Sally Ann Forsyth OBE

During her time as CEO at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, total private equity investment in biotechnology raised in Stevenage has grown to become comparable with that of Cambridge, London and Oxford.

Sally Ann has been responsible for the strategy, growth and development of four internationally recognised science parks including Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, Harwell Oxford, Colworth Science Park and Norwich Research Park.

She began her career with Unilever as part of the management training scheme and later had lead responsibility for In-Licensing, Strategic Alliances and Open Innovation within the Unilever Foods and Discovery divisions. Being part of the founding team of Unilever Ventures and Unilever Technology Ventures gave Sally Ann an insight into the needs of growing companies. She gained her property experience through Goodman International where she was Director of Science Parks responsible for the development and management of their UK portfolio.

Sally Ann is passionate about the translation of UK science into world leading innovations and the creation of supportive environments to help early-stage companies grow. She has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified management accountant (CGMA).

Matthew Durdy

Matthew Durdy is Chief Executive of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, having been part of the founding team in 2012. Prior to 2020, he was Chief Business Officer and was responsible for strategy, communications, marketing, and business development. He is credited with leading the design and implementation of the commercial model for the highly successful Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult manufacturing centre and being a global champion for the early integration of healthcare economics and reimbursement expertise into decision-making and clinical product design.

He began his career in international investment banking and venture capital, and has successfully invested in and managed a number of biotechnology SMEs and regional operations of multinational organisations. He has an MA from the University of Oxford in Pure and Applied Biology, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the charity Parkinson’s UK.

Michael Baker

Michael is responsible for overseeing FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ (FDB) Viral Gene Therapy operations in the UK. Prior to this he spent 4 years at FDB’s College Station location in Texas USA where he was Head of Process Development, and was responsible for leading a rapidly expanding process development team. He has previously served in a number of technical roles at FDB’s sites in Texas and the UK and before joining FDB, worked for MSD Biologics and Avecia Biotechnology. Michael gained a BSc in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and an MPhil in Developmental Biology from Newcastle University.

Nicola Redfern

Following 5 years’ experience working in the gene therapy arena at bluebird bio, with a focus on reimbursement and commercialisation, Nicola set up NJ Redfern Ltd in 2022 to enable her to consult, coach and collaborate with other organisations.

With a consistent focus over recent decades on rare disease & oncology/ haematology, her primary attention has been on pricing and reimbursement, service delivery and shaping the external environment. She has been in the pharmaceutical industry since 1989, and has been employed by 10 different companies.

Since her company’s inception last year she has contracted with over 12 organisations on a diverse range of projects – including supporting 2 further gene therapy companies in their launch planning in the UK. Nicola was previously an active member of the ABPI – chairing the ATMP working group during 2021, a member of their Value and Access group and supporting various government affairs/communications initiatives. She has worked closely in the last 6 years with the Cell and Gene therapy catapult in the UK. More recently Nicola has been invited to sit on the advisory board for company ATMPS, has given talks at various ATMP congresses in 2022 and 23, been interviewed by Lumanity and Haemnet, and since January 2023 sits on the ethics subgroup of the International Society of Cell and Gene therapy and is a member of ATMP engage.

Nicola is committed to and motivated by patients having a choice and being able to access transformative treatment options quickly once science and innovation reaches a point to positively impact the lives of people living with significant health challenges. Having worked at Martin House hospice in Yorkshire, sat on the board of trustees at Naomi House and Jacks Place – a Hospice for children and young adults near Winchester, UK – and through working alongside multiple patient organisations over her career, she has a strong empathy and understanding of life limiting conditions and their impact on the individual, their families and society as a whole.

She has consistently demonstrated strong leadership capabilities – with a passion for creating and shaping new diverse teams – embedding a positive culture, helping individuals develop, then leading them through defining their strategic focus and driving the initiatives through to completion.

