A recently appointed board member at SkinBioTherapeutics will oversee a ‘forensic’ investigation into the actions of the former CEO at the listed company.
Alyson Levett was only appointed to the board and as chair of its audit committee in January and will oversee the probe into former CEO Stuart Ashman, who resigned recently amid accusations of misrepresenting results.
The Newcastle firm has shed 72% of its value since the news broke, while it is down 8% in the opening 30 minutes of trading today following the news that Levett will lead the investigation on behalf of the board, which has also appointed FRP Advisory for the job.
Existing external legal and professional advisers will also support the process, as necessary, it said.
Levett has over 20 years C-suite financial experience, culminating in being CFO at the strategy software company, i-nexus where she stayed for a decade taking it onto AIM in a successful IPO in 2018.
Ashman (above), who joined in 2024, was briefly suspended by the listed Newcastle firm and he resigned soon afterwards. He is accused of inflating accrued royalty income recorded in the audited accounts for the year ended 30th June 2025.
This amounted to £770,000 and is now expected to be removed from the FY25 accounts, subject to confirmation by auditors, when they are restated.
FY25 revenue will become £3.87 million from the reported figure of £4.64m, while adjusted EBITDA for FY25 will be restated to a loss of £1.17m from the reported loss figure of £410,000, with an operating loss of £1.47m.
The board now anticipates that the results for the year ended 30 June 2026 will be significantly below current market expectations.
“The board’s aim has always been to act quickly – undertaking an investigation whilst maintaining business continuity and minimising disruption,” said Levett. “FRP Advisory can help us expedite our investigation and enable us to issue the HY results as soon as possible in the confidence that all issues have been identified.
“The senior leadership team can then return their focus to running and growing the business.”
Sad fate of Jnck Bakery, pitched by ex-THG duo on Dragons’ Den
The life science HealthTech, which is focused on skin heath, said non-executive chair Martin Hunt will temporarily become executive chair while a search for an interim replacement then permanent CEO takes place.
It said that it remains confident in the underlying financial health of the business due to its robust cash position – £2.92m as at 13 February 2026 – while contracts held with key partners and customers ‘remain sound’.
Ashman was appointed in 2024, succeeding Professor Cath O’Neill, with over two decades of commercial healthcare experience – primarily in the medical devices industry.
Since 2014, he had served as CEO of Onbone, a Finnish private equity-backed medical device company. Prior to that, Ashman was president and CEO of Andover Healthcare, a US-based wound management manufacturer and president and CEO of TI Group, a UK-based medical/engineering company.
Last year the company welcomed a new COO and board member in Simon Hewitson, a former CEO of Polar Krush Group.
Emily Bertram was also appointed as the group’s finance director in a non-board capacity following the departure of Manprit Randhawa.
Peter Jones breaks down as Health & Holistics founder is ‘gift to humanity’