# Widecells Group PLC Q&A: Strengthening the Board (LON:WDC)

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/widecells-group-plc-qa-strengthening-the-board-lonwdc/412742641
- Published: 2017-12-22T08:30:13+00:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**Widecells Group PLC** (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade caught up
with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the recent Board changes,
their new scientific advisory board, WG Partners and what to look forward to in 
2018

 

**Q1: Firstly, I see there’s been a number of additions to the Board, can you tell
us a bit more about these new members and what they’ll be bringing to the company?**

**A1**: At Widecells Group, we are now at what we call an inflection point. We started
to generate revenues over the past 3 months and that’s from different product lines
and that’s following all the hard work in conducting our product development, getting
our facility up and running In Manchester and getting our insurance product to market.

Now, looking into 2018, we knew that it was important to strengthen our Board and
that’s something that we have just been very fortunate to complete. We’ll also be
looking to strengthen the rest of our key managers for 2018 and now we are just 
looking to increase our revenues and to continue with our geographical expansion.
With that in mind we have appointed a new Chairman.

Graham, who is our previous Chairman, has helped us to conduct the IPO, to get the
company to get where it is now, his mainly focus is on early-stage companies and
getting them to the stage Widecells Group is now. Looking into the future, we wanted
someone who had more experience with public listed companies, with larger companies
and particularly in insurance as well so we have Peter Presland, he’s been involved
in several Chairman and non-executive director roles in public listed companies 
and blue-chip companies as well. Prior to that he’s been CEO of one of the major
insurance brokers at the time in the UK which was C E Health and before that, he
was their CFO, so he was there for more than 10 years so he’s very experienced and
it’s going to help, certainly, in the next stage of development.

We have Malcolm Glaister which is the CEO of the Eight Great Technologies Investment
Fund and Farm Street in London, both which he started. Malcolm will be helping us
to also heighten our investment profile.

Also, we have Zakaria Aziz who is a very successful entrepreneur that built Ray 
International Group, it’s a big company all across Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
He will be helping us, again, to heighten the profile and to prepare everything 
to enter into that region of the world through his contacts and his relationships
and so on.
 So, it’s really strengthening the Board and preparing everything for
the next stage of development.

 

**Q2: I see that you’ve created a new Scientific Board, what’s the reason for this?**

**A2**: Mainly because we want to remain at the forefront of stem cell technology
and being part of driving the next generation of stem cell technology as well. We
have a wide range of services from education and training courses to expert medical
opinion service, to insurance products to cover the costs associated with stem cell
treatment but also having a stem cell storage and a research facility. We think 
it’s critical looking into the future and to ensure we make the right decisions 
that we have top level scientists and doctors involved in the stem cell industry
that can provide their best advice so that we can drive the company in the right
direction.

 

**Q3: I also see that WG Partners have joined your advisory team, they’re obviously
fairly big players in the life science sector which is a good reflection on you 
guys. What was your intention behind this?**

**A3**: Well, again, because we are a growth company and being a growth company,
we have to look into the best partners that can work with us to attract the right
investors for the future. WG Partners is a specialist life science boutique, they
provide their clients with corporate advisory, M&A and also capital raising services.

However, in our case we have mainly focussed on starting to tap into a new investor
base that is looking to the life sciences sector because we are the only quoted 
company within our space on the London Stock Exchange, we think there’s many opportunities
to engage with new investors and strengthen our shareholder register and for the
time being, that’s really the objective.

In the long run, identifying opportunities for growth as I’m sure we will at some
point, having WG Partners working with us is certainly the right decision for some
that might be looking into other opportunities for that growth.

 

**Q4: Finally, 2017 has obviously been a good year for Widecells Group, looking 
ahead to 2018, what can we look forward to?**

**A4**: In 2017, the whole work was around building our laboratory facility in the
University of Manchester, preparing our CellPlan products launch and starting to
generate the first sales, conduct the first trial in the UK and launch in the largest
market in Europe which is Spain, which is likely to happen at the end of this year.
Also getting the plans for WideAcademy, the education and training division completed
and the first version of the platform that we could test internally. We also had
plans to start conducting stem cell research via contract research that we get paid
for and that has happened as well so 2017 was building infrastructure that will 
enable us to generate strong revenues for the future and that has happened.

So, looking now into 2018 is again looking to generate revenue but also entering
into new geographical locations, over the past few months we entered some agreements,
particularly in the Middle East and in Asia and we already have agreements in Brazil.
What we’re going to see throughout 2018 is our product and services being deployed
in these markets as well and carrying on our regional plans of expansion in the 
best markets in Europe.

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