Our People

OCT operates under a primary board, supplemented by a diverse network of advisors spanning science, regulation, and business.

Board of Directors

  • Julie Pomeroy became Chair in 2022 and is an experienced finance director of quoted and private companies. Julie graduated with an honours degree in physics from Birmingham University and is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Director. She also holds tax and treasury qualifications.

    Julie is a Non Executive Director at Dillistone Group Plc, an AIM quoted software business, where until September 2021 she was the group finance director and company secretary having joined in 2010. She was finance director of AIM quoted Biofutures International plc until July 2010 having joined in 2006.

    Julie was group finance director of Carter & Carter Group plc until October 2005, having joined in 2002 to help grow and float the business. She was previously chief financial officer of Weston Medical Group plc and was instrumental in its flotation in 2000. Prior to this, Julie worked at East Midlands Electricity plc as director of corporate finance. She also spent over 12 years as a non-executive director of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

  • Clarissa joined the Group’s executive team in December 2018 as General Counsel and Company Secretary, with ultimate responsibility for all legal aspects of the business as well as compliance and regulation, diversity and inclusion, people, culture and communications. She was appointed to the Group’s Board in February 2021 as Chief Operating Officer, taking responsibility for the operational side of the Group in addition to inputting on the Company’s strategic goals. Clarissa was instrumental in the Group’s listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in May 2021. In December 2022 Clarissa was appointed as Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis. In April 2023, Clarissa was appointed Chief Executive Officer on a permanent basis and is now responsible for the overall success of the Group.

    Clarissa worked for many years as a solicitor and commercial consultant to companies in the retail, telecoms, and pharmaceutical sectors. Following an early career with Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP in London, where she spent time seconded to a range of clients including London Underground Limited and All Saints Retail Limited, she held posts as senior in-house counsel in established corporations including Hutchison 3G UK Limited (Three) and Virgin Media Limited, a subsidiary of Liberty Global plc. She is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and is a student member of ICSA, The Chartered Governance Institute where she is studying for an advanced certificate in corporate governance. Clarissa is also a management coach and has delivered compliance training and management coaching to blue chip clients including Google LLC, Biogen Inc. and McDonald’s Corporation across the EMEA and APAC regions.

    Clarissa holds a BA in philosophy and literature from Warwick University and PGDL and LPC from BPP Law School in London. After completing her undergraduate degree, Clarissa spent two years working as a project manager in the residential construction industry before retraining as a solicitor. She is a Legal Geek mentor and an elected member of the Parochial Church Council of St John the Evangelist, Notting Hill.

  • Paul joined the Company in October 2022 from Panthera Biopartners Ltd, a clinical trials management company where he was the Finance Director and Company Secretary overseeing financial and treasury management, as well as assisting with mergers and acquisitions.

    Paul is a CIMA qualified accountant, with more than 25 years' UK and international financial experience including strategic management capabilities gained across a wide range of market sectors, with expertise extending to IT, HR and procurement. He has worked in a variety of organisations, from SMEs to quoted companies including as Finance Director of JOST UK Ltd, which was a UK subsidiary of JOST Werke AG, a company quoted on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

    Paul holds a BA in Accounting and Finance from Lancaster University and is also a chartered global management accountant.

  • Cheryl Dhillon is a senior executive with extensive experience in a variety of sectors and demonstrable achievements in business strategy and profit and loss account optimisation in start-up, growth phase and major transformations. The last 29 years have been focused on pharmaceuticals in companies including Ares Serono Group, Elan Corporation Plc, Lorantis Ltd and a tenure of over 15 years with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd; part of the Otsuka family of companies.

    Through her long career Cheryl has proven expertise in finance, procurement, IT, supply chain, quality, business development, corporate governance and alliance management; using these varied skills to maximise business value.

    Cheryl has a keen interest in the development of people and to this end has trained as an executive coach with the University of Strathclyde. Cheryl is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds an MBA from the University of Hertfordshire.

