Cizzle Biotechnology Holdings plc (LON:CIZ), the UK based diagnostics developer of early cancer tests, has announced the appointment of Edwin Matthew (Matt) Bower as a Non-Executive Director (“NED“) of the Company with immediate effect.
Matt Bower is an experienced company executive and adviser with a track record as a director and secretary of private equity backed and listed companies, across a broad range of company and technology related activities. He is engaged as a strategic advisor and mentor to the board of directors of a number of high growth trading and technology companies, and a director of a number of private companies.
Matt will sit on both the Company’s audit and remuneration committees, alongside the Company’s independent Non-Executive Director, John Treacy, replacing Prof Dawn Coverley who recently moved from her role as a NED to Chief Scientific Officer, as announced on 2 January 2025.
Matt is a Director of Makabo Limited (Makabo), a strategic consultancy and board advisory business. On the 24 June 2024, the Company entered into an agreement with Makabo to support the Board in the areas of strategy, partnerships, licensing and shareholder communications. With Matt joining the Board, the Agreement has now been terminated. Pursuant to the Agreement, Makabo waived payment of more than 85 per cent of its contracted fees to link remuneration directly to the success of the Company, by accepting 2,464,625 options over new Ordinary Shares (the “Options”) with an exercise price of 1.622965p per ordinary share. The Options were granted on a pro-rata monthly basis and will all vest and become exercisable on 25 June 2025 assuming that the VWAP of the Ordinary Shares for the period 25 May 2025 to 24 June 2025 is equal or greater than 3.24593p, being twice or greater than the Options grant price. The Options remain exercisable until 25 June 2027.
Commenting, Allan Syms, Executive Chairman of Cizzle Biotechnology, said:
“I am delighted to welcome Matt to the board, which will strengthen our strategic and business capability and meet our needs for a further NED to support the Company’s corporate governance requirements. Matt has already provided valuable advice and assistance to Cizzle and I am sure that his skills and experience will be invaluable as we move forward.
“This is a transformational period as the Company prepares for the commercial launch of its lung cancer test in North America and the Caribbean with our partner CizzleBio Inc and future roll out with partner laboratories elsewhere in the world, where Matt’s international experience and strategic advice will be of particular help as we begin the next phase of our growth.”
