SoftOx Solutions AS — Board/Management Information 2024

Jul 2, 2024

SoftOx Solution AS: Announcement of New Board and Leadership

SoftOx Solution AS: Announcement of New Board and Leadership

With the announced commitment from selected shareholders to participate in the planned guarantee-consortium for a planned contemplated right issue, SoftOx has reached a significant milestone in the effort to financially restructure, refocus and set a new strategic pathway for the Company.

The founder and current Chairman of the Board, Geir Almås, has decided to step down.

“I am very satisfied with the situation. SoftOx is now out of the financial struggle. This is the right time for me to step down and let the new team lead the Company through further clinical trials and commercialization. The first step will be to focus on a solution to treat Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP).”

New Board and Management:

Ulrik Spork has accepted to take the position of Chairman of the Board in SoftOx Solutions AS. He has gained massive support from a majority of the shareholders and is in the process of identifying additional qualified candidates with relevant complementing competencies to be proposed as additional members of the board. It has also been agreed that Professor Thomas Bjarnsholt will fill the position as CEO. This will be a very strong and experienced team. The Board will therefore propose to the EGM to elect Ulrik Spork as the new Chairman of the Board.

Ulrik Spork is active as chairman/board member in a number of emerging life-science companies as well as two funds-of-funds, investing in venture/private equity funds. Over 25 years until 2015 Ulrik held senior positions in the Novo Group, including Head of Corporate Development in Novo Nordisk, founder and Senior Partner of Novo Ventures, Managing Partner Novo Growth Equity and Principal Investments and member of the executive team in Novo Holdings A/S.

Over the last 25+ years, Ulrik has served as chairman or board member in more than 30 development/early commercialization stage companies in the life science space, in jurisdictions including France, UK, Sweden, Denmark Canada and USA. This has provided him with relevant experience and network, but he also brings a pragmatic approach and an appreciation of the need for pre-revenue life-science companies to thoughtfully navigate towards value inflection points, to successfully advance.

He is a Danish national and holds a master's degree in engineering from Danish Technical University and a bachelor's in business administration from Copenhagen Business School.

Thomas Bjarnsholt has been consultant of SoftOx since 2017 and CSO since 2022. Bjarnsholt has been instrumental and leading the development of the SoftOx technology for inhalation purposes. He is an expert in bacterial biofilms and their role in chronic infections. He has carried out pioneering work by being the first to identify and visualize bacterial biofilms in chronic wounds, acute and chronic lung infections, chronic middle ear infections and infections due to tissue fillers. Bjarnsholt has published more than 250 scientific papers, he is among the most cited researchers in the world (only 55 in Denmark) according to the list based on Web of Science 2023: https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/ and the number 1 biofilm researcher worldwide according to ExpertScape: https://expertscape.com/ex/biofilms

“This is a very strong team with the knowledge and experience required to take SoftOx through the next step with clinical trials and the commercialization in the years ahead, says Almås.”

In this process the former ICFO Harald Sætvedt has stepped down and will be replaced by CFO Ingrid Juven. Ingrid Juven has over 25+ years of consulting and management expertise within a variety of industries. Juven holds an MBA from BI Norwegian Business School.

The company will keep the listing on Euronext Growth Oslo.

For further information, please contact: 

Geir Almås, COB or Ingrid Juven, CFO of SoftOx Solutions AS, or 

Mail: ir@soft-ox.com 

Phone: Geir Almås, COB: (+47) 977 59 071 

About SoftOx Solutions AS:

SoftOx Solutions AS (SoftOx, listed on Euronext Growth Oslo) is a Norwegian MedTech/biotech company based in Oslo with the aim of helping to combat major threats to human health, namely the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), biofilm infections in chronic wounds and the spread of viruses. For more information on SoftOx, visit www.soft-ox.com