World-class Leadership Team

Dr. Nick Challoner joined Ingenza in 2025 as Chief Executive Officer to elevate Ingenza’s market presence using engineering biology to address the innovation and sustainability challenges faced by our customers.

Prior to joining Ingenza, Nick had a hugely successful career spanning more than 30 years with leading FTSE 100 company, Croda International, where he led innovative and highly profitable growth in technology across the Consumer Care and Life Sciences sectors.

Nick held Senior Executive positions at Croda for more than 10 years during which time he had numerous high-level roles with responsibilities in R&D, sales and marketing, business management, leadership and governance. Nick held roles in the UK and in multiple international locations within Asia Pacific and The Americas.

Nick has a long history of bringing innovation to life and advancing new products and services to market, most recently leading the development and scale-up of lipids required for mRNA formulation and delivery for Covid vaccines. With a passion for workplace culture and innovation, Nick’s appointment as CEO of Ingenza comes at a hugely exciting time for the company ahead of aggressive growth and further expansion plans.

Ian Shott CBE was the co-founder and Executive Chair of ARCINOVA a high growth Contract Research and Development company focussed on Pharmaceuticals and life sciences. He sold the business to Quotient Sciences in 2021 and is now Director and Senior Adviser on the Board. He is also the Executive Chair of Shott Trinova through which he invests in, chairs and leads a portfolio of technology businesses. In 2004 he founded Excelsyn, a Pharmaceutical Development business, which was sold in 2010. Ian previously held several executive board global leadership positions, with multi-national life science companies (AstraZeneca, Lonza and Rhodia) residing in the UK, Switzerland, USA and France.

A past President of the IChemE he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), chairing the Enterprise Committee, having created the Enterprise Hub in 2012. He created and chaired the UK's Leadership Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre in Scotland. More recently he chaired the Steering Committee that guided the RAEng policy document “Engineering Biology-A Priority for Growth” published in 2020. He was made CBE in 2010 for services to the Chemical Engineering Profession.

Dr. Ian Fotheringham received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow, UK, in 1986. With G. D. Searle pharmaceuticals, he engineered bacterial production of human epidermal growth factor, one of the first recombinantly produced biologics. Moving to Monsanto Corp. in Chicago, he successfully applied engineering biology and directed evolution for commercial manufacture of the Aspartame^® sweetener and subsequently to produce unnatural amino acids as chiral intermediates in the manufacture of HIV protease inhibitors.

In 2003, Ian co-founded Ingenza and he has since led the organic growth of the company to become one of the world’s most versatile CRDMOs, accelerating the development of biologics, natural products and small molecule pharmaceuticals as well as bio-based products for many other industry sectors.

In 2020, Ian was awarded an MBE for his services to Industrial Biotechnology. Ian has published 35 papers and articles and holds five current patents.

Jaymin is a shareholder and Chief Business Officer at Ingenza. He brings over 25 years of leadership experience in life sciences, spanning corporate and business development, strategy and operations.

Jaymin joined the board of Ingenza in 2006 as Financial Director. After helping to grow Ingenza four-fold in his first four years, Jaymin was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2011. Since then, Jaymin has been instrumental in the growth and positioning of Ingenza as a market leading, boutique CRDMO and he now also leads the Business Development team at Ingenza.

Jaymin is also the CEO of ProFactor Pharma Ltd where he has successfully raised equity investments to progress their drug target from discovery through to successful pre-clinical animal tox studies, ready for phase 1 clinical trials.

Steve Jones is a Chartered Accountant, and Fellow of the ICAEW, with over 25 years of experience holding senior finance roles in businesses across a wide range of business sectors, sizes and ownership models. In 2014, he founded his own consultancy business to provide financial expertise, advice and resource to SMEs to help maximise their growth potential. He has worked closely with Ian Shott, as an Associate of Shott Trinova, developing financial infrastructure in high-growth SME technology businesses and enabling highly successful sale outcomes for shareholders. Through his own consultancy business, Steve grew a portfolio of clients for whom he provided financial support as Finance Director/CFO or undertook individual project work. Steve also provides voluntary help and advice to the Soko Fund, a Scottish charity which aims to assist females in Malawi improve life opportunities through funding their university education.

Dr. Leonardo Magneschi joined Ingenza in 2016 where he strategically drives the core innovative mission of the company to deliver world-class pharma and sustainable biotech solutions. Leonardo has an entrepreneurial mentality and a proven track-record of leading, developing and delivering multidisciplinary research programmes, spanning next-generation recombinant subunit vaccines, complex biologics, antimicrobial peptides, enzymes and sustainable fuels.

Before joining Ingenza, Leonardo received a Ph.D. from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in collaboration with the Carnegie Institution for Science (Stanford University). Following a postdoc funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he transitioned to the world of industrial biotech under a “TOTAL New Energies” industrial project hosted by French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Leonardo is at the forefront of Ingenza’s Business Development and he has published scientific work in peer reviewed journals and holds inventorship on international patents.

