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Jenny Barnett
CEO of Monument TherapeuticsJenny has an MA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, a PhD in the epidemiology of schizophrenia from the University of Cambridge, and completed post-doctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She joined Cambridge Cognition in 2008 and worked in the clinical trial, healthcare and R&D functions before joining the senior management team in 2014 and becoming CSO in 2016. She has worked on the design and analysis of more than 100 cognitive trials and is the author of 60+ scientific publications and six patents. She has led IP strategy, KOL networking and the scientific validation of medical devices for regulatory approval.
Rose Adedeji
US Expansion Advisor at Foothold America- 20 years of global experience in HR, Recruitment and Client delivery, supporting clients from the UK, Europe, US and Australasia
- Extensive knowledge of candidate attraction and employee communication management
- Delivers sound project management of HR implementation projects
Caroline Barelle
CEO of Elasmogen LtdWith postgraduate qualifications in both business and science, Caroline has a strong commercial, bio-partnering and biologics drug discovery/development background. For over 4 years she has successfully led teams at Wyeth Inc and subsequently Pfizer Inc in Global Bio-therapeutic Technologies progressing early platform technologies to late stage clinical development. Prior to this she was Alliance and Programs Manager at Haptogen Ltd and a key part of the acquisition team that successfully exited the business to Wyeth Inc.
She has been awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh commercialisation Fellowship and is a doctoral graduate from the University of Aberdeen in Biochemistry.
Rebecca Ashfield
CSO at Ducentis BiotherapeuticsDr Rebecca Ashfield has 16 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry where her work has focused on pre-clinical and clinical development of protein based therapies targeting autoimmune disease and cancer. Dr Ashfield worked for 12 years at Immunocore (formerly Avidex) on the preclinical discovery and clinical development of immuno-oncology therapies. Since leaving Immunocore Dr Ashfield has worked at the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute on the discovery, manufacture and clinical development of rabies and malaria vaccines. Dr Ashfield’s expertise and experience includes pre-clinical immunology and oncology, protein engineering, GMP manufacture, clinical trials and project leadership of complex multinational collaborations. In addition to her work at the Jenner Institute Dr Ashfield worked as a consultant to Vaccitech Ltd (a recent University of Oxford spin-out) where she helped the leadership team manage GMP vaccine manufacture and complete planning and budgeting work for a large Phase II clinical study. Dr Ashfield obtained her degree and PhD from Oxford University.
Catherine Beech
CEO of Exonate LimitedCatherine has over 25 years of biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience. She started her medical career within the NHS, followed by 12 years within multinational pharmaceutical companies both in the USA and Europe. As Medical Director she led global drug development programmes in hypertension, heart failure, Parkinson’s Disease and HIV.
For the past 20 years, Catherine has worked extensively to commercialise novel technologies in the life sciences. She has invested in many start-up biotech companies both personally and as an early stage VC. Over the years she has sat on many boards but currently sits as a NED on Better2know (on-line access to testing services), Locate Therapeutics (regenerative medicine), Exonate Limited (mRNA alternative splicing in ophthalmology) and Phoremost Limited (drug discovery).
Catherine co-founded Exonate and currently is the CEO, leading the company’s commercial and corporate development. Exonate aims to introduce a revolutionary, game-changing eye drop for the treatment of retinal vascular diseases.
Catherine has a degree in medicine from Birmingham University and in 2008 was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to technology and innovation.
Pierre Belichard
Chief Executive Officer at EnteromeEnterome is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing breakthrough immunomodulatory drugs for the treatment of cancer and immune diseases.
Enterome’s pioneering approach to drug discovery is based on its unique ability to decode the interaction between the gut microbiome and the immune system.
Alex Blyth
CEO of LifT BiosciencesSerial entrepreneur with 15 years’ experience in commercialising novel biopharma assets and strategy consulting, having advised teams and led the strategic planning for bringing to market over 50 assets for companies like Pfizer, Allergan, abbVie, Amgen, Shire, Takeda, GSK & Sanofi. Founded the company after losing his mother to Pancreatic Cancer, and seeing a new way to beat cancer by utilising the innate immune system.
Jasper Bos
General Partner at ForbionJasper Bos, PhD, a former Merck executive, joined Forbion as General Partner for the firm’s Growth Fund. Before joining Forbion’s Naarden-based headquarters, Jasper was Senior Vice President and Managing Director at M Ventures, the venture arm of pharmaceutical giant Merck, which he joined in 2009. At M Ventures, he led a team of twenty-one investment professionals and with a fund size of €400 million invested in over 50 portfolio companies spanning biotech, life sciences tools, and tech companies with investment activities ranging from seed-stage to cross-over and IPO. His track record includes the successful exits of Prexton Therapeutics, Epitherapeutics, Galecto, ObsEva, Translate Bio, and F-Star. He has experience in several operational roles in portfolio companies and played a key role in the creation of multiple successful spin-out companies out of Merck.
Jasper holds a PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Pascal Caisey
Chief Commercial Officer at GenfitPascal CAISEY, Chief Operating Officer, joined GENFIT in September 2019 as Executive Vice-President Commercial Development, then as Chief Commercial Officer since January 2021. Pascal has extensive operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having held positions of increasing responsibilities within GSK, BMS, Pfizer and more recently Boehringer Ingelheim. He is a Registered Nurse and holds an MBA from HEC. He will be leveraging his operational and strategic expertise to ensure optimized execution of our strategic priorities, to strengthen our product pipeline with new high-potential assets and accelerate their development.
Mario Caria
CEO of KUSTE BIOPHARMADr Mario Caria previously served as International Director and Senior Partner at Sofimac Partners, currently Venture Partner at Sofimac Innovation Paris. Mario has raised and managed several Venture Capital Funds with 40+ Healthcare Companies and cumulated over 20 direct investments and management in Life Science companies, recording up to 26% IRR. Recently exited Centervue SpA for approx 70m€ .
Mario has gathered a broad experience spanning from researcher to entrepreneur and investor across a spectrum of markets. He expanded internationally the managed funds with focus on Healthcare cumulating 100m+€ of direct funds raising in Seed and Development Funds.
Mario co-founded and managed his first Company, Spinelix, which was focused on devices for diagnostic and medical imaging, including an In Vitro Diagnostic subsidiary and closed several rounds of financing and major commercial contracts.
