Translation Advisory Board

Dr. David Roblin is a distinguished scientist, physician, entrepreneur, and life-sciences industry executive. Roblin has been involved in Relation since its founding, while engaged as CEO of Juvenescence Therapeutics, an early investor in Relation. Before joining Relation, he was Chair of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute, where during his eight-year tenure, he held several executive positions. Earlier, Dr. Roblin was SVP and Head of European R&D for Pfizer. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Sosei Heptares (SOLTF) and Non-Executive Chair of Centauri Therapeutics.

Since she joined the Crick in 2015, Veronique has established translational science capabilities, an operational structure to enable a diverse portfolio of translatable projects and a culture of entrepreneurship. 

She has enabled 11 spin-outs to translate Crick science into patients benefits across cell therapy, vaccines, medical technology and small molecule therapeutics, with overall investment to date over £1 bn and supporting more than 500 jobs.

Veronique’s business acumen has been honed through developing and delivering business plans, licensing deals and creating spin outs. She mentors young entrepreneurs and is a member of various biotech boards.

Veronique has 20 years' drug discovery and development experience in industry. She led multidisciplinary research teams and provided strategic leadership on translational work and clinical research programmes. She led the allergic inflammation discovery performance unit at GSK and implemented experimental medicine plans in order to change the way medicines are developed.

Simon Boulton is a Senior Group Leader and Ambassador for Translation at the Francis Crick Institute.

His research is focused on understanding DNA repair mechanisms, with emphasis on DNA double stand break (DSB) repair pathways and their utilization in meiosis, during DNA replication and at telomeres. His work using genetics, biochemistry and biophysical approaches has led to the discovery of novel DNA repair genes and provided molecular insights into human diseases, including cancer. Most notably, Simon’s work has played an instrumental role in shaping our understanding of the regulation and execution of homologous recombination (HR), a key DSB repair pathway frequently inactivated in cancer. Simon was the first to establish the existence of error-prone micro-homology mediate end joining, which operates as a backup DNA repair pathway to HR and NHEJ.

He also identified RTEL1 as the first negative regulator of HR in metazoans, which controls meiotic recombination, ensures accurate genome duplication and maintains telomere integrity.

His work has also provided insights into the mechanisms that protect chromosomes ends in pluripotent and somatic cells, and how cancer cells use Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres to achieve replicative immortality. Simon is also Co-founder and VP Science Strategy of Artios Pharma Ltd, a biotech company that is developing small molecule DNA repair inhibitors to selectively kill cancer cells either as mono-therapies or in combination with existing treatments.

Simon has helped raise private and strategic investment for the company and currently assist the executive team in the identification and evaluation of new pipeline opportunities from the global DNA repair network. 

He is also Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Chromosoma. Simon is an EMBO Member, Fellow of the Academic of Medical Sciences and has been awarded the Royal Society Francis Crick Medal, the EMBO Gold Medal and the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. 

Consultant to Life Science and Healthcare companies, Board Director, Chairman

Dr. Bolger has over 35 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in management roles across R&D, Commercial and Business Development (BD) and Venture Investments. She spent 11 years in Licensing and Acquisition (L&A), including Global Head of Scientific Licensing for Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical business, and before that as Director in the Business Development group at GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr Bolger spent nearly 10 years (2012-2022) as Vice President Venture Investment in J&J’s corporate venture fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC.  During that period she was based in London, leading investments across Europe in start-up and early-stage life science companies in areas of strategic interest to J&J’s business sectors in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Consumer. She represented JJDC on the Board of Directors of over a dozen companies, including Aelix Therapeutics, Asceneuron SA, Aviado Bio, Biocartis, Calypso Biotech, Inivata, Merus, Pulmocide, S-Biomedic, Syndesi, T-Rex. Dr Bolger also represented JJDC’s LP investments in multiple Venture Capital Funds in UK and Europe as well as representing J&J’s interests in other funding vehicles including incubators and accelerators. 

