pSivida chief exec steps down, signs US agreement

Perth-headquartered technology player pSivida Ltd's founding chief executive Gavin Rezos has revealed he will step down for personal reasons as the company shifts its focus to the US, where it plans to base his replacement.

According to a media release issued by the company, Mr Rezos indicated he would no longer be able to spend the majority of his time in Europe and the US, as the company required him, due to family reasons.

The announcement said that under Mr Rezos, a former investment banking director of the HSBC Group, pSivida grew from a $1 million startup to be worth $130 million today.

PSivida also announced that it had signed an agreement with three investment funds to sell $8.5 million worth of convertible notes that could be converted into 27c per share.

In May, the company announced it was conducting a one-for-eight rights issue at 60 cents per share to raise up to $29 million through the issue of up to approximately 48.3 million new ordinary shares at 60 cents each.

However, only $6.3 million before costs has been raised with the issue of approximately 10.5 million shares, representing a subscription of 22 per cent of the total shares available under the rights issue.

The full announcement of Mr Rezos' departure is pasted below

Global bio-nanotech company pSivida Limited has today announced that Mr Gavin Rezos will be stepping down for personal/family reasons as Managing Director and CEO of the Company and its subsidiaries.

The Senior Management Team is now mainly based in the US, as corporate functions have moved from Australia to the US. It remains, as previously announced, the intention of the Company to recruit a US-based CEO with appropriate experience. Interviews with prospective candidates are on-going. In the meantime, Dr Roger Brimblecombe, Non-executive Chairman of the Company and the former Chairman, Smith Kline & French Research Ltd and Vice-President R&D Europe, will assume the role of acting CEO and Executive Chairman.

The Company requires the CEO to spend the majority of time in Europe and the US given that most of the staff and facilities are located there as well as several significant institutional shareholders and business development partners. Mr. Rezos has advised for personal/family reasons that he is unable to continue to spend most of his time in the US and Europe.

The Company acknowledges the efforts of Mr. Rezos in growing the Company from a AU$1 million start-up to over AU$130m today as the founding CEO and as a founding shareholder. Under Mr Rezos, the Company was the best performing stock on the ASX for the financial year ended June 2004, listed on the NASDAQ Global Market and Frankfurt stock exchanges and acquired US based Control Delivery Systems, considered "2005 M&A Deal of the Year" by the influential Australian publication "Bioshares".

The company recently announced the appointment of Boston based executives, Mr Michael Soja as CFO and Ms Lori Freedman as General Counsel and Company Secretary. Dr Paul Ashton as Executive Director of Strategy is based in Boston. Dr Mark Parry Billings based in the UK has been appointed Director Europe. Mr. Aaron Finlay, Company Secretary Australia, will manage the Australian operations of the Company.

Mr Rezos has agreed to make himself available in Australia as the Company may request his assistance to achieve its goals pending the appointment of a new US based CEO.