Researcher at CERN Geneva, he led major consortia in EU raising over 15m€. He filed and licensed several patents and wrote hundreds of scientific papers and a book in Statistics for Researchers in Life Science. He was Chair in Medical Biophysics and taught Health Technology Assesment.
Antoine Carlhian
CFO at Aquilon Pharmaceuticals13 years of experience in the healthcare industry, focused on the financial management of organizations both in Belgium and internationally (Former CFO of Hyloris Pharmaceutical & Finance Director of Abbott Vascular).
John Catravas
Professor at Old Dominion University, Virginia
Laia Crespo
Partner at Sanofi VenturesLaia joined Sanofi Ventures in 2018 as Head of Investments. She brings a background in biotech investing primarily in Europe. Prior to Sanofi, Laia served as Investment Director for Ysios Capital where she led investments and served on the Boards of OxThera, Minoryx Therapeutics and Inbiomotion, and as an observer with AM-Pharma. Earlier in her career, Laia was part of the European New Business Development team of Janssen-Cilag, a pharmaceutical company of the Johnson & Johnson group, where she assessed commercial and scientific licensing-in opportunities. Previously she worked as a researcher in the UK in companies such as Spirogen (now AstraZeneca), Medivir and UCB-Celltech.
Laia currently serves on the Board of Directors for Muna Therapeutics and is a board observer for Nodthera. Previous investments and board roles include Lava Therapeutics (LVTX).
Laia graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, where she also completed a Master in Science and a PhD with honors. Laia holds an MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Myles Dakin
Founder of Hypo-Stream LtdHypo-Stream’s M3 burns therapeutic is the result of collaborative work between a group of clinicians, scientists and business people in the UK.
Nara Daubeney
COO and Co-Founder of Phaim Pharma LtdDr Nara Daubeney PhD, MBBS MEd (Surg) DIC MRCS(Eng) DLO is an adult and paediatric ENT surgeon by training, and honorary senior clinical lecturer at Barts NHS trust and Queen Mary University London. She qualified at Imperial College and Charing Cross Hospital and is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. She is passionate about research, innovation and entrepreneurship, having studied for a PhD at Imperial College and has considerable expertise in immunity. She jointly founded Phaim Pharma with a singular aim of providing potentially curative treatments and early, pre-disease state diagnostics for autoimmune disease.
Charlotte Deane
Chief Scientist Biologics AI at Exscientia LtdCharlotte is Professor of Structural Bioinformatics at the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford. She is also Chief Scientist of Biologics AI at Exscientia.
At Oxford, Charlotte leads the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (OPIG), who work on diverse problems across protein structure, interaction networks and small molecule drug discovery; combining theoretical and empirical analysis with special interest in AI. She collaborates with experimentalists in academia and industry in experiment design to leverage the power of computation for biological insight.
Her work focuses on the development of novel algorithms, tools and databases that are openly available to the community. Examples include SAbDab, SAbPred, Cov-AbDab, PanDDA and MEMOIR. These tools are widely used web resources and are also part of several Pharma drug discovery pipelines. Charlotte has consulted extensively with industry and has set up a consulting arm within her own research group as a way of promoting industrial interaction and use of the group’s software tools.
Alison Dennis
Partner at Taylor WessingAlison co-heads Taylor Wessing's international Life Sciences and Healthcare group. She works with international life sciences companies to cut through the complexity of EU regulation of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and get their products to market.
In a career of over 20 years, Alison has helped hundreds of life sciences companies manage the range of legal challenges involved in commercialising medical devices and medicinal products. She combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of the EU and UK life sciences regulatory environment with an analytical understanding of strategy and business in the life sciences sector.
Alison provides sophisticated advice on regulation, compliance and commercialisation, as well as intellectual property transactions. On a number of occasions, she has successfully persuaded regulators and notified bodies to reconsider and ultimately overturn their decisions, allowing her clients to commercialise new products.
Alison supports clients on outright acquisitions and licences, as well as in due diligence for sizeable corporate transactions and listings. She also helps clients navigate the nuances of structuring and negotiating arrangements with various commercial and health care partners within the complex framework of EU regulations, national laws and industry and deontological codes.
Her clients praise the pragmatism and commercial awareness she brings to every legal challenge and transaction, as well as her bright and personable working style. She is an accomplished leader, having built new life sciences practices for two top-tier London law firms
Harry Destecroix
General Partner & Co-Founder of Science Creates VenturesScience Creates is a Bristol-based deep tech ecosystem supported and backed by successful entrepreneurs that helps scientists and engineers accelerate their ideas and build disruptive businesses from scientific discoveries. In partnership with the University of Bristol, Science Creates aims to establish Bristol as a global centre for deep tech by providing a combination of specialist incubator facilities (Unit DX and DY), a network of strategic partners and venture capital. The ecosystem aims to provide better healthcare, a cleaner environment, and an improved quality of life for everyone; achieved by supporting scientists to take discoveries off the shelf and into the real world.
Tomas De wouters
CEO of PharmaBiomeWith more than ten years of studying the intestinal microbiota and over 5 years developing PharmaBiome as its founding CEO, Tomas is an expert in the microbiome and its place in human health. An engineer with a PhD in biology, Tomas’ broad understanding of the microbiome resulted in the founding of PharmaBiome. With his strong co-founders and his team, they established a unique platform technology for product development in the microbiome field. PharmaBiome’s insights resulted in a promising new approach to the promising new modality.
Mustafa Djamgoz
Director and CEO of Celex Oncology Innovations LimitedProfessor Djamgoz is specialised on neuroscience and became Professor of Neurobiology in 1995.
Through biophysics and biomedicine he initiated a new field of cancer research which he calls “neuroscience solutions to cancer” and identified novel voltage-gated sodium channels as anti-metastatic targets.
He was given a second professorship (of Cancer Biology) in 2005. Professor Djamgoz has published more than 200 primary research papers and has edited 6 books / special journal issues. His book “Beat Cancer” was published in 2014.
Sinclair Dunlop
Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Epidarex CapitalSinclair has over 20 years of experience successfully building early-stage life science companies and delivering competitive returns to international investors.
Prior to co-founding Epidarex, Sinclair founded and was Managing Partner of MASA Life Science Ventures, LP (MLSV) an early-stage venture fund that successfully built an international portfolio of leading life science and health technology companies. Sinclair has venture investing experience in the U.S., Europe, East Asia and Canada and has built an international network of blue-chip investors from both the public and private sectors.
