Executive Director

Edward Beckett is managing partner at Longbow Capital LLP, a leading private investor in UK based emerging companies across the life-sciences and well-being sectors.  

With over 20 years of experience investing in and building early stage technology ventures, Edward has been directly involved with the portfolio management and financing of more than 25 companies, including spin-outs from large corporates, universities and other research based organisations, taking more than half of them through to IPOs and trade sales.

Longbow Capital is focussed on supporting the scaling-up of its portfolio companies to become leaders in their respective categories.  Edward is a non-executive director on the Boards of Domainex Ltd and iPulse Ltd, representing Longbow’s private client investors and co-investors.