Leadership Team

Chris Yates joined Abingdon Health as CEO in July 2015. Chris had originally co-founded Abingdon Health with Dr Chris Hand and Dr Brett Pollard in 2008 and had been a non-executive of the Company prior to his appointment as CEO. Prior to Abingdon Health, Chris held CFO positions in two medical diagnostic group’s, both AIM-listed, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings PLC and Cozart plc.

Melanie is a highly experienced executive with a strong track record of process and business improvement, and has broad experience in managing rapidly growing businesses, fund raisings, acquisitions, and corporate governance. Most recently she was Group Finance Director at GVO-B1 Ltd, and prior to that served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at AIM-listed Surgical Innovations Group Plc where she was instrumental in leading the Company to profitability. Melanie holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance from the Nottingham Trent University.

Olly has a wealth of leadership experience from his successful 17-year career as an Army Officer. Initially training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Olly commissioned into the Royal Signals where he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Olly led British and Gurkha soldiers in many locations across the world, before culminating his military service in the Ministry of Defence, where he worked closely with US Department of Defense leading a number of special projects.

Post Army, Olly has held senior industry roles at RWE npower and York-based Park Leisure. During his time at Park Leisure, Olly held numerous executive appointments, including Chief Operating Officer.

Mark Jones joined Abingdon Health as the Site Lead for the Doncaster site in April 2020 with promotion to Technical Director in July 2021 and then Chief Operating Officer in February 2022. Mark has a PhD in Chemistry and over 15(+) years experience in operational, technical, project management and validation roles with extensive experience in the development and manufacture of lateral flow assays. Prior to joining Abingdon Health Mark held numerous senior roles at the BBI Group .

Leigh Thomas joined Abingdon Health in March 2019 and is responsible for driving the global sales expansion. Leigh brings over 24 years of commercial experience in contract sales and negotiation starting his career with Pearson and latterly spending 16 years in various senior sales roles within BBI Solutions including periods as Sales Director and Chief Commercial Officer. Leigh is a graduate of Cardiff University.

Scott Page joined Abingdon Health as Group Financial Controller in July 2017 with promotion to Finance Director in January 2020. Scott has 10+ years’ experience in finance and controlling roles with medium/large organisations. Prior to joining Abingdon Health Scott spent 6 years at Aptar, a global leading plastics manufacturer where he worked on multiple projects around factory scale and controlling environment as well as upgrading the ERP system.

Nina joined Abingdon Health in 2019 and brought with her over 18 years of experience in the development and production of lateral flow rapid tests. Nina held several senior roles at British Biocell International (now BBI Group) before moving to oversee Abingdon Health’s assay development and technical transfer teams.

Nina has a Masters in Chemistry (MChem) from the University of Exeter.

Brenda has over 25 years’ experience working in private and public sector organisations operating at senior/board level.  Most recently Brenda has supported several Blue-chip companies to develop strategies designed to drive world-class performance. Leadership and Management development is one of Brenda’s specialisms having established and managed a number of Academies.  Brenda has a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Huddersfield.

Liam joined Abingdon Health in February 2021 and brings a wealth of industry related experience, joining us from AstraZeneca, where he held several Quality leadership appointments since 2004. Prior to that, Liam worked at GlaxoSmithKline, where again he held Operational Quality roles.

Dave Goldsworthy joined Abingdon Health as the Operational Lead for the York site in January 2021 with promotion to Operations Director in July 2021. Dave has over 30(+) year’s experience in operational and supply chain roles with extensive automation and high speed manufacturing experience. Prior to joining Abingdon Health, Dave spent 4 years within FMCG as a Group Manufacturing Director and 4 years with an Iron Ore Mining Company in Western Australia as the General Manager of the Corporate Logistics and Operational Services Department.