Brennan Miles

Brennan is an accomplished medical device expert with an extensive background in managing and delivering innovative, high-value programmes across a range of medical technology and pharmaceutical delivery routes. These include infusion, injection, intranasal, implantable, ocular, oral, respiratory and topical applications. He also has hands-on experience of gaining device approval within the regulatory frameworks.

With his direct experience of product development and industry knowledge, Brennan co-ordinates Team Consulting’s drug delivery activities to ensure we continue to create exciting technologies, develop more sustainable medical products and deliver exceptional services for our clients.

Prior to his appointment at Team, Brennan worked on the development of medical devices for a large pharmaco as well as in other sectors for several multi-national companies. Brennan has a BSc (Hons) degree in Product Design and Engineering and is the named inventor on several patents.

Moin Saleem

I trained as an undergraduate at University College, London. I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. My PhD was in transplantation immunology at Institute of Child Health, London. Paediatric nephrology training at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. I set up my independent laboratory programme in glomerular cell biology in Bristol, as well as holding a post as a consultant paediatric nephrologist since 1999, with an international reputation in management of nephrotic syndromes, and a pioneer of the field of podocyte biology.

I now head Bristol Renal, a glomerular research group of approximately 45 researchers, covering all areas from cell biology, transgenic models and population cohorts and genetics (H index 79).
I was the originator of the UK Renal Rare Disease Registry (RaDaR), and am currently leading the UK nephrotic syndrome study (NephroS), as well as a major industry-academic collaboration termed NURTuRE (National Unified Renal Translational Research Enterprise). I am PI on several MRC projects, including Precision Medicine, laboratory project grants and a Global Challenges program to establish international NS cohorts.

My gene therapy program commenced in 2014, and is focused on targeting the podocyte in order to radically change the treatment of kidney diseases. I am now co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Purespring Therapeutics

William Scott

Dr William E “Bill” Scott III PhD, FIBMS, MRSB

Dr. Bill Scott is a Biomedical Engineer who has spent the past 17+ years embedded within healthcare, identifying problems and solutions for the transplant community. He presently works at the Newcastle University Medical school in the Translational and Clinical Research Institute where he helped to establish and serves as Scientific Director for the TRM facility the ‘Transplant Regenerative Medicine’ (TRM) group. Bill is a basic/translational researcher in transplantation and regenerative medicine; particularly focused on understanding changes during the peri-transplant period and developing/assessing novel interventions to overcome these towards increasing utilisation and posttransplant function. To facilitate translation of these findings into clinical practice, Bill has developed a particular focus on improved access to critical research tissues, working with regulatory bodies to adapt to emergent scientific developments, as well as understanding the commercial aspects of clinical translation.

Bill contributes to several national consortia including as a co-Investigator on the NIHR funded ‘Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation’ in collaboration with Cambridge University and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHS-BT); Co-Investigator and National Tissue and Cell Processing Coordinator for the Quality in Organ Donation (QUOD) MRC Tissue Bank. Beyond these research activities, Bill also serves as the Module Leader for the Transplantation Master of Research Course at Newcastle University; acts as the Commercialisation Lead for the Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells, Transplantation Faculty Theme; contributes to a number of national NHS-BT initiatives related to facilitating transplant-related research; and was recently elected to the ESOT Basic Science Committee Board.

Ketki Vispute

Samantha Barber

Samantha is an experienced chief executive and board member in the not-for-profit sector with specialisms in governance, communications and income generation, and has influenced policy through high level engagement with MPs and national bodies such as NICE.  She has worked in the rare disease field for the past five years, with senior leadership roles at the Batten Disease Family Association, the Tuberous Sclerosis Association and currently Gene People (formerly Genetic Disorders UK). Samantha is a member of the ABPI Patient Advisory Council. She achieved a Distinction in her MSc in Voluntary Sector Management from Bayes Business School. She holds membership of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Chartered Governance Institute as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Samantha’s career is based in the not-for-profit sector, and she has worked in a wide range of charities, from the very small to large household names. This is complemented by a number of board roles. She is currently as trustee of Bexhill Heritage Society and, additionally, a Grants and Support Committee Member of the Chartered Secretaries’ Charitable Trust. She is former Chair of Amber Housing and previously a board member of the Royal Air Forces Association and RAFA Housing.

