Scientists.
Industrialists.
Venture builders.
Industry veteran. Business growth specialist. With 35+ years leading FTSE 250 and PE-backed chemical manufacturing firms, Mark brings broad executive experience to our team. Before joining SugaROx, he scaled a €130M speciality chemicals business across four countries. As CEO, he leads our strategy, fundraising, and manufacturing partnerships.
A respected executive in the speciality chemicals industry, Mark champions commercially focused innovation – where scientific excellence meets bottom-line impact. He has a strong track record of building businesses through both acquisition and organic growth, having held senior leadership roles in public and private companies in several countries.
Mark holds a BSc in Genetics from the University of Leeds and an MBA from Henley Business School. He began his career as a graduate management trainee at Johnson Matthey, where he gained hands-on experience across R&D, manufacturing, and customer services, before being promoted to Managing Director of Italian operations. In that role, he increased sales from US$2M to $10M in five years.
From Johnson Matthey he moved to Holliday Chemical Holdings as CEO where he worked from 1995 to 1998. At Holliday he oversaw 900 staff across three operating companies, generating $140M in turnover and was involved in the company’s IPO via the London Stock Exchange. He later spent 30 years growing a generic pharmaceutical ingredients business (CMO/CDMO) from $10M to $200M in revenue. Across his career, he gained experience across the UK, Spain, Italy, USA, Hungary, Mexico, India, and China.
With deep expertise in process innovation, chemical manufacturing, regulatory strategy, and supply chain management, Mark was headhunted to join our team in 2022. Upon joining SugaROx, he immediately helped our R&D team refine the synthesis process for our first product and selected two chemical companies with the capabilities to help us lay the foundations for scaling synthesis from lab to a pilot facility. Mark also played a key role securing additional funding needed for the business. To date, £5.3M in private investment and grant funding has been secured by us, and we are making great towards our target for the Series A. Mark’s experience in chemical manufacturing and supply strengthens our ability to compete globally and deliver real value to farmers as we approach commercial launch.
Mark holds a BSc in Genetics from the University of Leeds and an MBA from Henley Business School. He began his career as a graduate management trainee at Johnson Matthey, where he gained hands-on experience across R&D, manufacturing, and customer services, before being promoted to Managing Director of Italian operations. In that role, he increased sales from US$2M to $10M in five years.
From Johnson Matthey he moved to Holliday Chemical Holdings as CEO where he worked from 1995 to 1998. At Holliday he oversaw 900 staff across three operating companies, generating $140M in turnover and was involved in the company’s IPO via the London Stock Exchange. He later spent 30 years growing a generic pharmaceutical ingredients business (CMO/CDMO) from $10M to $200M in revenue. Across his career, he gained experience across the UK, Spain, Italy, USA, Hungary, Mexico, India, and China.
With deep expertise in process innovation, chemical manufacturing, regulatory strategy, and supply chain management, Mark was headhunted to join our team in 2022. Upon joining SugaROx, he immediately helped our R&D team refine the synthesis process for our first product and selected two chemical companies with the capabilities to help us lay the foundations for scaling synthesis from lab to a pilot facility. Mark also played a key role securing additional funding needed for the business. To date, £5.3M in private investment and grant funding has been secured by us, and we are making great towards our target for the Series A. Mark’s experience in chemical manufacturing and supply strengthens our ability to compete globally and deliver real value to farmers as we approach commercial launch.