Since retiring from J&J in 2022, Jeanne has taken up a number of Board / Chair roles including Exevir (Chair), Astrivax (Chair), S-Biomedic, and Life Healthcare Group.  She is also a Venture Partner with Seroba VC.

Dr. Bolger received her medical degree from University College Dublin. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland (RAMI). Dr. Bolger has served as the sole pharma industry representative on two Irish government taskforces seeking to enhance the commercialization of IP from Irish academic centres. She is a visiting lecturer on the MSc Pharmaceutical Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.  Dr Bolger sits on the Industry Advisory Board of CURAM, the SFI-funded Centre of Excellence charged with designing the next generation of smart medical devices, and on the Advisory Group of the National Health Innovation Hub which focuses on digital innovation in healthcare.

Gillian Burgess joined Grünenthal as Head of Research in April 2020. Prior to this she was the Vice President, Site Head and Head of Research at Vertex’s Oxford Research Site in the U.K. where she was responsible for discovering new medicines or serious conditions such as chronic pain. Prior to her appointment at Vertex, she worked in a variety of roles at UCB-Celltech, Pfizer and Novartis helping to bring several compounds to clinical development and to the market. At Pfizer, she was Chief Scientific Officer for the Pain Therapeutic Area, served as Global Therapeutic Area Head for the Gastrointestinal Therapeutic Area and also led Pfizer’s Urology Therapeutic Area. At Novartis she was part of the Neuroscience group.  

Gillian is a member of the MRC DPFS Translational Panel, the MRC Translational Oversight Group and the Wellcome Trust Grant Interview Panel. She is also a member of the British Pharmacological Society Industry committee and sits on the board of the Science Industry Partnership. Gillian received her Ph.D. from University College London in Pharmacology. 

Robin joined Myricx in Nov 2019 as chief development officer and became CEO in August 2022. Robin joined Myricx from GSK, where he held several research Exec roles (2007-2019), his final role was SVP Drug Design and Selection, with global responsibility for small molecule and biopharm discovery platforms. Robin served as a member of GSK’s Discovery Investment Board, Technology Investment Board and co-chaired the target selection committee. Prior to GSK, Robin was VP of drug discovery at Astex Therapeutics (1999-2007), with responsibility for internal and partnered drug discovery programs. Robin holds a chemistry degree from Imperial College London (1981) and completed his PhD studies in total synthesis at Northwestern University, Chicago (1984). Robin then returned to the UK to start his industrial research career at ICI agrochemicals before joining Glaxo in 1989 to focus on drug discovery. Robin has co-authored and published 50 papers and patents and contributed to numerous discovery programs (cancer and respiratory) that have progressed into the clinic and two of which went on to become launched drugs. Robin has a long-standing interest in novel drug discovery platforms that have the potential to reduce attrition rates and therefore increase R&D productivity.

Barbara joined the Francis Crick Institute in January 2018 as Entrepreneur-in-Residence on a part time basis, where she uses her experience of building early stage companies and her extensive network across pharma, biotech and academia to help support Translation activities. She co-founded and led the KQ Labs accelerator for data driven health start-ups for four years and is now Chair. Barbara has worked in the life sciences industry for thirty years, with the first eleven years on the commercial side of a large organisation, after which she transitioned to the entrepreneurial world of biotech and emerging companies. 

At Autifony, Barbara is responsible for strategic partnering and preparation for commercialisation of pioneering new drugs to treat serious CNS disorders. Barbara was also Chair of Puridify, a UCL spin-out which was acquired by GE (now Cytiva) in November 2017.  She is a member of the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund Investment Committee and  of the LifeArc Early Ventures Investment Committee. She also mentors a number of aspiring entrepreneurs. 

Previously, Barbara was CEO of Stabilitech for over four years where she raised funding, established twelve commercial collaborations and built the team from early stage. Before that Barbara was Commercial Director at Arrow Therapeutics, until the company was acquired by AstraZeneca. Barbara was also Senior Business Development Manager at Celltech, and held senior international commercial positions at ICI/Zeneca where she worked for eleven years. Barbara has a BA and D Phil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School. 

