Board of Directors

Charles Morgan is a venture capitalist who has identified emerging sectors and acquired early stage and strategic positions in a wide range of ventures around the globe. He has a number of successful exits to his name, including the private acquisition of approximately 150,000 acres of oil and gas leases within the Marcellus Shale in North East Pennsylvania, USA. Having built this position in the early 2000s the acreage was farmed out, drilled and the working interests eventually sold to Chesapeake Energy, while retaining an ongoing royalty. He was also a founder of Clarity Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Australia’s largest pharma ASX IPO.

Charles started his career in futures and stock broking in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth prior to entering the oil and gas exploration business where he put together projects the Philippines, Australia, West Africa, USA and Europe. During this time he also initiated a number of biotech projects. He was awarded an honorary PhD by Curtin University in Australia for his services to the commercialisation of technology.

Charles also serves on the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Melissa Sturgess holds a BSc and an MBA and has more than 20 years of experience as a director of UK and Australian Stock Exchange quoted companies, in the roles of Chair, CEO and non-executive director.  She has also chaired listed company audit committees and served on remuneration and corporate governance committees.

Melissa’s interest in the cannabis sector commenced with a trip to Israel in 2017 to review the medicinal cannabis research in that country. She subsequently co-founded UK based, AQSE quoted Ananda Developments Plc. Melissa was the recipient of the Executive of the Year at the Malta Cannabiz Awards in November 2019. She is a committee member of the Cannabis Industry Council and Co-Chair of its Research Working Group.

Melissa commenced her listed company career as a member of the Executive Committee of Aquarius Platinum Limited, the most successful Australian/UK dual listed company and a miner of platinum in South Africa and Zimbabwe.  She was also founding director of Sylvania Resources Limited and a number of other companies operating in the metals and mining sector throughout Africa and listed on the AIM Market in London.  During her career Melissa has raised significant amounts of capital and in 2017 she spearheaded the structuring and £50m financing for the acquisition of a building materials business in the Channel Islands. She is also a non-executive director of Lexington Gold Limited, an AIM quoted gold exploration company.

Stuart, in his role as CEO of JEPCO, has considerable horticultural experience and direct experience of Cannabis cultivation and has been the driving force for many of the leading agricultural initiatives and successes of JEPCO and its associated companies.  From a standing start in July 2014, Stuart Piccaver led the team that proved a concept to grow natural season cannabinoids in the UK, lowering the cost of production by 78 per cent. The project grew 5 hectares in polytunnels (the same method used by Ananda in its growing) to fully assess and master the dynamics of UK production. The project proved its feasibility and created a growing blueprint for a highly scalable production technique.

Jeremy Sturgess-Smith is a finance leader with a proven track record in corporate finance, investor relations, and strategic growth. As the first employee and a co-founder of Ananda Developments plc, Jeremy played a pivotal role in the company’s inception and spearheaded its successful IPO in July 2018. He also led the acquisitions of MRX Medical Limited, a company running two phase II clinical trials in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, and DJT Plants Limited. Beyond managing Ananda’s & MRX’s corporate finance, audit processes, and investor relations, he also oversees IT and HR. Jeremy was also a core team member of the successful IPO of URA Holdings plc in 2022 and its acquisition of the historic Gravelotte emerald mine in 2023.

Mr Treacy is an experienced London-based small cap financier who specialises in working with growing companies. He qualified as a solicitor in the London office of a major international law firm where he specialised in Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions. From there he moved on to practice corporate finance in the advisory teams of several prominent UK brokerages where he acted as an adviser to a number of AIM companies and advised on numerous IPOs, acquisitions, debt restructurings and placings.

Clive Page is a Professor of Pharmacology, King’s College London and Director of The Pulmonary Pharmacology Unit, King’s College London. Clive’s main research interests are in the pharmacology of inflammation and respiratory diseases, and he has published over 250 scientific papers. Clive was the co-founder and previous Chairman of the Board of Verona Pharma plc which is now capitalised at approximately $1.25 billion and quoted on NASDAQ. He was awarded the Society of Biology President’s Medal in 2012 for an outstanding contribution to the life sciences over the previous year. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and an Honorary Fellow and recent Past President of the British Pharmacological Society. In 2017, Clive was awarded an OBE for Services to Pharmacology.

Clive also serves as Chairman of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board.