Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc announced that Adrian Rawcliffe, currently Chief Financial Officer of the company, will succeed James Noble as Chief Executive Officer. James will retire from his executive duties and transition to a non-executive director role on the company’s board on September 1, 2019. Adrian will join the board of directors on this date.
 
“Following James’ request early last year, the Board has been planning for leadership succession. Today, I am pleased to announce Adrian’s appointment, following a rigorous global selection process,” said David Mott, Adaptimmune’s Chairman of the Board. “We were very fortunate to have Adrian as a candidate, not only given his role as CFO, covering a wide range of responsibilities from manufacturing to information management, but also his previous experiences at GSK. I want to thank James for his leadership, energy and drive, which has delivered the Company’s science, current pipeline, manufacturing expertise, and strong teams. Based on these strengths, Adrian will now lead the Company towards commercialization.”
 
“I am delighted and privileged to have been chosen to succeed James as CEO. Since I joined Adaptimmune, I have been intimately involved in building the Company working alongside the Executive Committee and the Board. The opportunity for cell therapy to transform the lives of cancer patients is profound. Over the next two months, I will work with James and the other Company leaders to ensure a smooth handover. I am excited about the future and look forward to delivering rapidly the promises of our investigational therapies, focusing on SPEARHEAD-1, our next-gen trial, and advancing our allogeneic platform” said Adrian Rawcliffe.
 
James Noble said: “Over the past 20 years leading Adaptimmune and its predecessor company Avidex, I am proud to have built technologies, teams and partnerships to create strong R&D platforms and a rich pipeline. Now that the Company is about to start SPEARHEAD-1 and our first next-gen trial, it is the right time to hand over the CEO role to someone to lead Adaptimmune’s next phase towards delivering our first approved product to patients.  Having worked with Adrian over the past four and a half years, I have confidence that he is the best person to do this. I look forward to continuing being involved in the next steps of the Company’s journey, as a non-executive Board member.”
 
The Company has started a global search for a new CFO.