Mr. Glenn Kerkhof was recently appointed as Chairman of the Board for George Clinical, a leading Contract Research Organisation (CRO) focused on clinical development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Kerkhof has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical services sector. His last role was CEO of Chiltern International where he was based in London, United Kingdom. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Global Operations for Clinical Services at Charles River Laboratories, and as Vice President of Clinical Services for Europe and Asia at Inveresk Research.

Mr. Kerkhof joins the team at George Clinical, led by Chief Executive Officer Dr Marisa Petersen, with the objective of assisting the company to achieve its global growth goals. George Clinical has almost 260 personnel and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices and staff across Asia, and in the United States and United Kingdom. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The George Institute for Global Health, a leading global medical research organisation founded by Professors Stephen MacMahon and Robyn Norton.

“I am very excited to be joining Marisa and the team at George Clinical as they embark on the next stage of the company’s strategic development”, says Mr. Kerkhof. “George Clinical has emerged as a leading full service CRO for the Asia-Pacific region and this has been achieved by matching world class scientific leadership with an operational team focused on quality, delivery and flexibility. I look forward to working with George Clinical to expand its service offering in what is an exciting region for clinical development and to helping build a truly global company.”

Dr Petersen adds that she and her team also look forward to working with Glenn, who brings great experience in growing CROs from small locally focused companies to corporations with global reach. “This is exactly the point George Clinical is at – we are very well established in the Asia-Pacific region, but we recognise the needs of customers who require global solutions.We want to be able to deliver global trials whilst retaining the ability to provide flexible, bespoke solutions for our customers.”

Professor Stephen MacMahon, who held the position as Chairman prior to Mr. Kerkhof, stated that “This heralds a new phase of development for George Clinical. The company has grown rapidly across the Asia-Pacific region and is now ready to develop global operations. Glenn brings a wealth of global CRO sector experience to a company that has been built regionally on an academic research base. We believe that the combination of strong commercial expertise and clinical research excellence will serve George Clinical well as it pursues a global position as a high quality CRO with substantial clinical and scientific assets.”