Susan Rienow

Experienced global pharmaceutical marketing leader with 13 years in the industry & a track record of accomplishment in roles of increasing responsibility.

I am known for being able to jump into new situations & successfully align a team around a common vision, and am comfortable leading in diverse situations, including cross-functional, multi-cultural & virtual teams.

Consistent success across multiple therapeutic areas (from primary care blockbuster brands to rare disease biologics) and geographies, including the US, Europe & Emerging Markets.

Expertise in global launches, strategic and analytical thinking & change management. Demonstrated high degree of learning agility & ability to thrive in complex environments.

Marie-Andrée Gamache

Marie-Andrée Gamache is Country President of Novartis UK and Ireland. She has spent over 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, in a wide range of leadership roles at country, regional and global levels, across Europe, North America and Emerging Markets. Throughout her career, her priorities have seen her focus on helping create the right environment for better access to innovative medicines for patients, whilst also developing teams and company culture.

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Marie-Andrée joined Novartis in 2004, where she held a variety of roles in Sales and Brand Management, including in the UK. Marie-Andrée then served as Hematology Franchise Head, Belgium and Luxembourg, for three years. In 2015, she gained General Manager experience at Merck Serono both at a country and regional level, before returning to Novartis in 2019, where she was most recently the Head of Middle East and Africa, Novartis Oncology.

As Country President of Novartis UK and Ireland, Marie-Andrée is focused on creating an organisation with enhanced patient and customer focus, in order to build bold partnerships with the NHS; improving access to treatments for patients and supporting the healthcare systems to build back better post-pandemic.

Antonio Payano

Antonio has been Chief Executive Officer for Bayer UK & Ireland since September 2021. In this time, he has been elected as co-Vice-Chair of the European Medicines Group.

Antonio has had a succession of local, regional and global roles with Bayer over the past 25 years. Before coming to the UK, he was Head of Region Eastern Europe/Middle East and Head of Global Healthcare Programs where he had a lead role in negotiations for PhRMA

Middle East and Africa in several countries throughout the region and led cross-industry delegations with governments and non-profit foundations in lower-middle-income countries. He also has in-depth experience of working collaboratively as part in-country trade associations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Bayer’s portfolio and future pipeline extends across primary and secondary care, including specialised commissioning products, so Antonio is well attuned to many of the issues faced by others along the development, access and adoption pathway

Away from work, Antonio lives in London and is married with two daughters.

Tim Ringrose

Tim trained as a nephrologist and intensive care doctor in Oxford and is CEO of Cognitant Group, a company on a mission to empower people with information about their health and treatment options. He is current president of the Digital Health section at the Royal Society of Medicine, a non-executive director and adviser for several health tech companies and a mentor for the NHS clinical entrepreneur programme.

Sheuli Porkess

Sheuli is a highly experienced and respected leader in life sciences.

Sheuli originally trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford then worked in the NHS before moving to pharmaceutical medicine. Sheuli has worked internationally in medical affairs, clinical development and life science policy.

She is the Vice President of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a Global Fellow in Medicines Development with IFAPP.

Sheuli is a member of the Steering Group for the UKRI Multiple Long-Term Conditions Programme, the AoMRC Genomics Professional Partnerships Group and the UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network Steering Group.

Sheuli is also a visiting lecturer at King’s College London.

Ian Philp

Dr Ian Philp is the founder of Age Care Technologies (ACT) www.agecaretechnologies.org. ACT is the winner of the 2021 United Nations WSIS prize for innovation in healthy ageing.

Dr Philp holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and was a practicing physician for 35 years in the UK National Health Service, spending eight years an Executive Medical Director.

As Professor of Health Care for Older People at the University of Sheffield, he led teams which won the UK hospital team of the year in the care of older people and the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education for research into improving the quality of life of older people.

From 2000-8, he was the National Clinical Director for Older People in England.

Dr Philp was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2009 in recognition of his work to improve the lives of older people.