Masha Kononov has a successful track record of over 25 years in life science business development and R&D in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Masha has a record of developing new territories, businesses and market-focused strategies to achieve strategic and commercial goals.

Most recently Masha has held senior business development roles at prestigious companies like Leukocare AG, Arcinova/Quotient Sciences and Catalent Pharma Solutions.

Sarah Scott joined Ingenza in 2009 and has played a key role in building Ingenza‘s brand as a global leader in engineering biology. Sarah has a First-Class honours degree in Marketing Management, she has MCIM status with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and she has completed consecutive years of the CIM‘s Chartered CPD programme. Sarah is Head of Operations at Ingenza, with an integral role in the company‘s marketing, public relations and human resources.

Sarah is passionate about showcasing Ingenza, and over the years she has led a number of marketing campaigns, high profile visits and secured business awards for the company. Sarah has also instilled a workplace culture at Ingenza that she is immensely proud of and she thrives on the dynamic and diverse environment which makes Ingenza a much sought after employer. Sarah is a member of the IBioIC Commercial Advisory Board and she is a Life Sciences Scotland Marketing Communications Group member.

Dr. Alison Arnold Ph.D. joined Ingenza in 2003 and is Head of Fermentation and Microbiology. She has over 20 years’ experience working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In 2018, Alison had success at the Scottish Women’s Awards where she was honoured for her Services to Science and Technology. Alison leads a team of upstream scientists playing an integral role in a variety of cutting-edge programmes at Ingenza, supporting development of biologics, natural products and small molecule pharmaceuticals as well as renewable fuels and materials.

Alison has extensive experience managing worldwide technology transfers of multiple bio-manufacturing processes and in the scale up of a wide range of microbial hosts and mammalian cell lines. Alison is a passionate advocate of Women in STEM and she also delivers lectures to Scotland’s Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s MSc student cohort. Alison has over 15 published peer reviewed scientific articles.

Dr Fraser Brown joined Ingenza in 2006 and received a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. He has over 20 years’ experience in industrial bioprocess development and optimisation for a range of pharmaceutical targets including small molecules, peptides and proteins. Since joining the company Fraser has successfully tech transferred several lab scale bioprocesses to CRDMO’s around the world.

He leads a team of a chemists with expertise in biocatalysis, assay development, product isolation and pharmaceutical characterisation. Analytical techniques such as advanced mass spectrometry are routinely used to establish critical quality attributes such as target identity, quantity, purity and potency. Beyond his technical roles Fraser is a proven leader with a track record of building and empowering high-performing teams. He is dedicated to fostering a culture of scientific excellence that align with the company’s pharmaceutical development pipeline and quality management framework.

Dr. Scott Baxter joined Ingenza in 2011 and is an expert in microbial strain engineering and protein purification/characterisation. Prior to joining Ingenza, Scott gained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from The University of Edinburgh. Scott has helped build Ingenza’s in-house capability to develop scalable processes for the manufacture of pre-clinical biopharmaceuticals to the principles of GMP.

Scott has over the years managed customer programmes ranging from pharma to renewable materials. Scott plays a crucial role in advancing Ingenza’s pharmaceutical biomanufacturing (CMC) capabilities to support preclinical toxicology studies, he liaises closely with external partners and industry experts and has enhanced Ingenza’s in-house capabilities in this area. Scott oversees the operational management of all microbial laboratories at Ingenza.

Dr. Rita Cruz joined Ingenza in 2016 and leads collaborations with organisations ranging from innovative start-ups to multinational pharmaceutical companies, advancing innovations in biologics and beyond, from discovery through to commercial manufacturing. She is an expert in developing and optimising recombinant protein expression systems, with applications spanning platform vaccine development, probiotics, and biocatalysts for pharmaceutical synthesis, alongside broader applications in biofuels, animal health and consumer products. Her track record includes supporting the advancement of biologics and other technologies from early concept through to scalable and GMP-ready manufacturing, enabling partners to accelerate product development, regulatory approval and market impact.

Rita earned her Ph.D through the prestigious Marie Curie Industrial European Doctorate programme at the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, in partnership with DSM, a world leader in enzyme manufacturing. A committed advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM, she also plays a key role in shaping Ingenza’s business development strategy and forging lasting partnerships.

With over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical development, Lisa Fraser has held senior roles spanning pre-clinical and clinical quality assurance, clinical operations, and global project management within both SMEs and leading CROs. Lisa has a strong track record of guiding cross-functional teams to deliver complex development programmes on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards. During her tenure at Covance in Singapore, Lisa played a pivotal role in strengthening project management frameworks that enabled the successful execution of large-scale international clinical trials.

Alongside her corporate career, Lisa established a UK-based consultancy supporting pharmaceutical, biotech and consumer health and personal care clients with project management, quality assurance, and medical writing services, where her expertise and leadership skills have been instrumental in shaping individualised solutions to meet client needs.