CEO Spotlight: Fiona Marshall

In recognition of wide range of diverse innovators we work with and support, we are launching our 'CEO Spotlight' series. We will be chatting with a selection of our Portfolio Company CEO's to learn more about their background, journey and upcoming plans. In the first of this series, we hear from Fiona Marshall, CEO of AgPlus Diagnostics.

Before joining AgPlus in 2018, I had spent 12 years working at BBI Solutions in various roles and latterly as Managing Director. Working in the diagnostics sector for over 25 years with both small scale ups and larger companies has given me a broad range of knowledge across various business functions from R&D right through to International Trade Agreements. Joining a small company again does bring its challenges and you have to wear multiple hats and work with limited resources, so prioritising is key. However, joining at this stage has provided the opportunity to be instrumental to the strategy, vision, scale up and success of the business

I understand the diagnostics sector and the limitations of current point of care systems. The move to AgPlus was prompted by its exciting technology, which I felt could be transformational to healthcare professionals and patient outcomes. The role is definitely hands-on but bringing my learnings good and bad from my previous roles helps me to guide AgPlus to scale up more efficiently.

AgPlus required a clear strategy and vision. This meant some staff changes, but it has been fantastic to build a small but focussed team who all now share a mutual vision for the Agilis™ Platform and the impact it will have. Seeing the reader and cartridge coming together with the chemistry, and working with key partners to achieve this, has been fantastic. 2021 is all about proving our technology to our B2B partners, showing them it works and how it can support their business growth and market differentiation. Scale up of our manufacturing processes, and support of regulatory submissions with our partners is essential in order to be ready to launch the platform in early 2022.

Fundamental to achieving the AgPlus strategy is support from our Investors and the invaluable input from our Board. Investment and Board support from UKI2S has been pivotal in supporting the business but also in asking the challenging questions to make sure we are driving in the right direction at all times. In order for a small business to succeed it needs to network and tap into external resources and UKI2S is a great advocate for AgPlus.

Life as a CEO can be challenging and lonely at times, but nurturing the team, achieving business growth and ultimately making a difference to people’s lives with our products by far outweigh this.