Marcel Gehrung

Marcel holds a PhD in Machine Learning in Healthcare from the University of Cambridge. Marcel was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, won the Alexander Fleming Prize from the Gates Foundation for his contribution to global public health and the Prix Galien Award for the best medical technology with Cyted’s core product, a novel test for the early detection of cancer in the oesophagus.

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.

Stefan Kulik

Stef Kulik is the Managing Director of Royal Mail Health, which was officially launched in 2022, after many successful years building partnerships in multiple areas of the healthcare ecosystem. Stefan is responsible for the company’s development in the coming years, working across the changing patient, regulatory, treatment and supply chain needs, to help put Royal Mail at the front of making healthcare better for communities across the UK. Stefan’s history is across large corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, as well as a number of technology and AI related start-ups and big data organisations, where he has gained extensive experience in health.

Claire Thompson

Claire is an award-winning scientist, strategist and storyteller with more than 15 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry spanning the large multi-nationals GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, virtual and Contract Research Organisations. She is CEO of Agility Life Sciences, an award-winning CDMO, consulting and communications firm which works with organisations across the healthcare space to advance their products and raise their profile. She is also Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge, and holds an Honorary Professorship from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham. Claire is Chair of the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s Women in Science and Education (FIP WiSE) initiative.

Steven Facer

Steve is currently the Vice President of Business Development , Europe/ ROW at Adare Pharma Solutions.

With 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience, Steve has expertise in successfully leading CDMO businesses in developed and emerging markets resulting in strong top and bottom line growth and customer satisfaction.

Prior to joining Adare , Steve held senior commercial and operations positions with various Pharma Products and Service organizations, including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Catalent, Capsugel and Colorcon. He has a Honours Degree in Materials Science and Technology from University College Swansea , Wales.

Chris Davison

Experienced Technical Director with extensive experience of working a in the pharmaceuticals industry.

I am expert in pharmaceutical development, manufacturing science and technology with a consistent track record of delivering high quality and robust medicines. I am experienced in Quality by Design, regulatory submissions and technology transfer.

I am an accomplished leader of technical functions and matrix teams across both Manufacturing and R&D organisations. I ensure success by setting the vision and develop strategies aligned to the organisations ambition, focusing on internal and external collaboration to deliver value.

As a leader of both line and matrix teams I have a people centric approach, setting high standards and driving delivery, whilst also creating an environment focused on personal development and continuous improvement to ensure everyone fulfils their potential.

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.

Amina Udechuku

Dr Amina Udechuku is currently the Commercial Head of Vaccines, UK and started with Takeda UK as the ‘Head of Appraisals & Centre of Excellence’ in the Market Access and Pricing team at the beginning of 2020. Amina has historically co-led the UK Gender Parity Network Employee Resource Group and represented the UK on the regional Europe & Canada Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) council. In 2020, Amina established and has since co-led the UK & Ireland DE&I Council.

Amina holds a BSc in Psychology, and a PhD in Epidemiology with her thesis on ‘Demographic and modifiable risk factors in age related cognitive impairment’, both from Loughborough University.

Joshua Blight

Josh has a PhD in Vaccinology and Infectious Diseases from the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford where he pioneered computational approaches to design vaccines against various infectious diseases. He’s designed a number of vaccines against diseases such as dengue and chikungunya to human papilloma virus (HPV) and malaria. Two of his vaccine candidates are currently in human clinical trials and licensed to pharma. For the last three years he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, developing new ways to create malaria vaccines. In 2019 he co-founded Baseimmune to generate mutation-proof vaccines through deep learning technology.

Jane Kennedy

Jane Kennedy joined Discovery Park as Chief Business Officer in June 2021. Her remit is to drive strong business growth through the strategic development of the 220 acre science park; building an innovation hub, fostering a collaborative community on site and driving knowledge exchange.

With a Communication Studies degree, Jane spent the early part of her career working in advertising and marketing. In 2005 she became Marketing Manager of Roslin Biocentre (famed as the home of Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal) running the science park and learning about the needs of startup and growing life sciences companies.