  • Dr Corn joined Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc as Chief Medical Officer in June 2023. He is an independent pharmaceuticals consultant who has held senior positions in both large and small pharma organisations. He is currently CMO at Nodenza Inc and Medical Adviser to Confo Therapeutics SA. He also serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Physiomics plc.

    He was formerly Chief Medical Officer International at Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and CMO at venture-backed companies EUSA Pharma Inc, acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc in 2012, and Zeneus Pharma Ltd, acquired by Cephalon Inc in 2005. Dr Corn has also played a key role in the successful conclusion of more than twenty regulatory approvals in the US and Europe and is the author of more than forty scientific publications. He was elected a Fellow of both the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

  • Neil Mahapatra is a Co-founder of OCT and serves as Non-Executive Director of the Company. Neil has nearly two decades of experience in business and the investment industry. He began his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley International plc, in healthcare corporate finance and UK equity capital markets before becoming a private equity executive at J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited, where he led private investments for the family office of Lord Rothschild and RIT Capital Partners plc.

    In 2013, Neil founded London-based multi-family private investment firm Kingsley Capital Partners LLP, where he is Managing Partner. Neil currently is a non-executive director for a number of companies, including telecoms businesses Atlas Tower Group Limited and Spring Fibre Limited, and consumer businesses McQueens Flowers Limited and Equinox International Holdings Limited. When at J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited, Neil was a non-executive director of UK data centre company Infinity SDC Limited and a UK subsidiary of African telecom towers firm Helios Towers Plc, now listed on the Official List.

    Neil is a known and respected leader in the European cannabis industry. Through KCP, Neil sponsored and launched the End our Pain campaign, a prominent campaign that was instrumental in effecting the UK government reforms to medical cannabis legislation in 2018. Outside of business, Neil is the former Chair of the board of a leading global architecture and design non-profit firm, the MASS Design Group, and is also a trustee of the Oxford Union Literary and Debating Trust.

    Neil holds a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Before starting his undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford, Neil spent a year performing genetic research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, where he had been selected by Professor James D Watson, Nobel Laureate for elucidating the structure of DNA.

  • Lord Mott is a Member of the House of Lords. He has held senior positions in a range of organisations, including experience in relation to private equity and venture capital. Lord Mott currently serves on the board of an endowment fund, supporting the contribution of capital and achieving the long-term aims of its investors.

    Lord Mott has previously served as a Lord in Waiting. In that role he worked with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for Energy and NetZero, Cabinet Office and Northern Ireland Office. He has also served as a founding board member and director of the British Digital Private Markets Association. From March 2020 to November 2022, Lord Mott was Chief Executive Officer of the Conservative Party.

Executive Team

  • Dr. Valentino Parravicini joined the Group as Chief Scientific Officer in July 2020, and as such he is responsible for the designing, planning and delivering of the scientific strategies in alignment with corporate objectives set by the Board, by internal activities and liaising with key academic and business partners.

     

    Valentino has over 10 years of experience in drug discovery and development accrued while working in Big Pharma and SMEs including Roche S.p.A, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Kesios Therapeutics Limited, and GammaDelta Therapeutics Ltd.

    Valentino has spent his academic career at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institute of Health (USA) and at the National Institute for Medical Research – Medical Research Council, Mill Hill, now part of the Francis Crick Institute (UK), where his research in inflammation and autoimmunity led to the discovery of previously unknown signalling pathway and to high impact publications. He has lead research teams and programmes in the fields of immune-inflammation, oncology, and virology, both in small molecules and cell therapy, acquiring a wide breadth of knowledge in in vitro and in vivo models applied to early research and drug discovery and development, working in three different countries.

     

    Valentino holds a Doctoral Degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Milan (Italy),where he has also obtained the professional habilitation as a pharmacist. He has PRINCE2 accreditation in project management and he obtained a Home Office Personal Licence (PIL-AB). He became a Fogarty Fellow at the National Institute of Health, and, as part of his national service, he worked in a non-governmental organisation to support education, prevention and treatment of cancer.