He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: APLS), Clyde Biosciences Ltd., Edinburgh Molecular Imaging Ltd.
Sinclair received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School where he was the R.C. Kopf British-American Fellow in International Business. He holds an M.A. with Honours in Political Economy from the University of Glasgow and an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Sinclair is a St. Andrew’s Society of New York Scholar. Earlier in his career, he was a political economist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
He currently serves as the Chairman of Inspiring Scotland, one of the UK’s largest venture philanthropy charities.
Lorenzo Errichelli
Business Development Lead at Evox Therapeutics LimitedTRANSFORMATIVE EXOSOME THERAPEUTICS: Utilising our DeliverEXTM platform, we are engineering exosomes to deliver protein and nucleic acid-based therapeutics to treat life-threatening rare diseases.
At Evox Therapeutics we are harnessing and engineering the natural delivery capabilities of exosomes to develop an entirely novel class of biotherapeutics.
Felix Faupel
Chief Commercial Officer at BacTheraFelix was appointed as Chief Commercial Officer of Bacthera in September 2020.
Before he was leading the Contract Manufacturing business of the generics company Acino International AG. He initially joined Acino as Global Key Account Manager in 2016. Before, he was working as a Business Development Manager for the tech-consulting company Altran (now part of Capgemini) and for the peptide API CDMO Bachem.
Felix studied at the University of Zurich (UZH) and holds a Master of Science in Chemistry and Business Studies.
William Finch
CEO of Oxford Vacmedix UK LtdAfter graduating from Oxford in Biochemistry William has over 34 years experience in the Biotech sector with a particular focus on leading SMEs.
Previous companies include R&D Systems, Amersham International, British Biotech and Beckman Coulter alongside small start-ups following outsourcing strategies where relevant.
Antimo Fiorillo
Founder & CEO of AllyfeAllyfe is a fully compliant digital platform designed with patients, researchers and trial sponsors. Its web and mobile applications help patients to find and easily volunteer for clinical trials and support researchers and sponsors with making the enrollment process more efficient.
Helen Fletcher
Scientific Innovation Lead, Global Public Health at Johnson and Johnson Innovation - JJDCHelen Fletcher, PhD
Leader of the Johnson & Johnson Centers for Global Health Discovery (CGHD) and Scientific Innovation Lead for Global Public Health R&D (EMEA and Asia Pacific)
Helen Fletcher is the Leader of Johnson & Johnson Centers for Global Health Discovery (CGHD), a network of J&J operated labs being established in major public health institutions across the world, and Scientific Innovation Lead for Global Public Health R&D (EMEA and Asia Pacific).
As Scientific Innovation Lead, Helen will work in close collaboration with discovery scientists, business development, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation colleagues building new external innovation partnerships as well as identifying funding and public financing opportunities help build the discovery and R&D portfolio within J&J Global Public Health.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson Helen was a Professor of Immunology and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Helen has a B.SC. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Leeds and more than 20 years’ experience in vaccine development from pre-clinical to phase I and II safety studies and clinical efficacy trials at University College London, University of Oxford and LSHTM.
George Freeman
Minister for Life Science at Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS)George Freeman is Minister for Science, Research and Innovation at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Elected to Parliament in 2010 after a 15-year career founding high-growth technology companies, George has served in the last three Governments as UK Trade Envoy, the first UK Minister for Life Science, Chair of the No10 Policy Board and Minister of State at the Department for Transport.
Most recently, he led the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR).
He is Founder of the Big Tent Festival and Foundation, the Reform for Resilience Global Health Commission and the 2020 Conservatives Group. He is also author of Britain Beyond Brexit and the former Chair of the Conservative Policy Forum.
Frederic GARZONI
CEO of Imophoron LtdImophoron is a pre-clinical stage company with a novel vaccine platform called ADDomer. ADDomer is a patented technology for creating highly immunogenic vaccine candidates and is multimeric protein-based, self-assembling nanoparticle scaffold. Proof of concept data for two highly infectious diseases demonstrate potential to prevent disease and transmission.
Guy Griebel
Head External Innovation Rare and Neurological Disorders at SanofiDr. Guy Griebel has over 25 years of biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience. Prior to leading external innovation activities for rare and neurological disorders at Sanofi, Dr. Griebel held various roles of increasing responsibility within CNS Research, serving last as the Global Head of Psychopharmacology, leading global, cross-functional, and cross-divisional teams for the discovery, characterization, and clinical testing of a variety of first-in-class compounds in psychiatric, pain and neurodegenerative disorders. Under his supervision, several of these compounds have made it to Phase III clinical trial and some are still under active development. In addition to his role at Sanofi, Dr. Griebel is an active member of the external neuroscience community, participating as an advisor to several biotech and investment companies, supporting early-stage life sciences.
Vibhor Gupta
Director & Founder of Pangaea DataDr. Vibhor Gupta has a breadth of experience in life sciences through his work in industry and academia over the past two decades. Prior to founding Pangaea, Vibhor spearheaded the European business for Quantum Secure, an enterprise software solutions provider headquartered in Silicon Valley, which was successfully acquired in 2015. Following this, Vibhor served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Sales at Seven Bridges Genomics, which was founded at Harvard and provides a cloud based bioinformatics platform. Vibhor has also worked as a management and technology consultant for Deloitte. Vibhor’s academic career focused on conducting molecular biology studies and building AI algorithms with epigenetic, genomic, transcriptomic and clinical trial data in the context of oncology and infectious diseases. Vibhor has access to an extensive global network in the life sciences industry and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences, government funded programs and investment summits.
Benjamin Hadida
CEO & Co-Founder of Exeliom BiosciencesBenjamin co-founded Exeliom Biosciences in December 2016, and has been the CEO of the company since. Exeliom Biosciences is specialized in the development of novel therapeutic approaches against immune-mediated diseases, that are more suited to chronic administration than current medicines. Exeliom’s lead program, EXL01, has obtained approval to enter the clinic for the maintenance of remission in Crohn’s Disease.
Benjamin is an entrepreneur who developed a wide range of skills in various industries
such as investment banking (UBS), venture capital (Pacific Channel), pharmaceutical regulatory affairs (Amgen), biotech operations (Theravectys) and applied research (Vision Institute in Paris).
