Alastair joined Axol in Oct 2020 as Chief Operating Officer, reuniting with Liam Taylor (CEO), who he had initially reported to in a previous role in reagent supply to the IVD industry.
He has held senior executive positions in various industries, over a career spanning 37 years, within several different sectors, including Pharmaceutical, Medical Device (both as a sub-contractor and equipment manufacturing), and Food. He has a broad business knowledge base, responsible for the sales, purchasing, quality, business development, human resources, design, health & safety, operations, and finance functions in companies both in Europe and the USA. He is experienced working in both Private Equity and Venture Capital funding models.
He was initially recruited as Site Lead for the BBI’s Dundee site by Liam in 2015 after leading a successful site ‘turnaround’ was promoted to UK Operations Director, being responsible for the Dundee, Porton Down, and Sittingbourne sites. BBI Solutions being a leading expert in immunoassay development, manufacturing services, and reagents and provides an extensive portfolio of products and technologies to the global diagnostic market.
Before joining BBI Ltd he was interim CEO of Vornia Ltd, a university start up in Galway, Ireland where he led them to become ISO 13485 Class 3 accredited and commercialising their collagen and bioresorbable polymers before purchase by Ashland Global plc.
Preceding joining Vornia Ltd he was Vice President Operations for both J-Pac and Doyen Medipharm based in New Hampshire, USA (being responsible for sites in the USA, UK, and Malaysia) unique combination of services to the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. J-Pac produced a wide range of advanced medical products ranging from implantable surgical products and orthopaedic devices to diagnostic and oral thin films. Doyen provided precision, high-volume production equipment to medical device and biopharmaceutical companies for several applications, including wound care, advanced converting, and packaging solutions worldwide.
Before his move to the USA in 2009, he was Operations Director at Biofilm Ltd, a pharmaceutical / medical device manufacturer of Oral films using diverse film formers, including collagen. He played a pivotal role in the MBO of Biofilm Ltd from Devro plc, including setting up new company infrastructure and expanding production capacity.
His interests are in aiding ‘company turnarounds’, stabilising/improving companies financially using Lean Manufacturing techniques, collaborative partnering techniques, common sense, and a logical approach.
He obtained a BSc in Pure & Applied Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He then continued his education while progressing his career in the industry, gaining several other qualifications, including a diploma in Management Studies.
His interests outside of work are threefold:
- Being a season ticket holder at his beloved Glasgow Rangers (football) and Glasgow Warriors (rugby).
- Reading WW1 history
- Being a taxi for his 16-year-old daughter Orla.