Board Changes
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 9 February 2026: Arovella Therapeutics Limited (ASX: ALA) (Arovella or the Company), a biotechnology company focused on developing its invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform, today announces that Dr Elizabeth Stoner will be retiring as Non-Executive Director and Interim Chair of the Company, and Mr Gary Phillips will retire as Non-executive Director effective 9 February 2026. Dr Stoner has served as Interim Chair of Arovella since 1 July 2025 and as Non-Executive Director since 10 November 2021. Mr Phillips has served as Non-Executive Director since 1 July 2022.
Given the significant changes to the Board, the Company will conduct a skills review. Following completion of the skills review, the Company will provide additional updates relating to the appointment of a new Chair.
Arovella’s CEO and MD, Dr Michael Baker, said: “Dr Stoner played a pivotal role in shaping Arovella during its pivot to a cell therapy company, and was instrumental as the Company took its CAR-iNKT cell platform from the preclinical to clinical stage. We thank Elizabeth for taking on the interim Chair role two times and for being an outstanding advocate of the Company. The Company was also incredibly fortunate to have the input of Gary over his tenure, and Arovella benefited greatly from his outstanding business acumen and drug development experience. The Company wishes Liz and Gary continued success for their future endeavors and appreciates all they have done to enable the Company to reach the IND-ready stage. Following the recent acceptance of its IND, the Company is looking forward to dosing the first patient with ALA-101 and progressing its solid tumour technology, ALA-105. Both Liz and Gary played a key role in making that happen. Lastly, we look forward to providing updates relating to the board skills analysis and the appointment of a new Chair.”
Dr Stoner said: “This was a very difficult decision, and it has been a privilege to serve as both a Non-Executive Director and Interim Chair of Arovella. The team is brilliant and should be immensely proud of the progress the Company has made, particularly in getting the IND accepted for ALA-101. I wish the team every success moving forward.”
Mr Gary Phillips commented: “During the nearly 3 years I served on the Board, Arovella has built an exceptional team of people and advanced its technology through to acceptance of an IND for its first product. The Company is in a terrific position, and I have confidence that they will continue to grow in a positive direction as they look to dose the first patient with ALA-101. It is a very exciting time for the Company.”