Benjamin has a master’s degree in management from ESSEC Business School (after Classes Prépa) and a master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Sorbonne University.
Tim Haines
Chairman and Managing Partner at Abingworth LLPA Life Sciences Investment Update
Tim is Chairman and Managing Partner at Abingworth LLP, a leading global life sciences venture investment firm. Tim joined Abingworth in 2005 having been Chief Executive of Abingworth’s portfolio company, Astex Therapeutics, and was instrumental in establishing it as one of the leading UK biotechnology companies. Tim has held a number of senior management positions in the US and Europe, including CEO of both Datascope Corp. and Thackray Inc, and General Manager at Baxter UK. Tim has a BSc from Exeter University and an MBA from INSEAD. He is a former Director of the BIA and sat on the BVCA Venture Committee and the Wellcome Trust / NHS Health Innovation Challenge Fund. During his time at Abingworth Tim has taken board roles in a number of companies including Adaptate Biotherapeutics, Astex, Fovea, GammaDelta Therapeutics, MEDIAN Technologies, PowderMed, and Sientra.
Peter Hamley
CSO at Samsara TherapeuticsPeter is a recognized leader in drug discovery, having spent 15 years at Sanofi, most recently as Global Head of External Innovation, Drug Discovery in Business Development. Prior to this, he led global high throughput medicinal chemistry, natural product and antibody drug conjugate departments across Germany, France, and the US, and has contributed to the advancement of many projects into clinical development across several therapeutic areas. He started his career at AstraZeneca leading medicinal chemistry teams in the respiratory and inflammation disease areas. Prior to a postdoctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania, he obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and a BSc in Chemistry from Imperial College London. He holds an MBA from the University of Bath. Over his career in big pharma, he has been involved in hundreds of drug discovery projects, has executed external partnerships and has published numerous papers and patents including co-editing the textbook Small Molecule Medicinal Chemistry: Strategies and Technologies (Wiley).
Simon Haworth
CEO of Intelligent OMICS LimitedSimon is a serial entrepreneur whose experience includes technology innovation and investment in Cambridge UK, Boston USA and Wuhan China. Former founder of listed investment company IPSO Ventures PLC.
Angela Hobbs
CEO of Wilkinson HallAngela Hobbs joined the OBN Board in March 2020. Angela is CEO of Wilkinson Hall Ltd, a business consultancy working with entrepreneurs in their transition from start-up to scale-up. She is a member of the Design Council’s investment panel for Tech Spark and a mentor for Aspire for Equality Foundation. She founded her first company in the 1990’s working with media owners, advertising agencies and global brands. After a period of consulting with product design consultants Triteq, she became MD in 2017 working with MedTech clients and funding organisations developing safety critical medical devices and digital health solutions. In 2010 she completed her MSc in Sustainable Business at University of Bath.
Edward Hodgkin
Chairman & CEO of Resolution TherapeuticsEd is the Chairman and CEO of Resolution Therapeutics. He is also a Partner at Syncona, and Chairman of OMass Therapeutics. Previously, he was the first CEO and a board member of Autolus Therapeutics. He has also held the role of CEO of Biotica Ltd (Cambridge, UK), President & Chief Business Officer of BrainCells Inc (San Diego, CA), and VP, Business Development & Marketing at Tripos Inc (St Louis, MO). Ed’s early career was spent in research and management positions with Wyeth-Ayerst Inc and British Biotech. He holds a degree and DPhil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and is a former Chairman of the BIA, the UK’s trade association for innovative life science companies.
Ben Holland
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of AntiverseWe use machine learning to optimise and develop the current drug discovery process. Our world-first computational technique means we can discover new antibodies, faster and better.
Dean Hum
Chief Scientific Officer at GenfitDean HUM earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal in 1990. An expert in the modulation of transcription factors and nuclear receptors associated with endocrine and cardiometabolic diseases, he held a research position at the University of California in San Francisco before becoming a Professor at Laval University in Quebec.
He joined GENFIT in 2000 as Chief Scientific Officer. Dean Hum is today a key person in the organization of GENFIT. In particular, he is responsible for defining, implementing, employing and coordinating short-, medium- and long-term strategies relating to R&D programs and portfolio.
He coordinates all R&D activities with the CEO and in close collaboration with scientific officers and project managers.
He is also a president and member of the board of directors of our wholly owned subsidiary, GENFIT Corp., and a member of the Management Committee of our wholly owned subsidiary GENFIT Pharmaceuticals SAS.
Joe Illingworth
Chief Scientific Officer at DJS AntibodiesJoe is the CSO and Co-Founder of DJS Antibodies. Joe loves working in a small and focussed team to solve problems creatively. He was a leader in the establishment of HEPTAD, the mAb discovery engine at the heart of DJS, and now oversees all R&D activities within the company. His work covers mAb discovery and screening through to preclinical development of lead drugs, and he works closely with industry-leading experts as well as managing several government funded projects.
Joe holds a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in antibody discovery and characterisation from the University of Oxford. After studying Joe worked as an academic on antibody induction and vaccination.
In his spare time he loves playing the guitar, sailing, kicking a football around and growing vegetables.
Peter Jackson
CEO of Infex TherapeuticsDr Peter Jackson is an experienced UK-based serial entrepreneur in the life sciences sector. Over the past ten years, he has created six new companies, targeting novel therapeutics across infection, oncology and immunology, as well as in agrochemicals and life sciences services.
Dr Jackson has over 25 years’ experience in the sector, previously holding senior executive roles as commercial director then VP of Avecia’s Pharmaceutical Products business unit, following senior commercial and R&D positions at predecessor companies Zeneca and ICI.
During 2015-16, Dr Jackson was chairman of the steering committee created to establish the UK’s translational R&D centre focused on antimicrobial resistance, the AMR Centre, and now runs Infex Therapeutics as its executive director.
Javier Jimenez
EVP Transformational Design at Syneos HealthSyneos Health® is the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization purpose-built to accelerate customer success. We lead with a product development mindset, strategically blending clinical development, medical affairs and commercial capabilities to address modern market realities.
