Management team

Ian Johnson joined Circassia as Executive Chairman on 5 December 2019.

Ian has spent his business career in life science and was founder and CEO of Biotrace International PLC, which was a listed company until its sale to 3M in December 2006. Most recently Ian was Executive Chairman of Bioquell PLC, which was acquired by Ecolab Inc. in January 2019.  Prior to this Ian was non-executive Chairman of Quantum Pharma PLC, Cyprotex PLC and Celsis Group Ltd.  He has also served on the boards of various other public and private companies including the AIM traded companies, Evans Analytical Group, MyCelx Technologies Corporation and AOI Medical Inc.

Ian studied at Cardiff University obtaining a BSc and MSc in Microbiology. He is a chartered biologist, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Directors.

Michael Roller joined Circassia as Chief Financial Officer on 9 January 2020.

Michael is a highly experienced Finance Director and life sciences company Director. He was previously Group Finance Director of Bioquell PLC, Corin Group PLC and Genus PLC and is currently a Non-Executive Director of Filtronic PLC.  In addition, Michael has held a number of senior finance roles in a broad range of public and private companies.

Michael completed his training at KPMG and is a Chartered Accountant and member of the ICAEW. He graduated from Merton College, Oxford with a BA in History.

Jonathan brings significant senior-level experience of the global pharmaceutical industry to Circassia. Prior to joining the Company, he was Chief Commercial Officer for Pfizer’s Internal Medicines organization, where he led commercial activities across the company’s global operations.  Previously, he held a number of senior positions at Pfizer, including Head of Marketing for its Global Established Pharmaceutical Business and Head of Marketing for Specialty Care, Europe, and oversaw the UK launch of Spiriva® under the company’s co-promotion agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim.  He was also Country Manager in the UK, Pfizer’s largest affiliate outside the United States, where he had responsibility for manufacturing, research and commercial operations and during his tenure was elected President of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).  Prior to his time at Pfizer, Jonathan held several roles of increasing responsibility at GSK, where he gained significant respiratory experience, including leading the UK launch of Serevent® in COPD.  He holds a BSc in Materials Technology from Coventry University, UK.

Nina Kataria joined Circassia in June 2014 to lead the company’s HR function.  She brings to Circassia over 30 years’ experience of Human Resources, and has significant experience of the life sciences industry.

Most recently, she was Human Resources Director at Lonza Biologics PLC, where she had strategic and operational responsibilities in the UK and internationally.  Previously, she was the UK Human Resources Manager at Innovex (part of Quintiles), following roles of increasing responsibility at companies that are now part of Toyota and Unilever.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and holds a post-graduate diploma from the Institute.  She graduated from Thames Valley University in Business and Finance.

Darren Mercer brings to the company extensive sales & marketing and international commercial experience, gained in a number of senior roles.  Prior to joining Circassia, he was Head of Commercial Operations, Asia Pacific at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, having previously headed up the commercial launch readiness team that was responsible for supporting over 200 launches across 35 emerging markets. Prior to taking this role in Singapore, he was Divisional Sales Director and National Business Director at Takeda in the UK.  Previously, he was Commercial Director at Nycomed, and was also Business Manager at the company’s respiratory business unit.

He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline, where he held a variety of sales and commercial management roles.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Management Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. 

Jeff joined Circassia on 29 January 2018. He brings a broad professional experience that includes marketing, sales, business operations, and technology to Circassia. He has extensive experience in the life sciences industry, including over ten pharmaceutical and medical device product launches throughout his career. Before Circassia, Jeff held various commercial leadership roles, including at an anti-infective start-up Cempra Pharmaceuticals and a gastroenterology-focused Salix Pharmaceuticals. At Salix, he was part of the Marketing Leadership, promoting 15 marketed products before its sale to Valeant for $14.5 billion in 2015. Additionally, Jeff acquired his respiratory experience and passion working with Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Melissa Thomas joined Circassia in 2019 as Head of Commercial Operations for EU&RoW before moving into her current role heading up the Global Marketing function. Melissa has had a career spanning 25 years in the Life Sciences Industry. Prior to joining Circassia, she held various roles with Ipsen Biopharm including leadership of the UK Neuroscience Business Unit before latterly taking on the role of European Marketing Director. Previously she worked with Nycomed in a range of leadership roles culminating in General Manager Nycomed UK at the time of the Takeda acquisition. Melissa began her career in the pharmaceutical industry at Novartis, where she held a variety of sales and sales management positions.

Tom Scaccia joined Circassia in 2017 and brings 20+ years of extensive senior pharmaceutical/device leadership experience. His most recent responsibility at Circassia was leading the US Pharmaceuticals Business Unit. Prior to Circassia, he led Strategic Marketing for the entire US Asthma portfolio at GlaxoSmithKline. Additionally at GSK, he had a progressive, award-winning career of leading teams in sales, marketing, business development, organizational alignments, strategic planning and execution. Prior to joining GSK, he established a Medical Billing / Consulting company that became a US regional leader in improving health insurance reimbursement through enhanced business acumen and operational procedures.

Bal has 20+ years’ experience in product development including drug and medical devices. Bal joined Circassia in 2016 to lead the Device Development activities, including the NIOX product transfer from Solna, Sweden, and help achieve ISO13485 certification for Device Design and Development in Oxford. Bal brings a wealth of product development experience, having started her career with Glaxo, in respiratory development, during which she was part of numerous successful product launches, including Advair. Bal went onto work on Pfizer’s inhaled and drug-device product portfolio, including Exubera, a form of insulin, as well as build on the in-vivo/ in-vitro correlation models to aid accelerated product development. Most recently, Bal worked at Mundipharma, driving the CMC and device activities with partner Skyepharma to deliver flutiform aerosol metered dose inhaler from development, through to launch and working closely with the global independent associates and distributors as a key note speaker to support the product launch across Europe, Middle East and South East Asia.

Born and raised in Uppsala in Sweden, Jan has worked for large and small global companies throughout his career. With 35 years of experience in Supply Chain, Jan has worked for Pharmacia for 11 years and then Pfizer for another 11 years. Following this, Jan spent a year with Kuehne & Nagel, one of the largest forwarding agents in the world until 2008 following which he started working for Aerocrine. Following the acquisition of Aerocrine by Circassia in 2015, Jan has continued to lead Circassia’s Supply Chain and Technical Operations team to the present day.