SkyePharma director Ian Gowrie-Smith retires from board

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Feb. 13 - SkyePharma plc said that Ian Gowrie-Smith has retired from the company's board of directors.

Gowrie-Smith, who founded SkyePharma in 1996, stepped down from the role of executive chairman to a non-executive chairmanship in 2004 and resigned as chairman in January.

It has been Gowrie-Smith's intention since early 2005 to resign at an appropriate time as chairman and as a director, according to a company news release.

He decided to bring forward the date of his retirement from the annual general meeting later this year in order to ensure that the only proposal for shareholders to consider in connection with the impending extraordinary general meeting is whether Robert Thian, chairman of Whatman and Southern Water plc, is suitable to become executive chairman of SkyePharma, the company said.

Institutional investors North Atlantic Value LLP, Insight Investment and Morley Fund Management called for the extraordinary general meeting in order to appoint Thian as executive director.

In an effort "to represent the wishes of all shareholders," the company's nominations committee met with Thian. They raised the possibility of offering him a non-executive director position, according to a news release, but Thian said he had no interest in non-executive posts.

In the release, SkyePharma's board said that Thian is not suited to this role as he does not have the right experience and because it will conflict with his "existing, taxing commitments."

London-based SkyePharma uses drug-delivery technology to facilitate drug formulation.

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