Cactus Acquisition Corp. 1 Ltd appointed Challinor as new CEO

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Principal Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Principal Officers. 


(b) 
On April 11, 2024, the directors of Cactus Acquisition Corp. 1 Limited (the "Company") unanimously appointed (i) Gary Challinor to serve as its Chief Executive Officer and (ii) Stephen T. Wills to serve as its Chief Financial Officer. 


Biographies of each of Mr. Challinor and Mr. Wills follow. 

Gary Challinor was appointed to serve as the Company's Chief Executive Officer on April 11, 2024. He currently also serves as Chief Operating Officer of VivoPower International PLC. He has over 30 years of experience across a range of senior executive roles in multiple industries around the world. He has worked for Fortune 1000, FTSE and ASX companies and various government organizations across finance, human resources, customer experience, manufacturing, distribution, digital workspace, cloud solutions and more, and been a part of a number of successful start-ups, scale-ups and turnarounds. Gary's deep understanding of various organizations has helped them to execute successfully to achieve their goals. As a leader Gary focusses on developing his teams to ensure they achieve both their professional as well as their personal goals. With a history of delivering both sales and profit achievement, Gary has managed teams in excess of 100 people across multiple countries (EMEA, USA, South America, APAC), cultures, languages and time zones whilst ensuring 100% customer satisfaction. Mr. Challinor received his B.A. from Western Sydney University in accounting and computer science and his M.B.A. from University of Reading. 

Stephen T. Wills was appointed to serve as the Company's Chief Financial Officer on April 11, 2024. He previously served as our Chief Financial Officer. He also serves as the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of Palatin Technologies, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. Mr. Wills has over 30 years of operational, accounting/auditing, fund-raising, acquisition, licensing, divestiture and healthcare experience. Mr. Wills has served on the board of directors of MediWound Ltd. since April 2017, and as Chairperson from October 2017 until August 2022, and is the chairperson of the audit committee and a member of the compensation committee, also has served on the board of directors of Gamida Cell Ltd. since March 2019, and is chairman of the audit committee and a member of the compensation and finance committees. Mr. Wills served as the Chief Financial Officer of Cactus Acquisition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), from November 2021 until February 2024, when a new Sponsor acquired majority ownership. Mr. Wills served on the board of trustees and executive committee of The Hun School of Princeton, from 2014 to June 2023, and as its Chairperson from June 2018 to June 2023. Mr. Wills served on the board of directors of Amryt Pharma, and as chairperson of the audit committee and member of the compensation committee from September 2019 through April 2023, when Amryt was acquired by Chiesi Farmaceutici. Mr. Wills served as Executive Chairperson and Interim Principal Executive Officer of Derma Sciences, Inc., from December 2015 to February 2017, when Derma Sciences was acquired by Integra Lifesciences. Mr. Wills is a certified public accountant. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from West Chester University and a master's degree in taxation from Temple University. 

VivoPower International PLC currently owns 100% of Tembo e-LV B.V. with whom the Company entered into a heads of terms regarding a potential business combination transaction on April 2, 2024.