GlycoFineChem
Industrial Research
People
Dr Paul Benjes, General Manager
Dr Richard Furneaux, Group Manager – IRL Carbohydrate Chemistry
Dr Tony Davidson, Senior Process Development Chemist
Dr Graham Caygill, Senior Chemist and Chemical Engineer
Clive Edwards, Quality Manager
Dr Russell Clayton, Analytical Team Leader
Geoff Stinton, Senior Facilities Operator
Richard Lauricella, Business Development Manager, USA
Vikki Smithem, Business Development Manager
Dr Robin Ferrier, Consultant Carbohydrate Chemistry
Dr Paul Benjes, General Manager
With 17 years experience as a synthetic organic chemist, Paul brings a wealth of scientific knowledge to GlycoSyn. He joined the company in 2005 as Process Development Manager, becoming Operations Manager a year later, with responsibility for both chemistry development and GMP manufacturing. In 2008, Paul was made General Manager, combining his managerial and scientific skill sets into a leadership role guiding the overall operation of GlycoSyn, its strategic direction, productivity and profitability.
Paul holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Otago and carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Bristol in England. Before joining GlycoSyn, Paul was a research scientist in the internationally recognised Carbohydrate Chemistry Team at Industrial Research Limited (IRL), helping with contract synthesis and process development for a wide variety of potential drug substances.
The GlycoSyn business itself is one of Paul’s passions and nothing gives him greater satisfaction than positive feedback after GlycoSyn has delivered on time, in specification and on budget. After hours he can be found on the golf course, running or studying the wonders of the night sky.
Dr Richard Furneaux is one of New Zealand’s most respected scientists. Since 1985, he has managed the carbohydrate chemistry technology platform at GlycoSyn’s parent company, Industrial Research Limited (IRL). The world-renowned team has grown to include 33 research scientists whose achievements include 225 publications, 32 reviews and 13 published patent series. He has been involved with the GlycoSyn business unit since its inception, serving as General Manager Chemistry in 2006/2007.
Richard, who holds a PhD in Chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington, is a fellow of both the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. In 2006 he was awarded the Hector Medal from the Royal Society for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of carbohydrate chemistry and for achieving world-wide recognition of chemistry and pharmacology in New Zealand.
Nicknamed ‘Disco Inferno’, Richard likes Indie music and can often be found relaxing in a bar where quality live music is playing.
Dr Tony Davidson, Senior Process Development Chemist
Dr Tony Davidson joined GlycoSyn in 2003, after completing post doctoral study on helical crystals in natural composite materials while working as a Research Scientist for GlycoSyn’s parent company Industrial Research Limited.He has worked in both non-GMP and cGMP environments to safely produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Tony‘s experience also covers the use of kilo-lab equipment, including chromatography, to produce bulk quantities of APIs. In addition, he is familiar with a wide range of analytical techniques.
Tony, who has 12 years experience as a practising researcher, completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Otago and is a member of both the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers.
Gardening takes up some of Tony’s spare time, but he can also be found tinkering with computers and eating lots of yummy carbohydrates.
Dr Graham Caygill, Senior Chemist and Chemical Engineer
Dr Graham Caygill brings 19 years experience as a practising researcher to his responsibility for developing and maintaining the synthetic facilities and equipment used by the process development section of GlycoSyn.For most of his career, Graham has been involved with scale-up development of industry in the pharmaceutical area in Australasia. His focus is on the interface between chemistry and engineering which he sees as the art of turning theory into reality in a safe and practical manner.
Graham has a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Canterbury and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Otago. He completed post-doctoral research at University College in London examining the issues which cause difficulty with scale up of pharmaceutical development projects before joining the world leading Carbohydrate Chemistry Team at GlycoSyn’s parent company, Industrial Research Limited, in 2001. He took on his present role with GlycoSyn in 2004.
Graham spends much of his free time heading into the bush with his amateur geologist brother, enjoying beautiful scenery and marvelling at the variety of New Zealand’s geological activity.
Clive Edwards, Quality Manager
Clive Edwards champions product quality at GlycoSyn, from the purchase of raw materials through to release of final product. He was appointed Quality Manager in 2009, and oversees a rigorous quality management system that ensures regulatory compliance for international markets and gives staff the tools needed to contribute to continuous quality improvement of GlycoSyn’s product.Clive holds a Bachelor of Science from the Open University in the UK along with post graduate qualifications in Software Engineering. He is an NZQA qualified Lead Auditor and has over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry working in both the manufacturing and regulatory fields.
His experience includes 2 years as a Senior GMP Consultant and 4 years as an Auditor for Medsafe (NZ Ministry of Health) covering a wide range of New Zealand’s pharmaceutical and complementary medicines industry. Before moving to New Zealand Clive Worked in numerous roles at Eli Lilly’s dry products manufacturing site in Basingstoke (UK), including Computer Systems Validation, Automation Systems Project Leader and Instrumentation Manager.