A cool head in a crisis and someone who gets things done, Samantha believes in making every day count. She excels in creating exceptional results from colleagues and enjoys achieving more than is thought possible.

Currently Gene People is seeking to expand their Patient Organisation Partnership Network and their corporate partnerships and Samantha is happy to receive connections.

Stefanos Theoharis

Stefanos contributes more than 15 years of business development experience in the pharma and biotech industry to Bone Therapeutics, specifically in the cell and gene therapy space. This includes his achievements as Senior Vice-President at Cell Medica, a clinical-stage biotech company, where he expanded the company’s allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy platform through strategic partnerships with leading research institutions and targeted acquisitions. Prior to Cell Medica, Stefanos was Chief Business Officer at apceth GmbH, a company developing genetically-engineered mesenchymal stromal (MSC) cell products and also acting as a contract manufacturer in the ATMP space. He led all apceth’s business development activities, including in- and out-licensing and service contracts negotiations. He also held positions as Head of Business Development at the antisense RNA drug specialist Antisense Pharma (now Isarna), and Director Business Development at Roche, focused on partnering activities in emerging science and technologies. Stefanos also worked at Lazard, the global investment bank, advising to a variety of life sciences firms on M&As and financing transactions. Stefanos achieved an MSc. in Molecular Medicine and a PhD in Pathology and Immunology from Imperial College London.

Kwok Pang

Kwok Pang is the Chief Operating officer for Autolomous, a software and technology platform for CGT manufacturing. Autolomous internationally deploys fully integrated, digitized and automated supply chain software solutions. These solutions utilize emerging technologies such as Ledger technology and Internet of Things (IoT) to ensure compliance with current and future regulatory requirements.

Prior to Autolomous, Kwok was part of the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT) manufacturing centre team that established the multi- user, multi-product GMP manufacturing facility. Between 2002- 2017, he held roles at GSK’s Cell & Gene Therapy team and the Royal Free London NHS Trust’s Centre for Cell, Gene, Tissue Therapies (CCGTT). He has a wealth of experience in CGT manufacturing, digitisation of CGT manufacturing processes and building collaboration within the CGT ecosystem.

Dominic Schmidt

Dominic joined Advent Life Sciences in April 2022 with a background in biochemistry, genomics, molecular oncology, strategy consulting and life science venture capital.

Prior to joining Advent, he spent eight years as a Partner in the investment team of Syncona, a publicly listed healthcare investment company. During his time there he was involved in the founding, funding and building of several life science businesses and served on the Boards of Anaveon, Orbit Biomedical (merged with Gyroscope), Gyroscope Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis for up to $1.5 billion), Purespring Therapeutics and Forcefield Therapeutics.

After gaining a German Diplom Degree in Biochemistry from the Free University of Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics he received a PhD from the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge. Dominic was a Cancer Research UK scholar and his research has been published in Cell, Nature and Science. His PhD thesis was recognized with the Pontecorvo and Science & SciLife Lab Prizes.

Terri Gaskell

Terri has over 20 years of life sciences R&D experience in both academic and industry roles with a focus on the development and translation of cell- and gene-based therapies. Before joining Rinri, Terri worked at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult for over seven years on the translation of a broad range of candidate therapies, including stem cell derived, alongside underpinning technologies and infrastructure. Her role at CGT Catapult also included advising academics and small companies on the development of advanced therapies.

Prior to this, Terri held senior roles in industry focussed on the development of processes for the expansion and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for therapeutic use and drug discovery. Terri received her BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee and holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh.