Huw Jones
CEO of Evgen Pharma PlcHuw joined the OBN Board in April 2022. He has been CEO of Evgen Pharma PLC, a clinical stage cancer and inflammation company, since October 2020. Huw recently led the raise of £10m in a placing and up to a further £1m in an open offer in a transformative deal for Evgen. He is also a non-executive director of Ixaka Ltd (formerly Rexgenero) a cell and gene therapy company with operations in London, Paris and Seville; Non-executive Chairman of Chronos Therapeutics Ltd in Oxford, and strategic advisor to Gen2 Neuroscience in Cambridge, an antibody company focussed on tauopaties such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
Peter Joyce
CEO of Grey Wolf TherapeuticsPeter is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grey Wolf, setting up the company in 2017 with Tom McCarthy. Peter has over 15 years of experience in biomedical research leading drug discovery projects across disease areas. Prior to Grey Wolf he was at Vertex Pharmaceuticals for 5 and a half years, where he led drug discovery projects and had responsibility for leading a number of target identification teams, and before Vertex he was a post-doc at the MRC. Peter holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from the University of Bristol and a BSc in Biochemistry.
Denise Kelly
Venture Partner at Seventure PartnersProfessor Denise Kelly joined Seventure Partners, a European Leader in Venture Capital, in 2015 as an Investment Advisor to the Life Sciences Team and is focused specifically, on Human Microbiome investment opportunities across Europe and the USA.
Prior to joining Seventure, Denise was Head of her Research team at the World-renowned Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, where she acquired over 20 years experience in gut microbiology and immunology. She was the (former) Founder Director, CEO and CSO of GT Biologics Ltd, one of the first translational spinouts, developing Innovative Microbiome-based Therapies. She is the main inventor on numerous EU and USA patent applications and during her career has collaborated with pharmaceutical and healthcare companies on several translational projects.
Denise holds a BSc and PhD from Queen’s University, Belfast and an Emeritus Professorship from the University of Aberdeen
Salim Khakoo
Co-Founder of KargeneraKargenera was founded to commercialise NK-cell activating anti-cancer therapeutics which have already demonstrated in-vivo efficacy both as monotherapy and in combination with anti-PDL1 and IL15. The patented technology has already attracted over £1m of grant funding and is the subject of peer reviewed publications.
Farid Khan
CEO of PharmaKureDr. Farid Khan, BSc, MSc, PhD(Cantab) Dr. Farid Khan is aremarkable bio-medtech entrepreneur and innovator, who obtained his PhD in protein folding from the University of Cambridgeand previously worked for GlaxoSmithKline in drug discovery.He has developed technologies and therapies for diseases in the developed and the developing world. In 2010, he founded his first biotech, Protein Technologies (http://www.protein-technologies.com)which developed novel biologics, biostimulants from microalgae, and industrial biocatlylsts. In 2012, Dr. Khan founded Pharmakure Ltdwhist he was working at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (https://www.mib.manchester.ac.uk/). Pharmakure is a spin out from The University of Manchester(http://www.pharmakure.com)-which has developed drugs for Alzheimer's Disease. More recently, he founded eLucid mHealth Ltd(https://www.elucid-mhealth.com), which measures medication adherence using a Bluetooth electronic pill dispensers-which is being trialed by the NHSand obtained Series A funding from Catapult Ventures. He has recently published on the discovery of new repurposed drugs for malaria and a number of rare diseases such as alkaptonuria (or ‘black bone disease’ which has no current treatment) and Multiple Systems Atrophy(a neurological disease). He has secured £multi-million funds from private and public sources, formed key interdisciplinary collaborations with industry, academic institutions and charities(such as the Welcome Trust) including stakeholders in the UK'shealthcare agenda. A visionary leader and respected scientist, with deep knowledge in the biotechindustry. In 2013Dr.Khan wasawarded an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Salford, in 2014 in recognition of his work in science and engineering,hewas awarded the Fazlur Rahman Khan award by Muslim News for excellence in engineering/science/technology by Prime Minister David Cameron.Dr. Khan has been interviewed by Bloomberg, The Guardian and the BBC and by a number of peer reviewed journals.In 2019, Dr. Khan formed Chief AI, a company focused on finding repurposed drugs using AI which has received InnovateUK and seed funding. In June, 2019, Dr. Khan was included in the top 100 Asian Starsin UK Tech-a definitive list by Diversity UK in association with KPMG.
Hsin Loke
VP Finance and Operations at OMass TherapeuticsHsin Loke joined OMass Therapeutics in July 2018 as Vice President, Finance & Operations. Previously she spent 16 years at GSK in a variety of leadership roles; most recently leading Finance, Strategy and Operations for the Company’s Rare Diseases Unit, which developed and commercialised a portfolio of innovative medicines, including gene therapies. Prior to this, Hsin led Strategy and Operations for GSK’s biopharm unit, and has held roles within an internal consulting group, commercial finance and internal audit. Hsin qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, and completed her BA (Hons) in Biological Sciences and D.Phil. in genetics and immunology at Oxford University.
Debora Lucarelli
CEO of Enhanc3D GenomicsDebora is Enhanc3D Genomics CEO and joined the founding team in early 2020. She has a keen interest in disruptive technologies that have potential to benefit human health. She brings a wealth of experience in technology development, together with a track record of successfully delivering large-scale projects in academia and industry. In previous roles Debora led a cancer signature discovery (Director of Biomarker Discovery at Cambridge Epigenetix), directed and managed the laboratory’s research on large population studies (Head of laboratory, MRC Epidemiology, University of Cambridge) and worked on the early development of the Oxford Nanopore’s technology. At Enhanc3D Genomics, Debora is leading the development of the technology, establishing the internal research programmes, strengthening the partnerships and advocating the advent of the 3D genomics era.
Charles Macdowell
Business Development Representative at VA Beach Bio
Chris Marlein
Staff Scientist - Downstream mAb Platform PD at FUJIFILM Diosynth BiotechnologiesChris is a Staff Scientist in the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies mAb Platform group. He is responsible for leading the development of downstream purification strategies for monoclonal antibodies. Before joining FDB, Chris gained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of York and a PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of East Anglia. He also carried out a Post-Doctoral research position at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, USA before joining FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in 2019.