Dr Russell Clayton, Analytical Team Leader
Russell heads the analytical quality control laboratory which uses state-of-the-art equipment to analyse all manufacturing stages and monitor product stability for at least two years after manufacture.Russell holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Keele University in the United Kingdom. He has more than seven years experience working in cGMP/GLP analytical laboratories in the drug substance and drug product fields including a period as a senior scientist for drug development company Aptuit in the UK.
Russell cites Central Otago Pinot Noir wines and mountain tramping as two of the best things about having moved to New Zealand although his football allegiances remain with his home-town team, Crawley Town in the UK.
Geoff Stinton’s experience in biochemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing environments spans 14 years and includes large and small-scale enzyme, antibody, carbohydrate and pharmaceutical production of ingredients to cGMP standards.As Senior Facilities Operator at GlycoSyn since 2006, Geoff oversees the company’s modern manufacturing facilities, supervises chemical synthesis of pharmaceuticals to cGMP in contained facilities and directs new high value manufacturing projects.
Geoff has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and has previously worked for Lonza Biologics and Genzyme Diagnostics in the UK and for other business units of GlycoSyn’s parent company Industrial Research Limited.
Geoff puts his spare time into quality house renovation (‘not your usual DIT type disaster areas’), loves movies with any amount of weirdness in them and enjoys playing poker – for fun rather than fortune.
Richard Lauricella, Business Development Manager, USA
Richard has broad experience across a spectrum of roles including Senior Scientist, Diagnostics Research and Development, Production Manager (Peptide Synthesis), Customer Service Manager, Sales and Business Development Manager. His Customer Service, Sales and Business Development experience includes working with clients in Australasia, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Richard holds a Certification in Medical Laboratory Techniques from the Swinburne University of Technology and a Bachelor of Science from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
In 1995, Richard moved to the USA, and lives with his family, in Raleigh, North Carolina. His Business Development role includes on-going interactions with Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Academic and Government research Institutes. His extensive technical and research-based background, as well as his broad Customer Service experience, have been the spring-board for him achieving outstanding sales and developing company-client relationships essential for long-term business success.
Outside of his business activities, Richard delights in road trips and international travel with his family. Tending the garden and seeing the landscaping mature over the years is an endless joy, albeit tempered by the endless “joy” of mowing the lawns and perennial pruning of shrubbery. Has been known to hark back to his Italian ancestry when justifying the extra cappuccinos or finding novel ways to prepare pasta for his ever-forgiving family
Vikki Smithem, Business Development Manager
Vikki Smithem has over 10 years experience in the biotechnology and food industries in business development and marketing roles. She is Business Development Manager for GlycoSyn and responsible for commercial activities and client relationships in Australia, the United States and New Zealand.
Vikki, who has a Master of Science from Kyushu University in Japan, has considerable experience in securing new business from overseas and in New Zealand, out-licensing and research and development collaborations.
Before joining GlycoSyn, Vikki was Business Development Manager for the commercially successful Natural Products Team at Industrial Research Limited (IRL). In that role, she developed the business case that led to IRL establishing a world-first portable supercritical extraction plant. Other achievements include establishing the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership fund, managed by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Outside of work, Vikki indulges in her passion for salsa and tango dancing, enjoys fine New Zealand wine and food and loves to travel.
Twelve years after formal retirement, Dr Robin Ferrier still enjoys his daily involvement in carbohydrate chemistry and in supporting Industrial Research Limited (IRL) and GlycoSyn carbohydrate staff.After gaining his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1957, Robin joined London University where his focus turned from polysaccharide chemistry to synthetic and mechanistic studies of monosaccharide compounds carried out mainly by his 10 successful PhD students. New laboratory tools and methods had become available, and it was then possible to treat sugar derivatives as “normal” organic compounds with “normal” reactions showing “normal” mechanisms, and they became suitable as training materials for organic chemical students. During this period he took post-doctoral leave in Berkeley and was a member of Professor Melvin Calvin’s group when the latter was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
In 1970 Robin was appointed to the Chair of Organic Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington where he continued to lead work on “carbohydrates as ‘normal’ organic chemicals”, specialising in using them as starting materials for the synthesis of non-carbohydrate compounds of value in medicine. A further 10 of his students gained their PhDs during this phase. To a large extent, these people represent the skill-base on which the IRL carbohydrate team and GlycoSyn depend.
Throughout his career, Robin has consistently published in international research journals, produced over 150 papers, reviews and books and lectured at many international meetings. He discovered two new reactions in the area of sugars having double bonds, each of which became known as ‘the Ferrier Reaction’, with the obvious ambiguity never having been fully resolved.