Professor Alicia El Haj, FREng, FRSB, FEAMBES, Interdisciplinary Professor of Cell Engineering and Director of Institute of Translational Medicine joined  Birmingham University, UK in September 2018. She is a leading figure in Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine globally translating cross disciplinary innovative new cell based therapies to the clinic. During a Visiting Plummer Fellowship in 2018 at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, she has been involved in promoting in silico approaches for acceleration of regenerative medicine approaches to the clinic. She has held an Adjunct Visiting Chair with the Tissue Engineering Centre, UKM Kuala Lumpur and the University of Granada, Spain. She has multiple collaborations with EU research exchange programmes in Europe and China. Recent funding in EU MCSA ‘SHIFT’ will link her translational activities with research groups in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and Mongolia.  She has published over 250 publications with funding from EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, Versus Arthritis, EU Commission, Innovate and an ERC Advanced Award in 2018. She is also Director of a spin out company MICA Biosystems, Ltd involved in translating innovative in vitro pharma screening tools and stem cell control systems into clinical use. She was awarded with a Royal Society Merit Award in 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. In 2015, she was awarded the MRC Suffrage Award for her role in leading women in STEM and in 2021 awarded the Midlands Women in Tech Award.  In 2020, she was awarded the IOM3 Chapman medal for her major contribution towards translation of biomedical materials into healthcare. Alicia actively engages in public events having presented ‘Remote Control Healing’ at the Café Scientifique in Royal Society London and at the ‘Next Big Thing’ at the Hay Festival UK 2017. Her research on ‘remote controlled healing’ has been highlighted on CNN ‘The Edge’ and BBC Radio Naked Scientist. She presented her research at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in 2022. 

Manos Perros, Ph.D., is a pharmaceutical and biotech executive with over 25 years of experience in life sciences R&D. He is currently Executive Chairman of OncXerna (private) and co-founder and independent advisor of Entasis Therapeutics (formerly NASDAQ:ETTX) and Innoviva. He served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Entasis Therapeutics from 2015 until its acquisition by Innoviva in 2022. Under his leadership, Entasis built a pipeline of novel pathogen-targeted antibiotics, including SUL-DUR which successfully completed Phase 3 clinical trials in 2021. Prior to this, Dr Perros worked for AstraZeneca as Vice-President and Head of its Infection R&D organization and as Site Head for its research center in Waltham, Massachusetts. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Perros served as Director of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, and prior to that, as Vice-President and Chief Scientific Officer, Antivirals, at Pfizer, where he co-invented and developed Selzentry, a first-in-class HIV treatment. While at Pfizer, Dr Perros also directed research in a variety of therapeutic areas including Obesity, Pain and Urology. A chemist by training, he conducted his Ph.D. work in Belgium, France and Germany, and was an Associate in the Biophysics department at Yale from 1993 to 1995. Dr Perros received the PhRMA Discoverer’s Award in 2010 for the discovery and development of Selzentry, the first directly acting antiretroviral to target a host protein. 

John is currently one of the team of Experts in Residence at the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS) at The University of Cambridge, and he focusses on Diagnostics and Medical Devices. John has a wealth of knowledge in the field of diagnostics devices and biotech, with over 40 years of experience in the market including advisory roles and board level experience. He has worked for start-ups and multinational companies including Sorex Sensors, Smart Holograms, Akubio, Hypoguard, Cambridge Consultants, PA Consulting, Genzyme and Boehringer Mannheim, across Europe and in the USA. This has provided broad experience of managing technology start-ups, state-of-the-art operations, cross-functional teams, IP assets and organisational expansion projects.

In addition to his membership of the TAG here at the Crick he sits on a variety of other early-stage funding review panels at The University of Cambridge (DCF, CiC, Access to Expertise) and participates in the Impulse programme at the Maxwell centre and the i-Teams programme. John also provides advice to CRUK on diagnostic projects and is a member of the scientific advisory panel on the Cancer Tech Accelerator programme.   

