Willow Continues its Transition to the Bay
Area in California with Management
Promotions and a New Board Member
MOUNTAIN
VIEW, Calif. , March 28,
2023 /PRNewswire/ - Willow Biosciences Inc.
("Willow" or the "Company") (TSX: WLLW) (OTCQB:
CANSF), a leading biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing
industrial manufacturing of pure, consistent and sustainable
ingredients, is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has
appointed Dr. Chris Savile, Willow's
Chief Operations Officer, as President and Chief Executive Officer
and Mr. Trevor Peters, a Director
and Founder of the Company, as Chairman, effective March 28, 2023, in connection with Dr. Peter
Seufer-Wasserthal's retirement as President and CEO. Dr.
Seufer-Wasserthal will continue to be a Director of the
Company.
Management and Executive
Promotions
Dr. Savile, a leader at Willow since the Company's inception in
early 2019, has been appointed President and Chief Executive
Officer effective March 28, 2023.
Since joining Willow, Dr. Savile has led the development of the
technology platform, building of the operational capabilities, and
expansion of the internal portfolio and external
partnerships. Prior to joining Willow, Dr. Savile worked in
senior leadership roles at Intrexon Corporation, a biotechnology
company, and Codexis, Inc., a protein engineering company. Chris is
an experienced business professional and an accomplished chemist,
high-throughput assay scientist, and protein engineer with a strong
technical background.
"Chris' extensive scientific knowledge and business development
experience will be invaluable to Willow in its next phase of
growth," said Trevor Peters,
Chairman of the Board. "Chris has played an integral part in the
success Willow has achieved to date. He is the driving force behind
our scientific achievements, including the development of our new
biooxidation manufacturing platform, and our commercial successes
including the partnerships with Sandhill One and Kalsec as well as
other commercial programs that the Company anticipates announcing
in the near future."
The Company is also pleased to announce that Dr. Trish Choudhary, Willow's VP Research and
Development, has been promoted to the role of Sr. VP Research and
Development. Dr. Choudhary has been with the Company since its
inception in 2019, leading the Company's R&D program in
Mountain View, California. Dr.
Choudhary has built and continues to build Willow's genetic
engineering technology that includes enzyme engineering, strain
engineering and its recently-developed genome-wide high-throughput
editing technology. These tools have enabled the rapid development
and commercialization of our first precision fermentation product,
cannabigerol (CBG), development of the aforementioned biooxidation
manufacturing platform, and development of alternative hosts to
broaden our capabilities and offering.
Board of Directors
Changes
Additionally, Mr. Raffi
Asadorian will join the Board of Directors as an independent
director following the Company's upcoming annual general meeting of
shareholders on May 12, 2023 (the
"AGM"). Mr. Asadorian has been the Chief Financial Officer of
AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed, commercial stage specialty
pharmaceutical company since August
2017. Mr. Asadorian has over 30 years of experience in
finance, including 15 years' experience as a CFO with publicly
listed and private equity-owned biotech and life sciences companies
including Amyris and Barr Pharmaceuticals . Prior to that, Mr.
Asadorian was a Partner in the Transaction Services Group of PwC,
LLP in New York. Mr. Asadorian
holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Manchester and a B. Sc., Business
Administration in Accounting from Xavier
University in Cincinnati. Mr. Asadorian is a Certified
Public Accountant (inactive, Ohio).
Mr. Trevor Peters, a Director and
Founder of the Company, will succeed Dr. Peter Seufer-Wasserthal as
Chairman of the Board. Ms. Barbara
Munroe will continue to serve as a Director and Chair of the
Governance and Compensation Committee but will no longer serve as
Lead Independent Director. Mr. Sadiq
Lalani will not stand for re-election as a director at the
Company's upcoming AGM due to other commitments.
"Willow is grateful to Dr. Seufer-Wasserthal's vision and
talent," said Trevor Peters,
Chairman of the Board of the Company. "Under his leadership, we
have completed our transition to an innovative company, focused on
functional ingredients."
"I am excited to take over as President and CEO and
to build upon the amazing progress we have made in our transition
to become a fully-integrated precision fermentation company with a
growing list of internal product opportunities and a rapidly
expanding portfolio of development and commercialization partners,
said Chris Savile, President and
CEO. I am eager to continue the future growth of Willow."
About Willow Biosciences
Inc.
Willow develops and produces precision fermented functional
ingredients for the health and wellness, food and beverage and
personal care markets. Willow's FutureGrownTM
biotechnology platform allows large-scale production with
sustainability at its core. Willow's R&D team has a proven
track record of developing and commercializing bio-based
manufacturing processes and products to benefit our B2B partners
and their customers. For more information, visit
www.willowbio.com.
Forward-Looking
Statements
This news release may include forward-looking statements
including opinions, assumptions, estimates and the Company's
assessment of future plans and operations, and, more particularly,
statements concerning: the Company's board and management team,
including the composition and performance thereof; the ability to
accommodate new programs and to expand capabilities, including the
expansion of the Company's portfolio of functional ingredients
beyond cannabinoids; and the business plan of the Company,
generally. When used in this news release, the words "will,"
"anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may,"
"project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be
among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The
forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations
and assumptions made by the Company which include, but are not
limited to: the success of Willow's strategic partnerships,
including the development of future strategic partnerships; the
financial strength of the Company; the ability of the Company to
fund its business plan using cash on hand and existing resources;
the market for Willow's products; the ability of the Company to
obtain and retain applicable licences; the ability of the Company
to obtain suitable manufacturing partners and other strategic
relationships; and the successful implementation of Willow's
commercialization and production strategy, generally.
Forward-looking statements are subject to a wide range of risks and
uncertainties, and although the Company believes that the
expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are
reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will
be realized. Any number of important factors could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements including, but not limited to, risks associated with:
the cannabinoid industry in general; the success of the Company's
research and development strategies; infringement on intellectual
property; failure to benefit from partnerships or successfully
integrate acquisitions; actions and initiatives of federal and
provincial governments and changes to government policies and the
execution and impact of these actions, initiatives and policies;
import/export and research restrictions for operations in the
cannabinoid, personal care, food and beverage and pharmaceutical
markets; the size of such markets; competition from other industry
participants; adverse U.S., Canadian and global economic
conditions; adverse global events and public-health crises,
including the evolving COVID-19 outbreak; failure to comply with
certain regulations; departure of key management personnel or
inability to attract and retain talent; and other factors more
fully described from time to time in the reports and filings made
by the Company with securities regulatory authorities. Please refer
to the Company's most recent annual information form and
management's discussion and analysis for additional risk factors
relating to Willow, which can be accessed either on Willow's
website at www.willowbio.com or under the Company's profile on
www.sedar.com.
The forward-looking statements contained in this news release
are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake
any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included
forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.
The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly
qualified by this cautionary statement.
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SOURCE Willow Biosciences Inc.