Member Info for Jiving

And Mars to represent a Chairman is way way more than sitting at the head of a board table. It is the key strategic & organisation position - internally & externally . Summary as below:

To provide leadership. ...
To ensure the Management Committee functions properly. ...
To ensure the organisation is managed effectively. ...
To provide support and supervision to the chief officer and senior team. ...
To represent the organisation as its figurehead.

Mars if you look at my company history you can see that the roles have been formally filled promptly after each resignation. It is possible to dismiss every job from President to dustman as 'just a title' but the existence of a formal corporate structure, including these named roles, is a constant across companies large & small - and one we have adhered to in the past. You mention 'team' again I am eager to hear who the team is & how they intend to fill their roles & for how long.

The market clearly shares my view that we are still awaiting RNS1 - we trade at little more than our cash & the value of our listing as a shell. Our 'precious' intellectual property seemingly has no value. This is extremely important to us as our Lanstead monthly payments are so closely correlated to the share price - the failure of our ghost Chairman & CEO to stand up & be counted is literally costing us money.

05.02.20 Resignation of Dave Tapolczay as Non-Executive Chairman.
05.02.20 Dr Chris Blackwell appointed interim Chairman.

22.06.20 Resignation of Dr Dan Gooding as CEO.
22.06.22 Dr Chris Blackwell takes role as Executive Chairman

07.12.20 Appointment of Dr Anne Brindley as CEO

10.02.21 Resignation of Dr Chris Blackwell as Non-Executive Chairman
10.02.21 Process to appoint a new Non-Executive Chairman announced

24.05.21 Appointment of Dr Alastair Riddell as Non-Executive Chairman

21.07.21 Resignation of Dr Anne Brindley as CEO.
21.07.21 Will serve 6 months notice, & ensure orderly transition.

22.07.21 Chairman Riddell produces letter to shareholders explaining new management structure

09.11.21 Chairman Riddell announces he will become Executive Chairman from
01.12.21

31.05.22 Executive Chairman Riddell resigns with immediate effect
28.06.22 ??????????????????????????????????????????????

Observations

1. In all instances of a change to the Chairman or key board executive (CEO or EC), alternative appointments, interim or permanent, have been announced the same day or arrangements for filling the position announced. Except for the last one dated 31.05.22.

2. This reflects the key importance of these roles to shareholders, the stock market, and potential JV partners. They represent the absolute minimal corporate structure needed by any company.

3. It is entirely reasonable for long suffering shareholders to expect these roles to be filled asap & preferably (as per Riddell’s letter of 22.07.21) an explanation of how the new management structure will work & for how long.

4. It is unreasonable of our BOD to not have filled these roles in the course of the last month or at least spelt out their intentions. These key roles can be filled on an interim/permanent basis and part-time/full time - but they do need filling - as they have been in previous instances (see above).

I recognise that all investors, particularly LTH, are in a predicament caused by our managerial woes. People have different experiences & expectations and I appreciate other peoples perspective, even if its not one I entirely share. I am always happy to engage fruitfully with genuine investors, but not with obvious spoilers & shorters.

Mars, I agree with many of your points. RNS 2 that arrived yesterday was a welcome positive appraisal of 002 that had been sorely misrepresented by Riddell’s last missive on 30 May. Sadly it had almost no effect on either the share price or volume yesterday, contrary to Friday’s anticipatory trading.

1. The key problem was RNS 2 arrived before RNS 1 - the sequence was wrong & the positive impact of RNS 2 did not occur & is now sadly wasted. Shareholders & the market are awaiting RNS 1. We have been waiting for RNS1 for exactly 4 weeks now - this is the vital announcement of the identity of our new Chairman & the key executive director. Who are they, how long will they serve (interim or permanent) ? I would assume they would be part time, as many have observed there is currently no genuine full time role. Their identities should be accompanied by an explanation of how the structure will work until sufficient test data is accumulated to begin the process of marketing to potential partners (presumably late 2022/early 2023). That would seem the point interim’s could hand over the permanent’s and resources & potential would be such a new CEO/BDD could be hired.

2. It seems at present these roles are being filled on a ‘ghost’ basis, by individuals carrying out much of these roles but not actually being prepared to stand up & be counted as the ‘actual’ Chairman & executive director. Julian Gilbert seems to be our ghost Chairman & Dan Gooding appears to be out ghost CEO/BDD. Of course even these ghost roles cannot be acknowledged and largely have to be assumed. And no, thats clearly not acceptable to long suffering shareholders as per my post above, or to the stock market given our horrific share price, that sadly did nothing with the release of RNS 2.

3. We have an AGM conveniently coming up - where if our minimal management requirements have not been met, gives us the potential to influence/determine our future Board & management structure.

I have not seen any notification that we have a new team Mars - who are they and what roles do they play ? It's not about 'personalities', it's about understanding how they intend to proceed given our Chairman & 'executive' just quit. Who is our 'team' & who is going to play those roles even temporarily, we had answers to those key questions after previous board/management changes, we need them now.

Thats a very useful list Soup, but above all else we need to know what is the new NFX management structure. What is the name of the new Chairman, what is the name of the executive director. If they are temporary so be it. But we do need the names, a shifty silence is not good enough after a month. The NXP002 RNS has turned out to be a non-event, as its not the news shareholders & the broader market were waiting for - who is in charge?

But to get a deal with a pharma company we need to be in the real world with a corporate structure that has a Chairman & at least one executive director. After a month we have not even got a temporary Chairman & one executive director, why can Gilbert & Gooding not take those roles 'temporarily' until results?

Perhaps we should propose it at the AGM. If they cant be fagged to create a proper corporate organisation, we shareholders should impose one on them.

They are not mutually exclusive though Soup. Why cannot one of them become 'Chairman'? We cant seriously project ourselves as a biotech company with this shambles of 2 NEDs & one business development consultant. Perhaps we could use the AGM to shake things up a bit.

But no Chairman, no CEO, no executive....where is the' company'?

4D Pharma had a high of £10.45 in May 2015, now 16p but still a market cap of £29m. Thats some fall from grace, Thank God we have no debt whatsoever.

And a mighty 1 share bought at 0.364p, think MM algo games. The highest price of the day by over 1%.

Indeed as per our anxiously awaiting the arrival of the NXP002 tests - and then the first bombshell.

Thank God there is some kind of time pressure on them to do something.

Not the RNS I was waiting for. Tomorrow marks 3 weeks since the Riddell resignation.

So many key variables are extremely volatile at present, it must be difficult to nail down plans for a large project like this. Think - potash price, oil price, interest rates, fx - all on the move, sometimes dramatically. Frankly it would be understandable for them to need more time than originally estimated.

Soup so in theory could we just muddle along as we are now - with no Chairman or CEO & no executive or manager being employed? Seems odd but if the current muddle does not lead to de-listing I fear that is what we will get stuck with.

Thanks Soup is there anything about a minimal management/executive requirement - thats the area I am concerned about.

Thanks for that response NFTs. The problem is that to stay listed I believe we need a 'responsible' individual in management & what if none the the non-exec's or the consultants wish to take on the responsibility of being the responsible manager? I suspect that is the situation. we now find ourselves in.

I have done a cursory scan via google to try & answer two concerns I have, if anyone has or can find more details would be great to comment/share:

i. What are the necessary minimal management/Board positions that have to be filled in order to remain a listed company?
ii. What time period is given by the authorities for a company to comply with those requirements, before a company is de-listed?

NFTs my sole concern here is the current lack of management. What do you suggest are the "...other ways to negotiate this current hiatus in management." ?