  • Dr Corn joined Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc as Chief Medical Officer in June 2023. He is an independent pharmaceuticals consultant who has held senior positions in both large and small pharma organisations. He is currently CMO at Nodenza Inc and Medical Adviser to Confo Therapeutics SA. He also serves as a non-executive director on the Board of Physiomics plc.

    He was formerly Chief Medical Officer International at Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and CMO at venture-backed companies EUSA Pharma Inc, acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc in 2012, and Zeneus Pharma Ltd, acquired by Cephalon Inc in 2005. Dr Corn has also played a key role in the successful conclusion of more than twenty regulatory approvals in the US and Europe and is the author of more than forty scientific publications. He was elected a Fellow of both the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

  • Rob Bennett joined Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies Holdings plc as General Counsel in December 2022 and was appointed Company Secretary in January 2023. With ultimate responsibility for all legal aspects of the business, as well as compliance and regulation, he provides guidance to the other members of the executive team and board of directors on matters related to corporate governance and risk management. He brings over 15 years of experience in legal, risk, and compliance gained through working with SMEs and quoted companies, most recently as General Counsel and Company Secretary of Bestway Retail (formerly Costcutter Supermarkets Group). Throughout his career, he has executed a diverse portfolio of M&A transactions valued at over $10 billion across multiple countries. He has been recognised for his work, listed in Legal 500's GC Powerlists in 2021 and 2022, and as a Team of the Year finalist at The Lawyer Awards in 2021.

    Rob holds a BEng (Hons) in Electronic Engineering and Business Management from the University of York and PGDL and LPC from The College of Law (now University of Law), York. After a decade in the law, he spent three years working in Corporate Finance and Development before returning to the legal field. Aside from his professional responsibilities, Rob serves as a trustee (Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee) of South Bank Multi-Academy Trust, as well as coaching youth football.

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Scientific Advisors

  • Dr Farquhar-Smith became an adviser to OCTP in July 2023.

    Dr Farquhar-Smith is a Consultant in Pain Medicine and Anaesthetics at The Royal Marsden Foundation NHS Trust where he leads the only dedicated CIPN clinic in the UK. He holds fellowships from both the Faculty of Pain of the Royal College of Anaesthetics and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. His special clinical and research interests include pain experienced by cancer patients, anaesthesia and pain education.

    Dr Farquhar-Smith has contributed to reference textbooks, authored guidelines for cancer pain management published by the British Pain Society, and lectured both nationally and internationally. He is a reviewer for Cochrane and has advised on NHS policy including NICE guidelines. He has, to date, published over 80 peer-reviewed original articles, chapters and letters.

  • Professor Robert Dworkin has been an adviser to OCTP since November 2021

    Robert Dworkin is Professor in the departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York State. He is also a Director of ACTTION (Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks) a public-private partnership with the United States Food and Drug Administration. Professor Dworkin's major research interests are the methodologic aspects of analgesic clinical trials and the treatment and prevention of chronic neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain. Through ongoing studies he is evaluating the research designs and methods, clinical outcome assessments, and statistical analyses used in clinical trials of treatments for acute and chronic pain.

  • Dr Giorgio Lambru has been an adviser to OCTP since February 2022

    Dr Lambru is a Consultant Neurologist at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at King's College London. Dr Lambru is an expert in headache and facial pain conditions, including neuropathic pain and general neurology conditions. He has authored a number of scientific publications on these conditions and has a clinic dedicated to complex headache and facial pain disorders.

  • Professor Anthony Dickenson has been an adviser to OCTP since May 2021

    Anthony Dickenson is Emeritus Professor of Neuropharmacology at University College, London. Professor Dickenson's research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of pain including how pain can be controlled in both normal and patho-physiological conditions and how to translate basic science to patients. He is an Honorary Member of the British Pain Society, a member of the council of the International Association for the Study of Pain, was a founding member of the London Pain Consortium (Welcome Trust) and is involved in many advisory boards.