Board of Directors

The Honorable Craig Stapleton has been a member of the Board of Directors since June 2011, becoming Chairman in July 2014.

He is a member of Avadel’s Compensation, Audit, and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committees. Since January 2009, Mr. Stapleton has served as Senior Advisor to Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm. He was President of Marsh and McLennan Real Estate Advisors of New York from 1982 until 2001. From 1989 to 1998 Stapleton co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush. He has served on the Board of Directors for companies including Allegheny Properties, IDS Realty Inc., Investors Savings and Loan, Metro PCS, TB Woods, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Carlile Bank. In July 2009, he became a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. Mr. Stapleton currently serves as a Director of Vivino and Tenax Aerospace.

Stapleton served on the Board of the Peace Corps. He was Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2001 to 2003 and received the Jan Masaryk Medal from the Czech Republic. In June 2005, he was appointed Ambassador to France, serving until January 2009. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor as a Commander.

He is the Chairman of the Vaclav Havel Foundation and Chairman of the American Friends of Compiegne. He is a Trustee of the George W. Bush Library Foundation and the American University in Paris. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

With his experience as Ambassador, and the Chairman and Director of several public and private companies, Mr. Stapleton brings to Avadel over 40 years of experience.

Michael S. Anderson has been Chief Executive Officer since March 2012. Prior to Avadel, Mr. Anderson served in a number of leadership roles including CEO of Éclat Pharmaceuticals LLC, President and CEO of the generic business division of KV Pharmaceutical Company, as well as President and CEO of Ther-RX Corporation, a leader in women's healthcare. Mr. Anderson started his career at A.H. Robins Company.

Francis J.T. Fildes, Ph.D. has been a member of the Board since February 2008. Dr. Fildes was Managing Director of Fildes Partners Ltd, a management consultancy business to the bio-pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, which he founded in September 2002 and held until November 2014. Prior to this, Dr. Fildes held the position of Senior Vice President: Head of Global Drug Development for AstraZeneca a global pharmaceutical company, from April 1999 until December 2002. Since leaving AstraZeneca, Dr. Fildes has also been a Director of ProStrakan Pharmaceuticals plc and Keryx Inc, both public biopharmaceutical companies and Strakan Ltd, Proskelia SA and Pyramed Pharma, three privately funded bio-pharmaceutical Companies. Dr. Fildes is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Based on his experience as an executive, a director and consultant in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Fildes brings to the Board and the Compensation and Audit Committees over 40 years of experience.

Christophe Navarre has been a member of the Board since June 2014. Since May 1997, Mr. Navarre has been Chief Executive Officer of Moët Hennessy, the Wines and Spirits division of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, a worldwide luxury brands company. Mr. Navarre is also a board member of the Comité Colbert, a luxury brand trade association, a member of the Heineken Advisory Board, and President of the Fédération des Exportateurs de Vins et Spiritueux de France, the French wine export association. He is an Officer of the French Legion of Honor, a Commandeur de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole and an Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne in Belgium. Based on his experiences as a successful business leader and board member of public and private companies, Mr. Navarre brings to the Board and the Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees over 30 years of experience.

Mr. Thornton joined the Board in July of 2017. Mr. Thornton currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Technopath Clinical Diagnostics, an Irish company that provides quality control materials and software solutions to clinical laboratories, a position he has held since January 2014. Prior to joining Technopath Clinical Diagnostics, from September 2011 to December 2013 Mr. Thornton was Senior Vice President - Business Integration for Alkermes plc, a global biopharmaceuticals company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland; 17 from July 2007 to September 2011 he was Senior Vice President - Corporate and Business Development for Elan Drug Technologies, an Elan Corporation plc division engaged in developing and manufacturing drug delivery technology based pharmaceutical products; from September 2006 to July 2007 he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Circ Pharma Limited, a specialty pharmaceutical company; and from June 2004 to September 2006 he was Chief Financial Officer of Agenus Inc., a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company. Mr. Thornton worked for the international public accounting firm of KPMG for seven years in Ireland and France and is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. He brings over 25 years of experience to the Audit, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees.

Benoit (Ben) C. Van Assche has been a member of the Board since June 2014. Mr. Van Assche is a member of the international jury that assists the government of the Walloon Region Belgium in its policy towards clusters of competitiveness, in particular the BioWin health cluster, a position he has held since December 2006. Based on his experience as a director and senior executive in the chemical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, Mr. Van Assche brings to the Board and the Compensation, Audit, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees over 40 years of experience.