James McIlroy
CEO of EnteroBiotixJames McIlroy is a medically qualified biopharmaceutical entrepreneur focusing on microbiome enhancing medicines. He is the CEO & founder of EnteroBiotix with the vision of building the world’s leading microbiome therapeutics company and has a talented team of over 35 people that are united by a common desire to transform the standard of care for patients with medical conditions linked to the gut microbiome. Since 2017, James has raised over £18m in equity investment and has established control over the supply chain for high-diversity therapeutics through building and operating state- state-of-the-art manufacturing and analytical facilities, as well as establishing a brand and operation called Number 2® which ensures the security and quality of supply of microbiota from human donors.
Carlos Meca
Chief Commercial Officer at RadiomicsCarlos serves as Chief Commercial Officer for Radiomics. He is a physicist by training with over 15 years of commercial and marketing strategy experience in the Medical Device space. Carlos focus is to provide the strategic commercial backbone to Radiomics activities and to develop long-term commercial partnerships with key customer anchored in win-win development and commercialisation agreements.
After his PhD in Medical Imaging with the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique in Paris, Carlos completed a master’s in Management of Technology & Innovation at Paris Dauphine. As a business consultant, he has supported several biotech and medtech start-up companies in their early-stage business plan developments. Subsequently, as a strategy and pricing consultant, he worked with most leading Medical device companies creating pricing and commercial strategies, before leading Johnson & Johnson’s strategic contracting for the EMEA region. During his time at J&J, he was responsible for spearheading Value-based Healthcare Agreements, exploring new business models and leading local commercial activities.
Jason Mellad
CEO of Start CodonDr Jason Mellad
Jason is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and co-founder of Start Codon, a Cambridge based venture builder, he aims to identify the most disruptive healthcare founders and innovations worldwide, seed fund them and leverage the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster to de-risk and drive the success of their start-ups. Previously he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix and Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division. He also served as an associate at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office of the University of Cambridge.
Agnès Menut
Chief Operating Officer at Genoscience PharmaDr Agnès Menut is a Pharmacist and specialized in Project Management. She has 12 years of experience in managing pharmaceutical R&D projects in several indications, and 2 to 4 years creating a business development department within a public-private consortium.
Agnès was in charge of the offer's development of MI-mAbs' platform that bring the immunotechnology available to All and the identification of new partners. She is experienced in R&D project lead at discovery up to submission phase with specificities in Oncology or Neurology area.
She joined the Team to build partnering and business development for Genoscience Pharma
Jon Moore
CEO and Co-Founder of EpitopeaDr. Jon Moore is CEO and is also an Operating Partner at Advent Life Sciences. Jon has >25 years of experience in Life Sciences starting with postdoctoral work in molecular motors & cell cycle control including a period with Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt, followed by 10 years small molecule drug discovery experience at Vernalis. More recently Jon was CSO of Horizon Discovery where he helped established the companies world-leading capabilities for using CRISPR/Cas9 in target ID and validation and co-founded Avvinity Therapeutics. Jon holds a Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and was published >40 peer-reviewed papers.
Louwai Muhammed
CEO & Co-Founder of CoSyne TherapeuticsLouwai is the CEO of CoSyne Therapeutics – a computational drug target discovery company with a mission to help patients with devastating diseases. He is a practising clinical neurology doctor, scientist, and entrepreneur. He read neuroscience and preclinical medicine and Cambridge University, before completing clinical medical school at Oxford University, where he won dozens of academic awards and broke multiple records. He then studied entrepreneurship and revolutionary ventures at Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar. While in Boston, he also won the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) $100k Accelerate entrepreneurship competition. He was the top-ranked doctor in the UK for London academic medical training and was the highest scoring applicant to neurology specialist training in the UK. He also founded an internationally recognised teaching platform for medical students in warzones. Louwai co-founded CoSyne Therapeutics with his team who believe in rapid translation of research into therapies to help patients. They are using computational systems genomics to create the next generation of genomic medicines and to revolutionise the way drug targets are discovered.
Anna Obolensky
Director,Translational Research of PGTxPGTx is a social impact biologics company developing vaccines and adjuvant delivery systems addressing major unmet health needs. The company has a proprietary recombinant vaccine platform delivering broad cross-protection amongst related pathogens. PGTx's leading vaccine candidate targets enteric bacterial dysentery. Our pipeline includes other neglected infectious diseases.
Ian Oliver
Partner at BDO LLPI am BDO's Head of UK Life Sciences and an audit partner.
I focus on leading our UK Life Sciences team to coordinate delivery of services to assist life sciences businesses with their growth ambitions, from start-up through to IPO (Initial Public Offering) or exit.
My degrees in chemistry and genetic engineering enable me to understand the aims of life sciences businesses and speak their language. As an audit partner, I am passionate about delivering a high-quality audit process, assisting my clients with all aspects of their audit, assurance, and UK, IFRS or US financial reporting requirements.
I have significant experience working with public companies, private equity/venture capital backed businesses and private companies. My sector expertise in life sciences spans biotechnology, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
Emma Palmer Foster
Strategic Communications Consultant at The Oxford Science Park
Etleva Pashaj
VICE PRESIDENT, MEDICAL, EUROPE at Precision for Medicine, Oncology & Rare DiseaseStrategic, innovation-driven, drug discovery veteran—and board-certified oncologist—with extensive international regulatory experience. Record of excellence in clinical development, medical monitoring and medical strategy, and managing and mentoring cross-functional and global teams for phase 1-4 onco-hematology studies.
Manish Patel
CEO of Jiva aiA molecular geneticist by training, I pursued bioinformatics and systems biology early in my career where I invented the seed of what is now the algorithmic fundamentals of what we use in Jiva. At doctoral level I explored the requirement for model integration in simulations of cancer - the idea that models that represent different parts of a system need to be integrated together to create bigger, better and more predictive simulations.
I have spent almost 10 years in investment banks and hedge funds building algorithmic trading engines before venturing into entrepreneurship; I have started two other tech startups in hospitality and software engineering after joining a medical device startup as CTO.
As CEO I am responsible for executing the core vision and mission of Jiva – one that will see the democratisation of multimodal AI systems in healthcare and beyond.