Dr Dave Powell joined LifeArc as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) in 2022, as the next step in his 25 years in R&D. With cross therapeutic experience in drug discovery and development across big pharma and biotech, Dave is passionate about discovery innovation, breaking down borders between industry and academia and in training the next generation of drug discovery scientists.

Dave’s previous roles include leading preclinical drug discovery and the phase lll antibiotic research programme at Summit Therapeutics. He began his life sciences career at SmithKline Beecham (now GSK), gaining deep platform and project experience across numerous therapeutic areas, including neurosciences, oncology and infectious disease. Dave helped to start and then led the collaboration between GSK and the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Lorenz was the CEO of Vector Biopharma, a technology-driven start-up. He was previously Chief Technology Officer CTO for GE Healthcare Life Sciences, responsible for all R&D investments, research programs, business growth strategy, technology innovation, and R&D talent development across all business areas (BioProcess, Imaging Diagnostics/Contrast Media, Research Tools and Applied Markets, Cell & Gene Therapy, New Opportunities). In addition he has specialities in investment in BioPharma companies (Venture Capital); Precise Genome Editing (CRISPR/Cas9); Immuno-Oncology Therapy.

Previously, he was Vice President & Global Head, Reagents & Assay Development with responsibility for generation of all biological reagents and assay development activities across all therapeutic research areas at AstraZeneca.

Before that, he was Executive Director at Novartis Pharma in Basel/Switzerland, at Bayer Pharma Research in Wuppertal/Germany, at Bayer Central Research in Leverkusen/Germany and at the M.I.T./Whitehead Institute. He is lecturer for Biochemistry at the Martin-Luther University in Halle/Saale (Germany), has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

He is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer and Non-Executive Director of Mogrify.

He has received first class degrees in biochemistry, biophysics, molecular & cell biology at the University of Tubingen (Germany), University of Bayreuth (Germany) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (U.S.A.) and a number of fellowships & awards for his studies in Germany and the United States.

Louise is currently CSO at Amphista Therapeutics and previously CSO at Mogrify. Louise is an accomplished scientific leader with over 20 years’ experience in pre-clinical and clinical therapeutic research across various modalities and therapeutic areas. Formerly Vice President of Immunology Research at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), she led the generation and advancement of a pipeline of assets from target identification through to clinical proof-of-concept studies. In her career, Louise has led research teams at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda), as well as represented GSK on the board of Sitryx.

Louise completed her PhD in Developmental Hematology at EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany and postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Boston.

Dr. Natalie Mount was the Chief Executive Officer of Adaptate Biotherapeutics from inception until its recent successful acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Adaptate specialized in the discovery and development of novel therapeutic antibodies to modulate tissue resident gamma delta (γδ) T cell mediated immune responses. Prior to Adaptate, Natalie was Chief Scientific Officer of GammaDelta Therapeutics (acquired by Takeda), where she was a founding member of the management team and led the company’s research and development operation to build its allogeneic cell therapy platform for Immuno Oncology. Prior to GammaDelta, she was the Chief Clinical Officer at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult where she was part of the founding management and responsible for translational, regulatory, and clinical development activities across a broad portfolio of cell-based therapies. Natalie began her career at Pfizer, where she spent 16 years leading development activities across various therapeutic areas, including Pfizer’s late pre-clinical and clinical portfolio of cell therapies.

Natalie has previously served on the Boards of several cell and gene therapy companies and is currently an Independent Director at Wugen and Rinri Therapeutics. She is a Venture Partner with the specialist life science venture investment firm Abingworth.

Natalie holds a first-class degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University College, London.

Peter Parker has cofounded three companies, (PIramed, Symansis, FASTBASE Solutions) he has also pursued translational interests in the areas of cancer drug development and biomarkers. Peter championed and Chaired the CRUK TRICC committee (now evolved to EMERP) seeking to develop the application of Biomarkers in clinical trials, returning to work on EMERP until 2018. Peter has served on the Boards of CRV, ICRT, MATWIN and King’s Business and on the investment committees of 6th Element and Apollo Ventures (current).

