Brian Cass

Brian Cass CBE, FCMA, is the Managing Director of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a Contract Research Organisation company based in Huntingdon in the United Kingdom and New Jersey in the United States. Before moving to HLS, Cass was the Managing Director of Covance Laboratories Ltd.

He was awarded a CBE in 2002. Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is the third-highest highest rank in the Order of the British Empire.

Brian Cass was born in County Durham in 1947.

Brian Cass came to public attention as the Managing Director of HLS who have been the subject of a highly publicised animal rights campaign.

Education

After leaving school in County Durham with 9 'O' levels and 4 'A' levels Cass moved south to study Finance and gained Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants in 1980

Career

Brian Cass worked at Huntingdon Research Centre between 1972 and 1974 before moving locally to work with Sir Clive Sinclair who was then pioneering the pocket calculator. Subsequently, after five years in the heavy plant industry he moved back into the life science business joining Hazleton Europe as Financial Director in 1979. Hazleton was acquired by Corning in 1987 who went on to make other acquisitions in the sector before floating the new group independently as Covance. Cass became Managing Director of Covance Laboratories Ltd and a Corporate Vice President of Covance Inc

He was appointed to the Board of Huntingdon as Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer in 1998. He became a Director and Managing Director/President of LSR Inc in 2002.

In his commitment to local employment development he has held directorships with North Yorkshire Training & Enterprise Council Ltd and Business Link North Yorkshire Ltd.

Brian Cass was elected a Vice President of the Institute of Animal Technology in 2009.

In the time Brian Cass has been Managing Director at HLS, he has doubled the company’s revenues from $93m in 1999 to $191m in 2009.

Honours and awards

Brian Cass was awarded a CBE in 2002 for services to medical research.

In 2002 Brian Cass was awarded the Pharmaceutical Times’ Industry award for the Outstanding Achievement of the Year.

The Pharma award was presented to Mr Cass at the Pharmaceutical Times’ Great Oxford Debate in Oxford University’s Union. In a vote comprising 81 directors from 50 UK pharmaceutical companies, 80% gave their backing to Mr Cass - beating Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, Chairman of NICE, Sir Michael Rawlins, and Director-General of the ABPI, Dr Trevor Jones.

In 2006 Brian Cass was presented with the Award of the Central Veterinary Society Victory Medal.

Victim of initimidation

HLS has been the target since 1999 of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), a campaign run by British and American animal-rights activists, who seek to close the company down for its treatment of, and experimentation upon, live animals.

The campaign has included acts of intimidation and violence, including against Cass, who sustained head injuries when he was attacked outside his home in February 2001 by three people armed with pickaxe handles and CS gas. A neighbour who tried to help him was sprayed with the gas. Detective Chief Inspector Tom Hobbs of Cambridgeshire police told reporters: "It's only by sheer luck that we are not beginning a murder inquiry." Dave Blenkinsop, who had previously engaged in actions using the name of the Animal Liberation Front, was jailed for three years for the attack.