Gaurav Venkataraman

Gaurav is a cofounder and the CEO of Trisk Bio, based in Stevenage. Trisk is building a new kind of fully-automated scale-out manufacturing facility for biologics. Before Trisk, Gaurav did a postdoc in RNA biology at Cambridge. Before his postdoc, Gaurav did a PhD in neuroscience at University College London and a BA in mathematics from Reed College.

Antoine Espinet

Antoine is the CEO and co-founder at MicrofluidX. He has 5 years of experience in cell therapy tools. Prior to MicrofluidX, Antoine was a management consultant at McKinsey for 5 years. He holds a PhD in Engineering from Cornell University.

Joe Healey

Joe Healey is the CEO and Co-Founder of NanoSyrinx, a discovery-stage synthetic biology biotech which is developing a novel delivery modality for complex biologics.

Joe founded the company, along with his PhD supervisor Dr Nick Waterfield and a fellow post-doc, Dr Alexia Hapeshi, during his PhD at the University of Warwick’s Medical School, and has been the entrepreneurial lead driving the development of the company from its inception. Joe’s passion has always been synthetic biology, and being able to translate NanoSyrinx’s unusual IP is something of a dream come true. The company is leveraging naturally occurring, genetically encoded ‘nanosyringes’ which are capable of delivering proteins and peptides directly to the cytosol of targeted cells, and the company is looking at applications across therapeutics and cell and gene engineering.

He holds a PhD and MSc in Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Chemistry from the University of Warwick, and graduated top of his class from his BSc (Hons) Biology degree.

Katy Newton

James Fry

James heads Mills & Reeve’s multi-disciplinary life sciences practice. He supports businesses across the full product lifecycle, from start-up to commercialisation.

A key focus of his work is supporting clients on strategic contracting covering technology / IP in and out- licensing transactions, research collaborations, clinical trial agreements and long term partnering agreements. James also advises on sector regulation including pharma and medical device regulation, market access, borderline products, advertising and clinical trials.

Sam Goldsmith

Advanced Therapy commercialisation professional and published scientist with wide-ranging interests including research commercialisation, venture capital, intellectual property, life sciences and novel medical technologies. Passionate about gene and cell therapies, spin-out creation and technology investment.

Mustafa Munye

Mustafa is currently Director of R&D Operations at Complement Therapeutics where he is responsible for driving discovery and development efforts. He has significant industry experience in the translation of cell and gene therapies gained at GSK and CGTC. Mustafa has led process and analytical development for AAV, CAR-T and PSC derived products to support FIH and late-stage clinical studies. He also serves as a board member of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy working to overcome common barriers to translation and commercialisation of Advanced Therapies.

Karolina Zapadka

Karolina has nearly a decade of experience in building life sciences and healthcare companies within the Cambridge Cluster. She played a pivotal role in securing pre-seed and seed investment from a stellar syndicate of investors. In 2018 she co-founded and successfully delivered the first life sciences startup accelerator with a portfolio of 20 early-stage ventures in Cambridge. She started her career as a scientist at a leading biopharmaceutical company delivering a portfolio of products to clinics. Karolina completed a PhD in biophysics (diabetes & neurosciences) from the University of Cambridge and carried out a drug development postdoc work at AstraZeneca.

Karolina joined Parkwalk Advisors’ investment team in 2021. She has over a decade of experience building life sciences and healthcare companies within the Cambridge Cluster. Karolina played a pivotal role in securing pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments from a stellar syndicate of investors. In 2018 she co-founded and successfully delivered the first life sciences startup accelerator in Cambridge with a portfolio of 20 companies that have raised over £68m. She started her career as a scientist at a leading biopharmaceutical company delivering a portfolio of products to clinics. Karolina completed a PhD in biophysics (diabetes & neurosciences) from the University of Cambridge and carried out a drug development postdoc work at MedImmune/AstraZeneca.

Parkwalk Advisors is one of the UK’s leading growth fund managers, backing world-changing technologies emerging from UK universities and research institutions. Our unique asset class backs high-potential, hard science technology companies from a range of sectors, including life sciences, AI, big data, materials, medtech and much more.

