Board changes

5 January 2015
Silence Therapeutics plc
Board changes
Silence Therapeutics plc, AIM: SLN (‘Silence’ or ‘the Company’), announces that Simon Sturge and
Alastair Riddell will exchange roles. As from the 5th January 2015 Alastair Riddell will take on the role
of Non-executive Chairman of the Board and Chair the Nominations Committee. Simon Sturge will
remain a Non Executive Director and Chair the Remuneration Committee.
Simon Sturge became Non-executive Chairman in November 2013. In March 2014 he was appointed
to a senior executive role with Merck KgaA based in Switzerland heading their Biosimilars activity,
which has necessarily reduced his availability in UK.
Alastair Riddell said, “We are grateful that Simon remains committed to continue to support the
company in a role less demanding of his time. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to work more
closely with Ali Mortazavi and his new senior team in helping the company generate value from its
RNA based therapeutic platform.”
Enquiries:
Silence Therapeutics plc
Ali Mortazavi, CEO
Timothy Freeborn, Finance Director
Rozi Morris, Communications Manager
+44 (0)20 3700 9711
Canaccord Genuity Limited
Dr Julian Feneley/Cara Griffiths/Henry Fitzgerald-O’Connor
+44 (0)20 7523 8350
About Silence Therapeutics
Silence Therapeutics is a leading RNA therapeutics company. It has developed proprietary
modifications to improve the robustness of RNA sequences together with advanced liposomal
chemistries to enhance the delivery of its therapeutics.
Dr Alastair Riddell
Dr Riddell has significant experience at Board level in life sciences and drug discovery and
development companies. He is currently Chairman of Definigen and has served as Chairman of both
Surface Therapeutics and Procure Therapeutics. Non-executive directorships have included Sareum
and CXR Biosciences. As CEO of Pharmagene, Alastair completed a successful IPO on the UK main
list, as CEO of Paradigm Therapeutics he completed a successful trade sale to Takeda and as CEO
of Stem Cell Sciences a trade sale to Stem Cells Inc (NASDAQ). A board member of the BioIndustry
Association for ten years, Alastair began his professional career as a medical doctor and Army officer
with experience in a variety of hospital specialties and in general practice. He then moved into
industry, directing all phases of clinical trials, before moving to sales, marketing and general
management in international pharmaceutical, life science and biotechnology companies, including
Celltech, Centocor and Amersham International.
Simon Sturge
Mr Sturge has over 32 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He worked
for Celltech for nine years, serving on the Group Board for the latter part of this time. He also founded
and was CEO for ten years of a biotech company that he founded and later listed on the FTSE and
NASDAQ exchanges as Vernalis plc. Most recently he was Corporate Senior Vice President of
Biotechnology for one of the world's top 15 pharmaceutical companies. Simon has significant
experience in strategy development, deal making and financing. This experience covers both small
molecules and proteins and in recent years he has built significant experience in the area of
biosimilars. Since March 2014, he has been heading the biosimilars unit at Merck KGaA. Simon is
routinely asked to speak at conferences including attendance at the World Economic Forum as an
invited entrepreneur in 2005.

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