Oxford Nanopore strengthens executive team
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Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc
("Oxford Nanopore" or the "Company")
Oxford Nanopore strengthens executive leadership team
Appointment of first Chief Medical Officer and Chief Information Officer
21 May 2026
Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc (LSE: ONT), the company delivering a new generation of nanopore based molecular sensing, today announces the appointments of Davide Manissero MD as Chief Medical Officer and Andrew Watson as Chief Information Officer. Together, these roles strengthen the Company's leadership as it expands into clinical and regulated markets while scaling its data, software and machine learning capabilities.
As Oxford Nanopore's first Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Davide will lead the Company's global clinical strategy leveraging his considerable experience across regulated clinical environments. Davide joins from Radiometer (a Danaher company), where he is currently CMO. He previously served as CMO at QIAGEN, leading global medical and clinical affairs, and held roles at ECDC and the WHO focused on infectious diseases and public health.
Andrew Watson will lead the Company's information systems, data, digital transformation, machine learning, and product software development. He will focus on scaling the Company's digital and customer-facing platforms, improving user experience, and embedding machine learning across its technology and product development. Andrew joins from Mimecast, where he leads AI and threat protection engineering. He has previously held senior roles at Healx and Dyson, where he established machine learning and biomedical research teams.
Francis Van Parys, Chief Executive Officer, of Oxford Nanopore, commented:
"Oxford Nanopore has built a strong track record of innovation, and we are now building on that with focus on execution and scaling. Davide and Andrew bring deep expertise in clinical development, data and machine learning, strengthening our ability to scale our business and translate our technology into real-world impact in research and healthcare."
Davide Manissero, MD, added:
"What drew me to Oxford Nanopore is the ability to generate rich biological information, rapidly, and the potential to bring this benefit to traditional and broader care settings. That opens up possibilities you don't see with many existing technologies. The opportunity now is to focus on where this can genuinely enhance clinical decisions and patient outcomes. I'm looking forward to working with our teams, customers and partners to help deliver on this promise."
Andrew Watson, said:
"Oxford Nanopore's technology sits at the intersection of biology, data, and advanced computing, creating a powerful platform for innovation. I am excited to help scale the Company's digital and software capabilities, harness machine learning across the company and product portfolio, and deliver seamless, high-performance user experiences that enable customers to extract maximum value from their data as adoption continues to grow."
Andrew Watson and Davide Manissero join the Company on 15 June and 3 August respectively. Their appointments follow the announcement that Tina St Leger will join Oxford Nanopore as Chief People Officer in June 2026. Davide, Andrew and Tina will join the Executive team.
Changes to Director Roles and Responsibilities
In accordance with UK Listing Rule 6.4.6(3), the Company notes that responsibility for the commercial function will transfer from Nick Keher, CFO, to Francis Van Parys, CEO, effective 1 July 2026.
-ENDS-
For further information, please contact:
Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc
Investors: ir@nanoporetech.com
Media: media@nanoporetech.com
Teneo (communications adviser to the Company)
Tom Murray and Lisa Jarrett-Kerr
+44 (0) 20 7353 4200
OxfordNanoporeTechnologies@teneo.com
About Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc:
Oxford Nanopore Technologies' goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology for faster, information rich, accessible and affordable molecular analysis. The first application is DNA/RNA sequencing, and the technology is in development for the analysis of other types of molecules including proteins. The technology is used in more than 125 countries to understand and characterise the biology of humans and diseases such as cancer, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, and whole environments. Oxford Nanopore Technologies products are intended for molecular biology applications and are not intended for diagnostic purposes. For more, visit: www.nanoporetech.com
Forward-looking statements
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements. For example, statements regarding expected revenue growth and profit margins are forward-looking statements. Phrases such as "aim", "plan", "expect", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "target", and similar expressions of a future or forward-looking nature should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address our expected future business and financial performance and financial condition, and by definition address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Our results could be affected by macroeconomic conditions, delays or challenges in manufacturing or delivering of products to our customers, suspensions of large projects and/or acceleration of large products or accelerated adoption of pathogen surveillance or applied uses of our products. These or other uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements.
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