As the first employee of BioCity Scotland, she was instrumental in converting an ex-pharma site into BioCity’s first venture outside of Nottingham, launching and co-chairing the Glasgow BioCorridor. Additionally she launched the University of Glasgow’s Clinical Innovation Zone – a centre built around Stratified Medicine and Imaging – at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Jane has held several Startup support roles assisting early-stage tech-based businesses to build their teams and attract investment. She lives just outside Edinburgh in Scotland and splits her time working from home and travelling to the Discovery Park site in Sandwich, Kent.

Fiona Marston

Fiona is a biotechnology entrepreneur who has worked in the industry for >25 years and currently is Chair and CEO of Erebagen Limited a synthetic biology company with a technology platform for pharma discovery and development. She previously founded and developed biotech businesses notably Novacta Biosystems.

From 2018-2023 Fiona worked for Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) as Director of the Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research focused on commercial translation for the LSTM and University of Liverpool  and subsequently as Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence supporting training and mentoring in commercial translation for staff and students.  Early in her career Fiona worked in international business development and went on to found an investment incubator Healthcare Ventures, for the Rothschild Bioscience Unit and J&J Development Corporation investing in European entrepreneurs.

Fiona recently was appointed Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence for the University of Reading. She also advises the seed fund UKI2S and the NC3R’s CRACK IT Challenge, is a Bruntwood SciTech Life Sciences Mentor and a Non-Executive Director for Alder Hey NHS Foundation Trust.

Fiona has a BSc Hons (Biological Sciences; UEA), PhD (Biochemistry; UKC), MBA (London Business School) and was awarded an OBE in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Martino Picardo

Martino is Chairman of Discovery Park and an Independent Consultant, based in
Manchester. From June 2011- July 2017, Martino was the first CEO of the Stevenage
Bioscience Catalyst an ambitious concept to develop an Incubator and Accelerator,
followed by a world class Science Park for the Life Sciences sector Having been
CEO at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, Martino was recently Entrepreneur in
Residence at UMIP, Manchester (2017-2020) and was working part-time with the
NHS in Manchester, also as an Entrepreneur in Residence.

Martino has a PhD in Biochemistry from Cardiff University and spent 4 years at
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX in Cardiovascular research. Martino joined
Amersham International in 1991 and subsequently went on to manage the R&D
Technology Transfer Group, based in Cardiff and developing high throughput
screening technologies for the Pharmaceutical sector.

Following the merger of Amersham with Pharmacia Biotech, Martino became the
Science Director for the Cardiff site, Martino then became a Business Manager for
Manchester Biotech Ltd. and subsequently Manchester Innovation Ltd. in June 1999.
When the Universities of Manchester and UMIST merged, he became Managing
Director of UMIC and MICL and was also a Board member of UKBI (UK Business
Incubation).

Martino has also been a Board member of the Hertfordshire LEP. Most recently,
Martino was appointed to the Board of BIONOW, the Northern member Organization
for Life Sciences, as a non- Executive Director (2018-2023). He is currently
Chairman of Discovery Park Ltd., Vitarka Therapeutics Ltd and Evidential Ltd. He is
also a Director of Discovery Park Ventures.

Suzanne Dilly

Dr Suzy Dilly is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the AIM-listed UK biotech, ValiRx PLC. Suzy is an experienced entrepreneurial scientist. After commercialising her Chemical Biology post-doctoral research in the University of Warwick spin-out, a2sp Limited, Suzy was awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, during which formal commercial and entrepreneurial training completed her transition from lab to boardroom. Completing commercial transactions to progress projects through multiple companies, Suzy has been working in small company virtual biotechs since 2006.

Phil Carvil

For the last couple of years Phil has had the pleasure of working with colleagues and stakeholders in developing High-Tech. regional innovation clusters, in key strategic sectors for the UK. This includes setting up and leading the North West of England’s Health and Life sciences Cluster (HealthTech) and establishing other clusters in sectors such as Space.

The clusters exist to connect key capabilities between stakeholders, national science facilities and innovators in the wider ecosystem to support collaboration, cross-sector innovation and community building.