Sheela Upadhyaya

Sheela Upadhyaya is an independent consultant to the life sciences industry having been  in healthcare for over 25 years with the last 15 years in rare diseases.

She commissioned rare disease services for NHS England and led the NICE Highly Specialised Technology program, evaluating medicines and technologies for ultra-rare conditions. Her most recent role at NICE involved her coordinating the response to the COVID pandemic and delivering a strategic response for NICE against the Rare Disease Framework.

She now consults in rare diseases with the life sciences industry and is currently chair for Together for Rare Diseases, supporting collaboration with European Reference Networks and Industry to improve the research in rare diseases.

Sheela has extensive experience in understanding the issues in rare diseases facing the healthcare ecosystem in terms from diagnosis,  service provision and access to therapeutics. These include modelling challenges, developing innovative access arrangements in liaison with industry, clinicians, patients and the healthcare policy makers.

Sheela has co-authored several papers that discuss challenges in rare diseases and HTA methods for assessing the value of orphan medicines and presented at many conference issue panels on the subject.

Sheela is an adviser to the European Haemophilia Consortium Think Tank, Chair for the ALS Coalition in Europe and Past Chair for the ISPOR Rare Disease special interest group.

Sheela has a passion for partnership working and believes that collaboration across the sector is the key to delivering high quality outcomes for all.

Miguel Forte

CEO of Bone Therapeutics, Professor at the Lisbon University and Board of Directors and Executive Committee member for ARM and Board Member for Essenscia-Wallonie.

President-Elect of ISCT from May 2022. Previously Chief Commercialization Officer and Chair of the ISCT Commercialization Committee (2014-2020) leading the expansion of the industrial community, strengthening the Committee to better represent the industrial translational objectives and needs of society membership.

Previously CEO of Zelluna Immunotherapy (2017-2019), where he established the corporate structure, raised successfully, built the team and launched the strategy for solid tumors allogeneic C&GT. From 2010-2017 was CMO/COO of TxCell, establishing and leading the professional C&GT product translation development for autoimmune diseases. Participated on the company IPO and several successful raises. From 2006-2010 was VP of Global Medical Affairs at UCB contributing to the development of the biologics portfolio, product approval and launch. In 2004, joined Nabi Pharmaceuticals as the VP of Medical/Regulatory Affairs for Europe, leading from inception the creation of the vaccine company in Europe.

After several public sector clinical, academic, and regulatory positions in Portugal and at the EMA, namely as CHMP member, spent six years with BMS as Medical Director, Executive Director, and VP of International Medical in Portugal and Belgium.

Holds an M.D. and Specialist in Infectious Diseases from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, a Ph.D. in Immunology, University of Birmingham, and a certificate on Health Technologies Economics, Stockholm School of Economics. He is Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the RCP in the UK.

Eric Halioua

Serial entrepreneur that combines strong strategic, technological and managerial experience with proven track record of deal-making and fund-raising. During his career he achieved together with his different teams to bring four drug candidates from research to the clinics (up to phase IIb). Overall, Eric has raised as of now a total of more than €160 million from VCs and strategic partners in Europe, USA, Japan and Korea and have had numerous successes in the sale and initial public offering of biotechnology companies. He is CEO of the biotechnology company PDC*line Pharma and board member of Essenscia (Bio.be). Eric is co-founder of four biotechnology companies called Myosix (bought by Genzyme mid-2002), Murigenetics, HairClone and Digital Orthopaedics. He is co-Inventor of the first GMP approved mobile manufacturing unit for cell therapy. Eric worked for 12 years in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice of Arthur D. Little.  Eric holds two master’s degrees in pharmacology and Molecular Biology and a MBA from ESSEC business school (Paris, France), with an advanced degree from the Health Care ESSEC chair.

James Kusena

James is the Vice President of Operations at MicrofluidX, where they are developing a cell therapy bioprocessing and manufacturing platform to help industrialise cell therapies.

