Versarien (VRS ) has appointed Dr Stephen Hodge as the Company's Chief Technology Officer ("CTO") and joined the Company's Board of Directors with immediate effect.
Dr Hodge is currently Head of Research at Versarien, a role he has held since July 2018. Prior to this, he was employed as a Principal Engineer at Cambridge Graphene Limited, a subsidiary of Versarien and supplier of graphene inks and other graphene materials.
The Company said Dr Hodge held post-doctoral research associate positions at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, a research centre attached to the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, where he also completed a PhD in Nanomaterial Chemistry.
Hodge is a member of the International Advisory Board for the Graphene NOWNANO CDT at the University of Manchester and was formerly a Teaching Fellow in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) program in Graphene Technology at The University of Cambridge.
In addition, Dr Hodge also holds the role of Chairman of the Technical Working Group within the Graphene REACH registration consortium. Hodge will now join the Board; James Stewart (Non-executive Chairman), Neill Ricketts (CEO), Christopher Leigh (CFO), Stephen Hodge (CTO), Susan Bowen (Non-executive Director) and Iain Gray (Non-executive Director).
Commenting on the appointment, Neill Ricketts, Chief Executive of Versarien, said: "We are delighted to welcome Steve to the Versarien Board. He brings significant research and scientific experience to the CTO role and will be responsible for developing solutions and creating partnerships with the Graphene and Plastics division's commercial pipeline.”
He added, "His academic credentials are impeccable and his time as Head of Research at Versarien ensures that Steve will continue to contribute to the progression of our commercial partnerships and international expansion strategy."
Shares in Versarien have increased by over 26% in the past month with the shares reacting positively to today’s Board appointment to open 2.51% higher at 49.52p.
Reasons to Follow VRS
Versarien is an advanced engineering materials group that leverages proprietary technology through innovative engineering solutions. The company holds eight subsidiaries which operate under two divisions, Graphene and Plastics and Hard Ware and Metallic Products.
Commercialisation of the ‘Wonder Material’
In 2019/20 Versarien entered into collaborations with global partners. The group completed a process required to achieve the award of a £5 million Innovate UK loan. It said its focus ‘is now very much on the monetisation of the graphene technologies’ in its portfolio.
The loan is for a project named G SCALE, (Graphene-Seat, Concrete, Arch, Leisure, Elastomer), covering a number of Versarien's existing collaborations, which is designed to enable Versarien to ‘significantly increase’ its manufacture of quality assured graphene.
Expanding Product Portfolio
In August 2020, the company launched its first graphene enhanced protective face mask, which utilises Polygrene, Versarien’s graphene enhanced polymer. The mask is a filtering facepiece designed to protect against airborne bacteria and the spread of viral infection.
Versarien has also formed the Versarien Graphene Advisory Panel (VGap) to commercialise ‘the many opportunities’ of graphene. This will focus on the dual agenda of scoping Versarien's current and future technologies, along with wider graphene related topics.
Anti-COVID-19 Applications
In addition, last week Versarien released results of a preliminary study of modified graphene materials, which were shown to possess properties inactivating the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The report concluded that the preliminary test results show that these materials significantly inhibit viral infection and possess antiviral activity towards SARS-CoV-2. The company said the results obtained were ‘statistically highly significant with a p-value of less than 0.0001.’
The report concludes that the results show GNA22 and GNA24 to significantly inhibit viral infection and suggests that these materials possess antiviral activity towards SARS-CoV-2.
“While we must stress that these results have been achieved under laboratory conditions, they do demonstrate that our hybrid graphene nanomaterials have the potential to provide protection from COVID-19,” said Neill Ricketts, Chief Executive Officer of Versarien.
International Expansion into China and South Korea
The company plans to use Beijing Versarien Technology Company Limited, its wholly owned Chinese foreign entity, to form the base for its expansion activities in China.
Additionally, Company plans to establish operations in South Korea via its new subsidiary, which will be overseen initially by Versarien's Head of International Strategy and Government Relations, Matt Walker.
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