Peter Ratcliffe is a physician scientist who trained in medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, before moving to Oxford to specialise in renal medicine. In 1990, with funding as a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow, he set up the Hypoxia Biology laboratory in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. 

Peter was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society and to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002. He is a member of EMBO and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work on oxygen sensing has won a number of awards including the Louis-Jeantet Prize in Medicine, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research. He was knighted for services to medicine in the New Year's Honours, 2014. In 2019, Peter was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine alongside William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza for their work examining how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.  

In 2004, he was appointed Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford and served as Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine from 2004-2016. In May 2016 he was appointed Director of Clinical Research at the Francis Crick Institute, retaining a position at Oxford as member of the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research and Director of Oxford's Target Discovery Institute. 

Peter's current research aims to understand the biological roles of signalling through protein hydroxylation and related oxidations. The work is focused both on the operation of the HIF hydroxylases themselves and on related enzymes that catalyse hydroxylations on other proteins. It aims to link these biochemical pathways to physiological control and to the pathophysiology of human diseases including cancer and ischaemic vascular disease. 

Mike Romanos was a co-founder and CEO of Microbiotica, a global leader in microbiome precision medicine spun out of the Wellcome Sanger Institute. He has 35 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 platform and pipeline in oncology and inflammation; and NK:IO an NK cell therapy spinout of Imperial College. Prior to that he held major trans-national roles in GSK R&D, during which time he built and led global divisions which helped shape the company’s discovery platforms and pipelines across multiple therapeutic areas and modalities.

Mike is highly experienced in the biotech translation, IP and commercialisation, currently serving as a Non-Exec Director of the life-sciences charity LifeArc, and previously as Translator in Residence at Imperial College, Venture Partner to UKI2S 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) and in yeast 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.

John is the Director of JGS Biopharma Ltd and provides Abingworth with scientific and technical advice and is often the first filter for an investment proposal. Previously he held positions at Cantab Pharmaceuticals as Senior Vice President, Research, the Glaxo Institute for Molecular Biology and the Institute of Child Health, UCL. 

In addition, John is on the Edinburgh BioQuarter Board, the MRC Translational Research Group committee, the BHF Translational Award Advisory Group, the Biomedical Catalyst Major Awards Committee and the Sanger Centre Translational Committee. He has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Glasgow and has published more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Science.

Roberto Solari is a founder of Myricx Pharma, a spinout from Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute. Roberto was previously a Visiting Professor in the Infection in Airway Disease research group, Respiratory Infections section within the National Heart and Lung Institute Imperial College London.  

He was Vice President and Head of Biology in the respiratory therapy area at GlaxoSmithKline, UK.  He spent four years as CEO of MRC Technology (now LifeArc), the technology transfer arm of the MRC, where he helped the creation of spinout companies including Heptares. Before this he was an Advisor to Apax Partners, London and an Entrepreneur in Residence with Abingworth Management where he co-founded a number of companies including Astex Pharmaceuticals.   

He has served on the board of several biotechnology companies and is currently a Venture Partner with Brandon Capital Partners. As a cell biologist and biotech entrepreneur, Roberto has perspectives that align science and business with the operations required for start-ups. Roberto obtained a BSc and a PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK followed by post-doctoral positions at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and the University of Liverpool UK.

Jan Wolber is Global Product Leader Digital at GE Healthcare. He is based in Amersham in the UK. His work is focused on Artificial Intelligence solutions for image assessment and clinical decision support across multiple disease areas. The development of digital biomarkers is an integral part of the Precision Health strategy of GE Healthcare.

Jan has 20 years of experience in medical imaging R&D as a scientist, project leader and departmental manager. After studying physics at the Universities of Bayreuth in Germany and St Andrews in Scotland, Jan received his PhD from the University of London in 2000 on work in the field of hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe Magnetic Resonance (MR). He also has a MBA from Warwick Business School (graduation in 2014). Since 2012, Jan has held an honorary professorship in MR physics at the University of Sheffield alongside his employment at GE Healthcare. Jan has several links to Oxford University; he is chair of the External Advisory Board of the ONBI CDT and a member of the Scientific Management Committee of the SABS R³ CDT.

