John Dawson
Graduated in Pharmacy at Sunderland Polytechnic in 1970 and joined Ciba Geigy in Horsham, West Sussex. Over 14 years there, he worked in development, production, distribution and sales & marketing. Then in 1984 he took a UK management team position with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals looking after planning and administration, in which role he became heavily involved in pricing negotiaitions with government. In 1991 he was appointed Finance Director and in 1995 Deputy Managing Director. He undertook a part-time MSc in Finance at London Business School from 1993 to 1997.
In 1997 he set up Alliance Pharma with the aim of building a pharmaceutical company by acquiring established brands and by in-licensing. Alliance began trading in 1998 and floated on AiM in 2003. It has sales of around £50m, over 80% of which are in the UK and employs around 70 people.
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