Senior Management Team

Charles Morgan is a conviction investor with major successes in shale gas and biopharma. He was the first funder of Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CU6) which has reached a valuation of more than A$2bn. He has a proven track record in identifying early stage commercial opportunities and acting as a corporate catalyst, acquiring strategic assets and positions, partnering with regional and technology experts, securing teams of appropriate executives and funds to build and develop projects and companies. He has a number of successful exits to his name.

Charles started his career in futures broking in London with M.L. Doxford & Co and left to join merchant bank Morgan Grenfell Limited in Sydney, Australia before moving to broking with ANZ McCaughan Dyson Limited in Melbourne and London. He then joined BZW Securities Limited in London before going back to Australia to form Morgan McFarlane a licensed securities dealer which raised equity funds for mining and oil exploration companies.

He was awarded an honarary Doctor of Science from Curtin University for his contribution to the commercialisation of biotechnology.

Melissa Sturgess holds a BSc and an MBA and has nearly 30 years of experience as a director of UK and Australian Stock Exchange quoted companies, in the roles of Chair, CEO and non-executive director. Her expertise lies in putting together people, projects and capital in complex regulatory and legal environments. She has also chaired listed company audit committees and served on remuneration and corporate governance committees.

Melissa’s interest in the cannabis sector commenced with a trip to Israel in 2017 to review the medicinal cannabis research in that country. She subsequently co-founded Ananda Pharma (formerly Ananda Developments).  Melissa was the recipient of the Executive of the Year at the Malta Cannabiz Awards in November 2019. She is a committee member of the Cannabis Industry Council and Co-Chair of its Research Working Group.

Melissa commenced her listed company career as a member of the Executive Committee of Aquarius Platinum Limited, the most successful Australian/UK dual listed company and a miner of platinum in South Africa and Zimbabwe.  She was also founding director of Sylvania Resources Limited and a number of other companies operating in the metals and mining sector throughout Africa and listed on the AIM Market in London.  During her career Melissa has raised significant amounts of capital and in 2017 she spearheaded the structuring and £50m financing for the acquisition of a building materials business in the Channel Islands. She is also a non-executive director of Lexington Gold Limited, an AIM quoted gold exploration company, where she chairs the Audit Committee.

Jeremy Sturges-Smith is a co-founder of Ananda. He played a key role in its initial public offering in July 2018 and ​led the acquisition of its initial 50% shareholding of DJT Plants in 2019. ​He drives the company's corporate finance and leading edge digital first investor engagement strategy. In addition to his corporate finance ​and investor relations ​responsibilities Jeremy manages the group accounting and reporting.  He is also a director of MRX Global Limited and MRX Medica Limited.

Jack joined Ananda in January 2023 and is responsible for overseeing Ananda’s commercial and regulatory strategy. Prior to joining Ananda he spent six years working for the Australian Federal Government across a range of policy, regulatory and communications roles, including as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Minister for Industry Development and an Adviser to the Minister for Agriculture. Jack also has experience in small business, having worked in a family-owned agriculture business in Australia for several years. Jack is passionate about the public health potential of Ananda’s work and helping to translate the Company’s research and development into commercial opportunities. Jack holds a BA (Honours) in Politics & International Studies from the University of Melbourne.

Nick joined the Ananda Group in February 2023 and is responsible for overseeing the Group’s clinical trials, drug development, manufacturing and research through Ananda subsidiary, MRX Medical. Prior to joining the Group, Nick founded PhytoVista laboratories in 2016, which went on to become a leading UKAS accredited laboratory that provided analytical services for manufacturers of consumer CBD products, as well as Cannabis Based Products for Medicinal use. He also spent 7 years at AstraZeneca, where he worked in medicines development across candidate drug discovery up to phase III clinical trials.

Nick also has experience outside of the pharmaceutical industry, having started his career with a scholarship at Zeneca Agrochemicals working as a soil scientist, before moving to a position in the food industry looking at authenticity and adulteration in foods and drinks. He holds a BSc in Applied Chemistry and is passionate about supporting MRX Medical and the Group to achieve it’s goal of producing robust clinical evidence and wider prescription of cannabinoid medicines in areas of unmet clinical need.