People

Paul J Cunningham (BA)
Managing Director and Founder

Paul brings more than 25 years of experience in fine chemical sourcing and sales to Discovery Fine Chemicals Ltd. Educated at Bradford University where he obtained a double honours degree in French and Spanish, he is first and foremost a talented linguist, having spent time at both the universities of Barcelona and Strasbourg.

In 1980 Paul began work at BDH Chemicals as Regional Sales Manager for France, Spain, North Africa and Latin America. He made regular visits to Latin America and Havana, Cuba for BDH and the E.Merck group. He left BDH in 1985 to join Fluka Feinchemie, Switzerland (subsidiary of Hoffman-la-Roche) where he became Sales Manager for France. In 1987 he moved to Mulhouse,Alsace to set up Fluka France. Shortly afterwards Fluka was purchased by Sigma-Aldrich and Paul moved to Lyon to take up the post of European Industrial Sales Manager for the Sigma-Aldrich bulk division. He stayed with Sigma-Aldrich until 1999 when he resigned to form the company Molekula Fine Chemicals Ltd. In 2006 disillusioned with the business model he resigned as shareholder and founder to set up a 100% purely UK based company, free from any ties with India or China.

Paul is now at the helm of Discovery Fine Chemicals and is aiming to build a successful business unit from scratch. Paul heads up the Management team which puts very strong emphasis on a distillation of science, sales, and service.

The company’s forward looking statement is “Discover the future, the future is Discovery”.

pjc@discofinechem.com

Jos van Suchtelen van de Haare (BA)
Sales Manager: Benelux, Germany , Switzerland , Austria

Jos brings nearly 30 years of experience in fine chemical and pharma trading to Discovery Fine Chemicals Ltd. He was educated in Groningen, Netherlands, where he obtained a degree in Marketing and Economics. Jos speaks dutch, german and english.

Since the early 1980’s Jos has had various assignments with the Dutch chemical company Avebe and Dow Chemicals in St.Gallen, Switzerland. In 1985 Jos joined Paul Cunningham at Fluka Feinchemie as regional sales manager for the Middle East. In 1990 he left Fluka for a promotion with Chemische Fabrik Schweizerhall in Basel and picked up invaluable experience within the hub of their Pharma Trading Department. Jos has since held key positions with both St.Gobain and with Bayer Chemie and Lanxess.

Jos comes to Discovery with a wealth of experience and contacts within the fine chemical and pharma trading arena. Jos is aiming to build a successful business unit for the Benelux and Germany.He will play a pivotal role within the Management Team .He is looking forward to the challenge offered by “Discovery’s vision for the future”.

discofinechem@t-online.de

Will Rose (BA)
Sales Manager: Scandinavia, East Europe,Far East Asia

Will brings more than 30 years of experience in the field of laboratory chemicals, biochemicals and instrumentation. He obtained a degree in Marketing before joining BDH Chemicals and E.Merck Darmstadt. During the 15 years within the Merck Group he travelled widely throughout Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Far East and Africa, forging excellent contacts with all the major distributors of laboratory chemicals and supplies. Will speaks fluent german and some russian, Will also worked for many years in Poland for HTL, the premier manufacturer of lab instruments and consumables.

Since 1995 Will established his own supply house called Labourne and has recently also moved into the area of molecular biology, becoming responsible for Vivantis’s European sales operation (www.vivantis.com). As a consequence of this decision Discovery now stocks Vivantis molecular biology products in the UK and are the exclusive distributor for sales to France.

Will is looking forward to strengthening sales in Europe and the Far East and hopes to shape molecular biology within “A forward looking Discovery”.

will@discofinechem.com

Martin Alford
Operations Manager

Martin was educated at one of the best schools in the south of England, Dauntsey’s,in Wiltshire, which was founded in 1542 and whose past students include Andrew Gardner (ITN News), Desmond Morris (Sociologist) and Max Foster (CNN News).

Martin departed from the shores of England in 1980 and opted for a career in animal husbandry in Ontario, Canada.During his time abroad he developed a keen interest and expertise in purebred races (Holsteins) and also became area Sales Manager for Alta Pon Genetics, leaders in the field of artificial insemination. Martin added to his credentials by becoming Board member and non-exectuve director of the British Holstein Society.

In 2001 Martin turned his sights on sales and moved to South Africa where he joined De Vere and Partners (Investment Brokers) as senior consultant . In 2003 Martin returned to the UK and to the world of Agriculture and The British Blonde D’Aquitaine Society where he became Breed Secretary and liaised with Defra and other governmental bodies with specific interest in the Beef Industry.

Martin subsequently joined Molekula Fine Chemicals as Operations Manager where he oversaw the re-organization of goods inwards, inventory, packaging, labelling and distribution throughout the Uk,Europe and the USA. Disillusioned with Molekula he then went on to accept a similar post at Discovery Fine Chemicals at their Wimborne Dorset site, bringing his own particular expertise in husbandry and good housekeeping to the “World of Science and Discovery”.

discoveryfinechemicals@btconnect.com