James has experience in cell therapy process development and manufacturing optimisation. His work has focused on understanding the translational requirements for robust product realisation, considering aspects such as process development, manufacturability and ultimately the clinical adoption and health economic implications.

His technical experience has been focused on GMP protocol adaptation and the translational work required for GMP manufacturing of cell therapies. Additionally, James has a background in Medicinal Chemistry, International Business and Health economics. James is a mentor and coach focusing on personal and professional skills development within a range of areas including the cell therapy and bio-engineering fields.

Kathryn Simpson

Kathryn is a respected and successful change leadership expert, with diverse career experience in Europe and North America. She has over 25 years of consulting and line experience with leading organisations (Unilever, Mars, KPMG and GSK). Since 2007 she has been leading her own independent consulting business, primarily working within the Life Sciences sector. By partnering with leaders at all levels within the sector, growth and sustainable success has resulted for the organisations she has worked with. She has recently published a book – “Leading for Change: How to thrive during uncertain times”.

She provides each organisation the approaches they need to meet their unique situation. Tailored approaches are used to develop a consolidated understanding of their environment and the priority challenges they face. This provides the basis for facilitating customised workshops where leaders not only create a desired future, but are ready to move forward and implement their ideas. Working with individual leaders or teams she advises how to bring other stakeholders with them so they achieve success together. These practical and supportive approaches create focus, accountability and collaboration across organisations and their partners. Organisations are left with an increased leadership capability and tangible business results.

David Venables

Prof David Venables has three decades of experience as a serial biotech entrepreneur having taken companies from creation through to acquisition or IPO, and taken products from development through to commercial launch. Currently Founding CEO of Laverock Therapeutics, Board member of Axol Bioscience and NovelGen, and mentor to a number of start-ups.

David has held CEO or Senior Executive roles in AskBio, Synpromics, Nightstar, Anatara Lifesciences, Ark Therapeutics, Valneva; is Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University, and holds a PhD in Bioprocess Engineering from University of Surrey.

Bakul Gupta

Dr Bakul Gupta is the CEO and Co-founder of Deliver Biosciences, a preclinical stage cell therapy biotech which is developing safe, scalable and affordable in vivo cell therapies. The company is leveraging its unique platform to effectively deliver genetic cargoes directly to targeted cells, and applying it across different indications in cell and gene therapies.

Bakul founded the company in 2019, along with her business partner, Dr George Tetley after a 6-month long research into the challenges faced by current cell and gene therapy companies. She holds a PhD and BSc in Nanotechnology and Chemistry from the UNSW Australia, and finished her postdoctoral training with Prof. Molly Stevens at Imperial College London before starting ImmTune Therapies.

She has over 10 years of experience in designing nano- and bio-materials for a diverse set of biomedical applications and has previous experience in commercialisation of medical devices. She was recently listed as the Top 30 biotech entrepreneurs to watch as part of a report produced by BioBeat.

Ellie Junod

Ellie is an Investment Manager for the UBS Life Sciences fund. The fund focuses on the development of fit-for-purpose Life Sciences facilities across the UK. Prior to UBS Ellie worked at Jones Lang La Salle (JLL)  in the UK Life Sciences team advising clients on strategic Life Sciences development and investment opportunities.

Stephen Blatcher

Stephen is an experienced innovator, programme manager and business leader with proven ability to take unique medical technologies from concept through to regulatory approval. Prior to joining Team Consulting Stephen was co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer at PlaqueTec Limited where Stephen managed the evolution of its novel Liquid Biopsy Catheter from its initial IP filings through to CE-certification in Europe.

Kella Kapnisi

Senior consultant and project manager, delivering projects from concept through to production, for medical devices & in vitro diagnostics. As well as being involved in usability engineering, business development, strategic reviews of project operations, ensuring efficient engineering design processes.

Background in polymer chemistry and a PhD in biomaterial engineering, under Prof Molly Stevens at Imperial College London, developing tissue engineered cardiac patches for treating heart attacks.