Scymaris | About us

Meet the leadership team

Gemma Andrews

Head of Environmental Fate

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Gemma graduated from the University of Surrey in 2003 with a BSc in Medical Biochemistry. As part of her degree, she completed an industrial placement with GlaxoSmithKline where she returned to start her career in Bioanalysis. She went on to take up a role with Quotient Bioresearch (formerly HFL) where she became a Study Director for clinical and preclinical studies. Gemma then spent a large proportion of her career to date at Battelle UK Ltd where she was a Study Director for a large number of multi-site residue studies. She led a team of scientists and was also the site Health and Safety Officer. During her time here she completed a Graduate Diploma in Law from DeMontfort University in Leicester and then a LLM Legal Practice Course with Masters with BPP University in Cambridge.

Now having returned to the county where she grew up, Gemma plans to revisit all the places she enjoyed as a child, whilst enjoying the challenge of her new role.

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Helen Garcia

Head of Ecotoxicology

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Helen graduated from the University of Reading in 2009 with a BSc in Rural Environmental Science and subsequently completed an MSc in Aquatic Biology and Resource Management at the University of Exeter. Helen started her career as an ecotoxicologist with Cambridge Environmental Assessments where she worked on multisite freshwater mesocosm and laboratory studies. She then went onto take up up a role with the UK Government Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, where she further developed her knowledge of acute and chronic marine test methods. In her role she was also responsible for leading a team of scientists and so as part of her training completed a level 3 diploma in Management.

Having recently moved to Brixham, Helen is looking into taking up some new sports to add to her list of hobbies which includes touch rugby and horse riding.

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Glyn Horner

Global Head of Business Development

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Glyn studied Applied Biochemistry at Liverpool John Moore’s University graduating in 1995 with BSc Hons.

He then worked for Covance Laboratories in ADME as a study coordinator for 3 years before moving into laboratory equipment sales and product management roles between 1998-2011. During this time, Glyn also ran the DACH region sales office for Genevac, living in Wiesbaden, Germany.

In 2011 he returned to the CRO sector for Covance/Smithers Viscient until 2018, focussing on selling environmental risk assessment services to the pharmaceutical, agricultural chemistry and industrial chemistry sectors in Europe.

Glyn went on to join CRO Citoxlab/Charles River in 2018 where he has been a key account manager looking after top agchem and industrial chem accounts in Europe and focussing on Human Health/Environmental and Dietary testing services.

Originally from London, Glyn moved to North Yorkshire in 2016 with his wife and daughter. He is a keen football and cricket fan/player as well as a historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) student.

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Marina Santos

Head of Analytical Chemistry

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Marina obtained her PhD in Chemistry in 2006 at the University of Central Florida (Fl, USA). Upon obtaining her doctorate, she was appointed as Senior Scientist at Merck & Co., Inc(NJ, USA) where she developed chromatographic methods and performed trace analysis in pharmaceutical products.

In 2010, she moved to her home country, where she served as Head of Analytical Development and Process Control at the Institute of Industrial Technology in Buenos Aires.

Marina came to the UK with her family in 2016 and accepted a role in Domino Printing Sciences (Cambridgeshire, UK)where she led a team of scientists that provided analytical support throughout the different stages of ink development while ensuring compliance via the study of migrants from printing inks in food packaging.

At Scymaris, Marina leads a team of skilled scientists that provides high quality analytical chemistry services across the pharmaceutical, veterinary medicine, agrochemical and industrial chemical industries.

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Gary Mitchell

Global VP, Scientific and Technical Strategy

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Gary Mitchell graduated from the University College of North Wales (UCNW), Bangor with a BSc in Zoology & Applied Zoology. He then went on to study a PhD at Southampton University followed by post-doctoral studies in Aquatic Ecotoxicology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has 30 years of international industry and regulatory experience, primarily in Crop Protection. Initially with Shell Research Ltd, his research focused on outdoor microcosms for measuring sub-lethal effects of chemicals and effluents. In 1994, Gary joined American Cyanamid Company, then BASF, joining FMC Corporation in 2004. As Global Manager of FMC’s Toxicology and Ecotoxicology groups, Gary had oversight of the broad diversity of constantly evolving regulatory studies and scientific issues that challenge the registration of agricultural products, specialty chemicals and biocides worldwide. Also, as Chair of the Ecotoxicology/E-Fate Committee of the Pyrethroid Working Group (PWG), he led an industry-based Task Force to address questions raised by the EPA on aquatic ecotoxicity of pyrethroids.

Magalie Ferbach

Global Business Development Director

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Magalie graduated with a BSC in Chemistry in 2000 from the University Robert Schuman, Strasbourg. She has more than 20 years within the CRO industry having worked in both scientific and more recently business development roles. She started her career as a bench scientist with Anadiag where she quickly progressed to Study Director and Regulatory Expert. From there she progressed into business development working with multi-national large CRO organizations. Her continued keen interest and deep understanding of regulatory affairs in various markets has allowed her to develop strong relationships with clients and has given her a thorough understanding of the importance and complexity of their needs. To contact Magalie email magalie.ferbach@scymaris.com or call + 33 613 61 70 33.

Ed Hayward

Director of Laboratory Operations

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Ed graduated from the University of Plymouth in 2012 with a BSc (Hons) in Analytical chemistry. Ed has had a significant experience with analytical method development in both GLP and ISO laboratory environments primarily using LCMS, GCMS and ICP-OES platforms to support product registrations globally. His work experience includes contributing to Technical Liaison Groups representing members interests in agrochemical approvals. Ed’s analytical chemistry experience has focused on low level detection techniques in a variety of complex matrices often with rapid turnaround requirements. Ed is an experienced leader and holds a mini-MBA from the London school of Economics. At Scymaris Ed leads highly integrated and cross functional teams to ensure we can support our clients with the most complex and challenging of projects.

Simon Lock

Director of Quality and Risk Management

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Simon graduated with a BSc in chemistry from Imperial College, London. With over 20 years’ previous experience at the Brixham site and as working as an independent consultant, Simon leads the Regulatory and Quality Assurance aspects of GLP Compliance and QA processes. During this time, he has implemented new systems for GLP, Quality Assurance and Computer Validation, targeting greater compliance and efficiency.

Simon is also responsible for the management of our health and safety program and works with our facility management and IT providers to ensure the smooth running of all our internal and external systems.

David Balch

Chief Financial Officer

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David joined Scymaris in 2019 as CFO with over 7 years working in similar roles for fast-growth SMEs in the South West. Prior to this, David worked in a regional accountancy practice having qualified at PwC. Whether it be as an external accountant or in-house CFO, David has a passion for helping businesses and the people within them reach their full potential. David has a family with 3 small children so what spare time he does have is usually spent recovering.

Stephen (Tim) Derrington

Chief Executive Officer

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Tim founded Scymaris in 2016 and has previously held a number of leadership roles in contract research businesses over the past 30 years. He has international, operational and business development experience developing and growing science and technology companies in the life sciences marketplace. He has previously held positions as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and General Management roles. Previously he has also served as Senior Vice President Corporate Development with Quintiles Transnational Corp, Chief Operating Officer Quintiles Laboratories Worldwide and Administrative Director – Clinical Trials at Mayo Clinic. Tim’s early career was spent working for Shell UK Ventures commercializing internally generated R&D initiatives. He graduated from Seale Hayne College in 1986 with a degree in Agricultural Management and in 1989 completed an MBA from Henley Management College, (University of Reading), Oxfordshire, England.

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