Meet Our Team

Namal Nawana

Executive Chairman, Founder, and board member

Namal Nawana is a business leader and Healthcare entrepreneur with a particular focus in the Medical Devices and Diagnostics industry. Mr Nawana is Chairman and Founder of Sapphiros.

Mr Nawana has extensive experience leading global public companies and was formerly Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Smith & Nephew Plc, based in the United Kingdom and Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Alere Inc, a NYSE listed company, until its $8 billion acquisition by Abbott Laboratories in 2017. Before joining Alere, he spent more than 15 years at Johnson & Johnson in progressively senior leadership roles globally, including the role of Worldwide President of Johnson & Johnson’s multibillion dollar DePuy-Synthes Spine business.

Mr Nawana is a member of the Board of Directors of Hologic, Inc. a Nasdaq listed company and past board member of Advamed and Advamed -Dx the peak industry associations of the Medical Device and Diagnostics industries. Mr Nawana is the Founder of Neoenta LLC, a private company with venture and design and development interests in Healthcare. He is a co-founder of Innovoyce, a voice health company as well as Graphene-Dx, an in-vitro diagnostics company.

Mr. Nawana holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Medical Science from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, as well as an MBA from Henley Management College.

Mark Gladwell

Chief Operating Officer

Mark Gladwell is COO of Sapphiros. Previously, Mark was President, Global Operations and Global Business Services at Smith & Nephew with responsibility for Global Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, New Product Transfers, Operational Excellence, Business Services, Facilities, Sustainability, and all Operational Strategy Programs.

Prior to Smith & Nephew, he was Senior Vice President of Global Operations at QIAGEN N.V., a provider of sample and assay technologies for molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic and pharmaceutical research and from 2005 to 2016 Mark held various Operational roles with increasing responsibility at Alere Inc, a global developer and manufacturer of rapid point of care diagnostics.

Mark has a track record in delivering value creative transformation programs and holds a BSc (Hons) in Quality and Operations Management from the University of Salford and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School General Management Program.

Niall Armes

Chief Technology Officer

Niall Armes is CTO of Sapphiros and a renowned molecular biologist and protein biochemist who invented the Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) isothermal DNA amplification technology. He is both founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Sapphiros’ subsidiary company Biocrucible, a UK-based company pioneering a new amplification chemistry to enable faster, cheaper, and more accurate point-of care diagnostics.

In 1999, he founded TwistDx Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in RPA-based molecular testing and technology and also offering a variety of DNA amplifications and research and development kits. As CEO, he grew the company from 2 to 85 employees.

Niall is the author on at least 33 issued U.S. patents and foreign equivalents. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Newcastle University and his Molecular Biology PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Ali Satvat

Board Member

Ali J. Satvat joined KKR in 2012 and is Co-Head of the Health Care industry team within KKR’s Americas Private Equity platform and Head of Health Care Strategic Growth, for which he chairs the Health Care Strategic Growth Investment Committee and the Health Care Strategic Growth Portfolio Management Committee. He currently serves on the boards of directors of AcuFocus, Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Blue Sprig Pediatrics, BridgeBio Pharma, Clarify Health Solutions, Coherus BioSciences, Eidos Therapeutics, Headlands Research, Impel NeuroPharma, Slayback Pharma and Trilogy MedWaste and has been actively involved with KKR’s investments in Ajax Health, Falcon Vision, GenesisCare, Gland Pharma, Panasonic Healthcare, PRA Health Sciences and Spirox. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Satvat was a principal with Apax Partners, where he successfully led or participated in many of its health care private equity and growth equity investments. Previously, he held various positions with Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Audax Group and The Blackstone Group.

Anuv Ratan

Board Member

Anuv Ratan is a Principal on KKR’s Health Care industry team. At KKR, he has been involved with investments in Gamma Biosciences, Zeus Health, Nordic Bioscience, Ajax Health, Headlands Research, Aimmune Therapeutics, BrightSpring Pharmerica, Global Medical Response, and Impel Neuropharma. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Gamma Biosciences, Blue Sprig Pediatrics and Headlands Research. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Ratan worked at FFL Partners, where he was involved in a number of health care transactions.