Abingdon Health plc, an international developer, manufacturer and distributor of high quality and effective rapid tests, has made major changes to its leadership team.
CEO of 10 years Chris Yates has moved to the new role of president of Abingdon Health USA.
Yates co-founded the York-based firm in 2008 with Dr Chris Hand and Dr Brett Pollard before being appointed to the role of CEO in 2015.
He will take responsibility for the US business and for commercial activities globally, including recently acquired subsidiaries CS Group and IVDeology.
His now-former role of the group’s CEO has now been incorporated into Dr Hand’s role as executive chairman.
Dr Hand has previously served as CEO between 2008 and 2015, before Yates took on the role.
The company has also appointed Dr Katie Brenner as an additional independent non-executive director. She will join the company on April 1st.
Dr Brenner is based in the USA and founded bluDiagnostics, a company specialising in lateral flow testing with an associated app to allow at-home monitoring of female fertility using saliva samples.
She sold her business to Amazon in 2020 and remained there until 2024.
“It’s been an honour and a privilege to lead Abingdon Health. After nearly 10 years of service as CEO I’ve made the decision to transition to a new commercially focused role, where I believe I can best contribute to our future growth,” said Yates.
“I would like to thank the board for their flexibility and support in facilitating this change. I am looking forward to focusing my efforts on building the Abingdon Health USA operations and the Group’s global commercial activities.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Katie to the board.”
Dr Hand added: “As the Abingdon Health group continues to grow, with an increasing focus on US lateral flow and compliance markets, I am pleased that Chris Yates has accepted the challenge of managing our US operations and global commercial activities.
“The role of group CEO will lapse and be incorporated into my recently announced role of executive chairman.
“The addition of Dr Katie Brenner as a non-executive director significantly strengthens our Board and will provide us with invaluable experience as we continue to grow the business, and I’d like to welcome Katie to the board at this exciting time for Abingdon Health.
“As a co-founder of Abingdon Health with Chris Yates, I’d like to offer my thanks to him for the tremendous job he has done as CEO over the past 10 years, to thank him for his flexibility and commitment in moving to the important role of president, Abingdon Health USA and to wish him success in that role as we move forward.”
Revenues for the company in the six months to 31st December 2024 were £3.1m, which represented a growth rate of 28.4% from the same period in the year prior.
However, operating costs rose from £2.7m to £3.2m, which the firm attributes to investments in its new lab in Doncaster and its new office and lab in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
EBITDA loss was £1.9m, up from a £1.2m loss the year before.