Laurent Pradier
Director Scientific Strategy and External Relations, Rare and Neurological Disorders of SanofiI am a Scientific fellow in the Rare and Neurologic Diseases research therapeutic area at sanofi in charge of scientific strategy and external innovation. I am a graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris and engineering school and received a PhD from Univ California, Davis, USA. With 30 year experience in neurodegenerative diseases in sanofi legacy companies, I have a strong background in identification and validation of therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s diseases using genomics technologies. I managed efforts to develop transgenic models of neurodegenerative diseases with a network of academic collaborators and I have led the development to the clinic of several drug candidates, small molecules and antibodies. I initiated two very large European precompetitive consortia (FP7 and IMI2, receiving grants over € 9 million each). I was serving as sanofi representative to european IMI Neurodegeneration governance group and as ARIIS representative to the French neuroscience ITMO. I am author on over 90 peer-reviewed publications and inventor on multiple patent applications
Katy Rabindran
Senior Manager at BDOKaty is a tax director in BDO's Innovation & Technology Group and has specialised in R&D tax relief and patent box claims for over 10 years. She understands the importance of maximising cash refunds/savings from these reliefs and ensuring timely repayments from HMRC and uses her experience and HMRC relationships to enable our clients to achieve this.
Jon Rees
CEO of MitoRx TherapeuticsJon is CEO of MitoRx Therapeutics with16 years in industry including business development for Takeda Pharma Rare Diseases, VC deal sourcing for LSP.vc, successfully advising Ducentis BioTherapeutics on fundraising. Transformative decade as spin-out CEO of leading biotech network OBN/BioTrinity. PKD patient charity trustee. Researched metabolic engineering at Oxford.
David Reynolds
CEO of LoQus23 Therapeutics LtdLoQus23 is a DDF-formed company focusing on targeting DNA damage repair pathways to treat Huntington’s disease and other triplet repeat neurodegenerative diseases.
Jonathan Rohll
Head of Business Information at OBN (UK) LtdJonathan joined OBN in early 2012. He carries out a number of analytical tasks related to the Life Sciences sector in Oxford, the Thames Valley and the UK Life Sciences sector in general. More widely he performed a key role in OBN’s involvement in the work of the Oxford node of the FP7 HealthTIES project. Jonathan is also involved with the realisation of the OBN Consultancy service including cluster mapping, product searches and consultation responses.
Prior to joining OBN he carried out academic research in a number of areas including cell division, virology and immunology and moved to Oxford BioMedica in 1997 where he played a major role in the development of their lentiviral gene therapy ‘system’ for use in treatment of a variety of indications.
Mike Romanos
CEO of MicrobioticaMike Romanos is a co-founder and Chief Executive of Microbiotica. He has 30 years’ experience in the biotech and pharma industry and previously co-founded Crescendo Biologics which he built and led as CEO and CSO, developing a leading antibody fragment discovery platform and pipeline in oncology and inflammation. Prior to that he held global VP roles in GlaxoSmithKline R&D over 10 years, during which time he formed and led major transnational divisions which helped shape the company’s discovery platforms and pipelines across therapeutic areas and modalities. In his last role he led a trans-national group of 300 staff providing genomics, target and biomarker discovery, and platform biology for R&D.
Mike is highly experienced in the biotech translation and commercialisation, currently serving as a Non-Exec Director of the life-sciences charity LifeArc, and previously as Translational Adviser in Biomedicine at Imperial College, Venture Partner to UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund, and committee member on the MRC’s Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme for translational academic research.
Mike’s academic work included research in influenza virology (MRC, National Institute for Medical Research) and in yeast genetics and biotechnology (University of Leicester). He holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, a PhD in Molecular Virology from Imperial College, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
Jack Scannell
CEO of Unify PharmaceuticalsDr Jack Scannell has unusually broad experience relevant to Unify; in drug discovery, in biopharma investment, in R&D productivity, and in neuroscience. He led Discovery Biology at E-Therapeutics PLC, an Oxford-based biotech firm. He was Co-Head of European Pharmaceuticals and Biotech at UBS Investment Bank and Head of European Healthcare at Sanford Bernstein.
He has a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University. He is perhaps best known for his work on biopharma R&D productivity.
Jennifer Schranz
SVP and Global Head, Rare Diseases Therapeutic Area at IpsenIpsen is a global biopharmaceutical group dedicated to improving lives through innovative medicines in Oncology, Neuroscience and Rare Diseases.
Matthew Segall
CEO of OptibriumMatthew Segall is CEO of Optibrium. He has an MSc in Computation from the University of Oxford and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge. Since 2001, Matthew has led teams developing predictive models and intuitive decision-support and visualization tools for drug discovery. In 2009 he led a management buyout of the StarDrop™ business to found Optibrium, which develops novel technologies and ground-breaking artificial intelligence software, including Cerella™ and Inspyra™, that improve the efficiency and productivity of drug discovery.
Kirsty Semple
CEO of SENISCA LtdKirsty is co-founder, and the commercial, finance and investment lead at SENISCA. She is an accomplished Chief Executive Office, with over 20 years of experience at Group Board level maximising profitability and performance at high growth companies across Europe, Asia and North America. Kirsty trained as a Management Consultant with KPMG London and is a prize-winning Cell Physiology graduate from Edinburgh University.
Oliver Sexton
Investment Director of UKI2SOliver Sexton joined Midven in April 2014 to manage the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund’s synthetic biology investments.
Prior to joining Midven, Oliver managed commercialisation of bioengineering and medical technologies At Imperial Innovations and was on the board of oncology therapeutic Acublate Ltd. Earlier in his career he held commercial and partnering roles at Ark Therapeutics.
Oliver also managed a team of biotech buy-side analysts and worked at a pharma strategy consultancy.
Oliver has a BSc in Molecular Biology/Biotechnology and an MSc in Plant Science from Bristol University.
Mo Shahid
CEO of Pheno TherapeuticsPheno Therapeutics is developing remyelinating therapies for the unmet need for a neuroprotective therapy for Multiple Sclerosis.
Matthew Shaw-Clark
Director of Life Sciences at Hays Life SciencesHays is a leading global professional recruiting group, the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America.
Michelle Teng
CEO Co-founder of EtcemblyEtcembly is assembling the world’s largest health and disease immune database, to revolutionise immunotherapy and personalised therapeutics across all patient groups, globally.
We are pushing the frontiers to explore the intersection between immunology and machine learning.