Jan has been involved across the innovation value chain of medical imaging from very early concepts to translational research, clinical studies and commercialisation. For instance, he was a key team member in the development and regulatory approval of GE Healthcare’s amyloid PET agent Vizamyl^TM; his team led the imaging aspects of the development studies and developed the reading methodology for this tracer. He has also been involved in the development of image analysis software.

Professor Bryan Williams is chair of medicine at University College London (UCL) and director of the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre and director of research at UCLH. He is a consultant physician with a special interest in acute medicine and hypertension and a member of the senior director team and board of directors at UCLH.

Professor Williams research and clinical practice is in the field of high blood pressure (hypertension) in which he is recognised as one of the world's leading authorities. He has a particular interest in complex and difficult to control blood pressure and high blood pressure in younger people. He is past-chairman of the European Council on Hypertension of the European Society of Cardiology (2016 – 2018) and past-president of the British Hypertension Society (2001-2003).

He was chairman of the NICE Hypertension Guidelines Development Group (2011), chairman of the NICE Hypertension National Quality Standards development group (2013) and chairman of the NICE Evidence Update for Hypertension report (2013). He was also chairman of the European Guidelines for the management of high blood pressure (2018).

Professor Williams was also chairman and is clinical lead for the Royal College of Physicians London team that led the development of the National early Warning Score (NEWS and NEWS2) which has been widely implemented to improve patient safety in the NHS. He is a member of national and international hypertension societies and a fellow of the American Heart Association, the European Society of Cardiology and the Royal College of Physicians, London.

Donna has more than 25 years' experience with a successful track record of wealth creation in commercialising life science technologies through deals including partnering of products and technologies and venture financing.

Previous roles include being on part of the executive team of Abzena plc as SVP IP Commercial and Legal Affairs, where she was responsible for the legal IP and transactional activity, and COO and executive board member of Stabilitech.

At UCL, she led BioPharm Technology Transfer and was instrumental in starting BioVex with the academic founders, securing the first three rounds of funding. BioVex was sold to Amgen for $1 billion and the product is on the market.

Tony Hickson is the Chief Business Officer for Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Horizons. He leads the Commercial Partnerships team responsible for the commercialisation of IP from CRUK funded projects, new start-up creation, licences and corporate alliances. Prior to this Tony was the Managing Director of Imperial Innovations Ltd, responsible for intellectual property sourcing, licensing and spin-out creation for technologies arising from Imperial College London. During this tenure, Tony also spent 5 years as an executive director on the board of Touchstone Innovations PLC, an investment company listed on the London Stock exchange investing in deep science projects from UK universities.  

Prior to joining Imperial Innovations/Touchstone, Tony acquired 15 years of commercial and business development experience in bioscience companies including Wellcome Group R&D, Murex Biotech, Abbott Laboratories and Kalibrant Limited. 

Stephen joined the Francis Crick Institute in 2023 as Chief Business Officer.

Stephen brings over 20 years of experience in life sciences research and development organisations spanning academia, biotech and global big pharma, with extensive expertise in strategic and portfolio management, business development, partnerships and collaborations.

Stephen joined the Crick from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), where as Director of Strategy and Portfolio and a member of the Leadership Team he was responsible for driving development and delivery of CEPI’s strategic objectives, including strategic planning, portfolio governance, monitoring and evaluation.

Prior to CEPI, Stephen served as Global Head of Corporate Strategy and a member of the Executive Committee of Stallergenes Greer, an allergy-focused specialty biopharmaceutical company. He also previously held senior corporate and R&D strategy positions with GlaxoSmithKline, as well as scientific and business management positions across academia and industry, including roles in clinical study management, business development, and management consulting.

Stephen holds a BSc with first class honours in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds and an MBA with distinction from Imperial College Business School.