Hofseth Biocare ASA: HBC adds ex-Johnson & Johnson Senior Commercial leader, Will Urban-Smith, to its Sales & Marketing team in the Consumer Health division

HBC is delighted to announce the hiring of Will Urban-Smith as VP within HBC’s Consumer Health Division from February 2021. Mr Urban-Smith is an innovative commercial leader within consumer healthcare and FMCG and joins HBC after more than 15 years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where he has held various senior leadership positions across sales & customer management, commercial strategy, and revenue growth. In his most recent role as Sales Director, he was responsible for building J&J’s strategic relationships with key UK and global customers to drive long-term value, leading to the development of channel growth strategies, new distributor agreements and B2B e-commerce platforms. Mr Urban-Smith has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics & Business from the University of Sheffield, and a Master of Science Degree (Distinction) in International Marketing. 

Mr Urban-Smith has worked closely on brand development and growth strategies for some of J&J’s largest global brands such as Johnson’s Baby, Aveeno, Listerine, Neutrogena and Nicorette. His experience and knowledge with regards to placing health care & OTC products into the hands of consumers in the UK and abroad should prove an invaluable addition to HBC´s product development, strategy and sales efforts.

Will Urban-Smith says: “This a fantastic opportunity and I am excited to be joining the team as we embark on a journey to bring the medicine of tomorrow to customers and consumers around the world. I believe HBC is in an enviable position of being able to combine sustainable, science-based production capability with a differentiated portfolio that can enhance global health, and I want to play a key role in helping them unlock this huge growth potential. I look forward to being able to educate the industry on the innovative science and unique health benefits that will drive the HBC commercial proposition, and to use my knowledge and experience within consumer healthcare to drive a strategic growth agenda over the coming years.”

Mr Urban-Smith’s addition follows the recent hiring of Andy Gill who was a senior executive at GSK and Novartis with close to 25 years of experience in this field. These recruits follow a precise and targeted strategy to selectively hire experienced salespeople out of tier one, global pharmaceutical and nutraceutical consumer health businesses to drive growth of HBC´s unique, sustainable, science & claim backed natural health products.

“The fact HBC is now in the position to attract this kind of talent and experience from the leading pharma companies is testament to the HBC sustainability story and all the millions of dollars invested in R&D over the years. Leading healthcare and FMCG companies and professionals alike are starting to understand just how differentiated our clean, sustainable marine by-products are and the scale of the opportunity. Our manufacturing patents cover the enzymatic hydrolysis process not only for Atlantic salmon enzymatic hydrolysis, but people forget the patents are also for all marine species. All of our by-products (oil, proteins and collagen) have very differentiated evidence-based health benefits and Will and Andy’s addition is an enormous step forwards for us to begin the process to sell more both B2B and B2C”, says CEO Roger Hofseth of Hofseth BioCare.

Will Urban-Smith has today indirectly purchased 200,000 shares in HBC at market prices, through a 1.81 % shareholding in Brilliant Invest AS. For further information about Brilliant Invest AS and its HBC shareholdings, please see

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Crawford Currie, Medical R&D at Hofseth BioCare ASA

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E-mail:

James Berger, Head of Investor Relations & Strategy at Hofseth BioCare ASA

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About Hofseth BioCare ASA:

HBC is a Norwegian biotech company that develops high-value ingredients and finished products currently targeting the consumer health market. Research is ongoing to identify the individual elements within the products that modulate inflammation and the immune response with pre-clinical studies in multiple clinics and university research labs in several countries. Lead clinical and pre-clinical candidates are in development for the protection of the Gastro-Intestinal (GI) system against inflammation, including ulcerative colitis and the orphan condition necrotising enterocolitis, as a Medical Food to help treat age-related Sarcopenia, and as a treatment for Iron Deficiency Anemia, all using peptide fractions of Salmon Protein Hydrolysate. Preclinical trial work with the oil is ongoing to ameliorate lung inflammation in eosinophilic asthma and COPD (“smokers lung”) as well as clinical work in COVID.

The company is founded on the core values of sustainability, traceability and optimal utilization of natural resources. Through an innovative hydrolysis technology, HBC can preserve the quality of lipids, proteins and collagen-calcium from fresh salmon off-cuts. Hofseth BioCare's headquarters are in Ålesund, Norway with branches in Oslo, London, Zürich, Chicago, Menlo Park and Tokyo.

HBC is listed on Euronext Expand Oslo with ticker "HBC". More information about Hofseth BioCare at hofsethbiocare.com and facebook.com/hofsethbiocare