Douglas Thomson
CEO of PneumagenPneumagen is developing a glycan targeted intranasally delivered therapy for the pan-viral, universal treatment of infectious diseases of the respiratory tract
Wendy Tindsley
Innovation Director of Oxford InnovationAn experienced business support professional, Wendy has a scientific background and experience of running several businesses. She a wealth of experience in obtaining funding for R&D and capital investment. With extensive knowledge of innovative technologies across different sectors, Wendy’s passion is helping ambitious businesses to achieve rapid and sustainable growth. Working for Oxford Innovation she currently provides business support to early-stage companies in four Innovation Centres in Oxfordshire.
Emma Tinsley
CEO of WeatherdenEmma is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple companies with breakthrough therapies and is bringing to market deep tech solutions that will transform clinical trial design efficiency.
Rafaèle Tordjman
Founder & CEO of JEITODr. Rafaèle Tordjman, MD PhD, has been an investor in life sciences for 20 years. She started her career at Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, in 2001, as an analyst. She became co-leader and Managing partner which she held until 2017.
During her time at Sofinnova, Dr. Tordjman has invested in and served on the boards of a number of life science companies, including Ascendis [ASND], DBV Technologies [DBV], Lysogene [LYS], MedDay, Enyo Pharma, Nucana Biomed [NCNA], Flexion Therapeutics [FLXN], Obseva [OBSV] and Preglem, before the company was sold to Gedeon Richter. Her investments have generated five approved products and c.20 drugs in late stage clinical development.
Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Dr. Tordjman worked as a physician and researcher in haematooncology. After five years working at the Paris University Hospitals as a medical doctor specialising in internal medicine and clinical hematology, she presented her doctoral thesis on Haematopoiesis and Angiogenesis, which she obtained in 2000. Dr. Tordjman then completed her post-doctoral work in immunology at INSERM, Cochin Hospital, and published in Nature Immunology among others. In 2002, she also completed a management training course at INSEAD.
In 2018, Dr. Tordjman founded Jeito Capital, an independent investment company dedicated to biopharma/biotech to establish a model of continuous financing and to invest in the next generation of leaders in medical innovation. Jeito I raised €534 million ($630 million) in September 2021, becoming the largest independent European fund in Life Sciences. She seats at the Board of InnoSkel (Chair), and Alentis Therapeutics (Chair) as representative of Jeito.
To engage more women in the life sciences industry, in 2010 Dr. Tordjman founded the association W.I.T.H. (Women Innovating Together in Healthcare) that now has a global membership of 500 women representing the full chain of medical innovation.
In September 2020, Dr. Tordjman was awarded Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest distinction, for her achievements. In July 2021, Dr. Tordjman was appointed by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate for Industry and Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, under the high patronage of President Emmanuel Macron to promote the French biotech ecosystem among leading international players.
James Tumbridge
Partner, Barrister at Venner Shipley Intellectual PropertyJames is an Intellectual Property Litigation partner with Venner Shipley, a European firm focused on intellectual property advice. He has extensive experience in all science fields affected by intellectual property, and his practice has covered a wide variety of IP disputes, and ancillary issues affecting intellectual property rights. He has extensive experience in life science and has been involved in cases such as the House of Lords decision in RPR v Yeda concerning patent entitlement to a combination therapy for the treatment of cancer, and advice to Imperial College concerning their Covid-19 vaccine development. James’ work also extends to compliance in regards to data protection, especially the use of medical data for development of medical devices and treatments, in part because he was one of the authors of the Data Protection Act that implemented the GDPR, and on which subject he has lectured at the Texas Medical Center. He has been an ad hoc advisor to various UK MPs and MEPs on a range of IP and dispute issues, and advised MEPs on patent issues with vaccine development and delivery during the Covid pandemic. Through his engagement with policy makers he has extensive Government relations experience and advises clients on how to prepare for legislative changes and regulation compliance.
Helen Underwood
Director, Strategic Client Relationships of Fisher Clinical Services UK
Clare Wareing
Founder & CEO of Cumulus OncologyDr Clare Wareing PhD, Founder and CEO (Director). Senior executive and entrepreneur with the vision, drive and experience of successful oncology drug development and company exits to lead the company forward.
Hannah Williams
Deputy Head of Life Sciences at Department for International TradeHannah works as Deputy Head of Life Sciences at the Department for International Trade – leading on the Department’s work with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The team focus on supporting a diverse range of businesses across the life sciences sector, providing expert advice to companies looking to internationalise.
Hannah is an experienced inward investment and trade professional and has worked for DIT for the past six years, most recently at the British Embassy in Brussels, supporting trade and investment between the UK, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Tim Wilson
CEO of EpsilogenTim’s career in the life sciences has encompassed start-ups, venture capital, investment banking and equity research. He has held senior positions at a number of firms including NM Rothschild, Hambrecht and Quist, UBS, SG Cowen and Pacific Growth Equities. In 2013 he founded Longcross Advisers, a life science-focused corporate finance firm. He gained his PhD from the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and a BSc (Hons) in biochemistry from Imperial College, London.
Will Wjinberg
Executive Director of Matoke HoldingsWill studied Natural Sciences at Bath University and began his career as a management consultant for Accenture. He worked with a very wide variety of clients including Deutsche Bank, BBC, Thales, and BT, his roles were across strategy, estimation, planning and delivery. More recently he was CEO of a direct to consumer business, The London Sock Company, before joining Guy in the medical world. He brings planning and delivery rigor as well as strong business strategy and management skills.
Bart Wuurman
CEO of ApaxenBart is a biotech CEO with over 30 years’ experience in innovative drug development, biotech financing, business development and licensing. He has extensive experience in working with R&D based companies in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. Bart Wuurman has contributed to successful biotech company exits in the UK and in the Netherlands and he was responsible for pharma licensing deals worth over $700 million. Bart was CEO of De Novo pharmaceuticals (UK), AM-Pharma (NL), Lanthio Pharma (NL) and Lyramid (Australia) and is Director of Hercules Pharmaceuticals. Bart was also Managing Director of DDF Ventures, a life-science focused venture fund with a portfolio of start-up companies in The Netherlands
Gokhan Yahioglu
Director of Research & Development at AntikorAntikor Ltd is a newly established company that is exploiting a novel technology platform called OptiLinked-FDCs, to generate revolutionary products to treat solid cancers. We are a multidisciplinary spin-out from Imperial College London UK now based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. The Company has over 15 years of pioneering experience in the area of small-format, antibody fragment drug conjugates, and has generated product candidates with optimal pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and other encouraging preclinical data.