Bruce Andrews apoointed CEO of Marical
The Board of Directors of MariCal has unanimously elected Bruce I. Andrews as its new Chief Executive Officer.
“Bruce Andrews is a true leader in the animal agriculture industry who is well respected by his peers,” said Steven Morrell, chairman of MariCal’s board.
“Bruce’s background in the animal health and nutrition markets and his executive management expertise is very complementary to MariCal’s existing executive management team. He will help further advance the company in realizing its full potential with the Calcium Sensing Receptor (CaSR) technology in both the aquatic and terrestrial markets.”
Andrews was a former President and CEO of the Animal Health Division of Alpharma, Inc., a leading global manufacturer and marketer of pharmaceutical and feed additive products for livestock, poultry and fish worldwide. Prior to Alpharma, he had a 20-year career with American Cyanamid in a number of positions with increasing responsibility in both the animal health and crop protection chemical businesses. In addition, Andrews was a very active industry member, having been a past Chairman of the Board and President of the International Federation for Animal Health, as well as Member of Board, Executive Committee Member and Vice Chairman of the Animal Health Institute.
Mr. Morrell, who is also a Senior Partner of Teknoinvest AS, a Norway-based venture capital company and shareholder in MariCal, had been acting as MariCal’s CEO since January 2007. Morrell is stepping down from his CEO post to dedicate more of his time to MariCal’s growing subsidiary businesses in commercial aquaculture production.
“I look forward to assisting MariCal in the pursuit of successful performance enhancement, prophylactic and. therapeutic technology applications based on the Company’s novel CaSR platform technology,” Mr. Andrews said. “ MariCal has the potential to develop a number of products for both food producing and companion animal species worldwide.”
MariCal’s key discovery is that of a class of molecular extracellular ion receptor proteins, called calcium sensing receptors (CaSR’s), that serve as the biological sensors or “master switches” that enable aquatic and terrestrial (food and companion) animals to sense and respond to changes in both water salinity and nutrients in their external and internal environments. This patented technology has applications in both food and companion animals by providing specialized dietary and pharmaceutical products that benefit animal health and nutrition of livestock and pets.
MariCal, headquartered in Portland, Maine, was founded in 1996 and is a privately held animal health and nutrition biotechnology company with 26 full time employees with operations in Chile and offices in Canada, United Kingdom and Norway. In addition, MariCal is a joint-venture partner in Low Salinity Inc., based in Saltville, Virginia. MariCal is a recognized global leader in aquatic and terrestrial biotechnology possessing 49 issued and pending patents in their field.
