Benchmark Holdings PLC Appointment of Executive Director (1622T)

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RNS Number : 1622T

Benchmark Holdings PLC

02 July 2018

2 July 2018

Benchmark Holdings plc

("Benchmark" or the "Company")

Appointment of Executive Director

Benchmark Holdings plc (AIM: BMK), the aquaculture health, advanced nutrition, and genetics business, is pleased to announce the appointment of Alex Raeber as Chief Scientific Officer. Alex will join the Board as an Executive Director and is expected to commence his new role in early October.

Alex has a strong track record in the animal health sector with more than 18 years' experience in global public companies as well as start-ups. He most recently was the Director of Global R&D, AgriBusiness at Thermo Fisher Scientific, the American multinational biotechnology product development company, listed on the NYSE. In this role he drove the agribusiness innovation and growth strategy, and was focussed on the execution of the agribusiness product commercialisation pipeline across a range of R&D and manufacturing sites globally.

Prior to this, he led R&D divisions at biotechnology firms including Prionics AG and Cytos Proteome Therapeutics.

Alex holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Zurich and an MSc from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Malcolm Pye, Benchmark CEO commented:

"I am delighted that Alex will be joining our Board. His extensive scientific animal health background, coupled with his demonstrable commercial execution will bring considerable strength and new skills to the leadership of our Board.

"His appointment adds to the growing momentum across our organisation as we continue to invest in our pipeline of new products and infrastructure."

Peter George, Chairman commented:

"I am greatly encouraged that we have been able to attract someone of Alex's calibre and pedigree. He brings with him a proven track record and strong operational leadership. We welcome and look forward to him joining the Board and contributing to the success of Benchmark's next phase of growth."

Alex Raeber, incoming Chief Scientific Officer commented:

"I am excited to be joining Benchmark. I was attracted by its enviable market position in aquaculture, scale and global footprint. I very much look forward to working closely with the team and the Board to continue to drive growth across the organisation."

Additional Information

Alexander Josef Raeber (58) has held the following directorships in the last five years:

Current Directorships:

   --      Prionics AG (Switzerland) 

Previous Directorships - Last 5 years:

   --      BioSupport AG (Switzerland) 

Save as disclosed above, there are no further disclosures required to be made in respect of the appointment under Schedule 2(g) or Rule 17 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

 
Benchmark Holdings plc                              Tel: [phone] 
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Ivonne Cantu, Investor Relations Director 
Rachel Aninakwah, Communications 
 
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 (NOMAD) 
James Black (Corporate Broking) 
 
MHP 
Katie Hunt / Reg Hoare /Alistair de                          Tel: [phone] 
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Notes to Editors:

Benchmark challenges the status quo in aquaculture. Since 2000, Benchmark has consistently worked to build a technology-rich platform in the areas of genetics, advanced nutrition, animal health and knowledge services, to serve its customers, helping them take control of their biological environment to improve yield and efficiency in a sustainable way.

The Company has leading positions in its core markets and established R&D, manufacturing and distribution capabilities to serve all the major aquaculture markets. Benchmark operates in 27 countries in five continents and as at 31 March 2018, it employed 1028 people.

For further information on Benchmark please visit www.benchmarkplc.com

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July 02, 2018 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)