A scientist by background, he undertook a PhD for the European Space Agency at King’s College London, conducting numerous studies on a SkinSuit which was designed to support astronauts in space and reduce the risk of spinal issues post flight. This has subsequently been used on several astronaut missions.

Passionate about cross sector opportunities, including Health & Space, for 5 years he coordinated the UK’s Space Life and Biomedical Science Association, which among other core activities he led the development of the UK Position Paper ‘Why Space? The opportunity for Health & Life Science Innovation”. He currently chairs the UK’s Regional Space Cluster Advisory board and at a European Level serves as the elected President for the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA).

Jenny Barnett

Jenny is a cognitive neuroscientist and CEO of Monument Tx. She was previously Chief Scientific Officer at Cambridge Cognition where she led clinical trial, healthcare and R&D functions before spinning out Monument in 2021. She 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 is the author of more than 70 papers, six patents, and two popular science books and is an honorary member of the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry.

Oleksandr Gorbenko

Dr Oleksandr Gorbenko is an expert in patient affairs, medical affairs, public health, and community engagement with overall 23 years’ experience in biopharma industry. He graduated as a medical doctor (general practice) in O.Bogomolets’ National Medical University and Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine and later worked on his PhD dissertation in the Ukrainian Institute of Public Health MOH. His experience across pharma includes several medical and commercial roles in representative offices of big biopharma companies (Nycomed/Takeda, Richter Gedeon, GSK) as well as senior global medical roles at GSK and ViiV Healthcare headquarters in the UK. He has an additional experience with UN/UNFPA on community engagement, women empowerment and combating gender-based violence.  Since 2019 Dr Gorbenko has a role of Global Patient Affairs Director at Ipsen with the focus on developing necessary capacities/capabilities cross-functionally, advice-seeking and insights gathering with patient experts throughout the Medicines Development Continuum, patient experience mapping, partnership with several patient organisations, substantiation and inclusion of the specific PRO/PCO measurements as endpoints, defining the patient value attributes within the Target Value Profiles (TVP) for new medicines, KPIs and impact indicators on patient centricity for big pharma and other programmes. Board Certified Medical Affairs Professional (ACMA, 2020) and member of MAPS Focus Area Working Group on Patient Centricity.

Charlotte Harris

A versatile senior technology consultant focused on leading and developing Team’s Front End Innovation service offering and practices – including design research, facilitation, strategy, design sprints and innovation management.
Over 20 years’ experience in medical device product development as an innovation leader, project manager and business developer to significant clients globally resulting in high quality delivery of innovative medical project solutions across the full product development lifecycle.

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.

Lord James O’Shaughnessy

James is one of the UK’s leading policy advisors. He has operated at the highest levels of government, including as a Minister at the Department for Health & Social Care, as Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, and as an advisor to DHSC Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. James is driven by the twin goals of bringing life-changing health innovations to patients and growing the UK’s life science & healthtech industries. As Minister his responsibilities included implementing the Life Science Industrial Strategy, delivering a new pricing scheme with the pharmaceutical industry, chairing the National Genomics Board, and driving the digital transformation of the NHS. He was also responsible for preparing the health and social care sectors for Brexit and helping to design the post-Brexit regulatory regime. In 2021 James became co-founder and Senior Partner of Newmarket Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to improving access to health innovation by providing strategic advice and technical support to the healthcare, life sciences and health tech sectors. At Newmarket, James provides senior counsel to multinationals, SMEs, investors, universities, hospitals and charities, with a particular focus on technology, digital and data. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, where he chairs the Data, Health & Wealth programme, and a non-executive director of both Health Data Research UK and the Albion Development VCT plc. Outside of health, James chairs the Repairing our Social Fabric programme at the think tank Onward and has a keen interest in education reform.

James Chennells

26 year industry experience across CROs & Pharma working in Clinical Operations, Business Development & Procurement. Following a Biology Degree I started my career as CRA working for Icon before moving into Business Development at Covance and subsequently Kendle (now Syneos). I joined Bayer in 2003 heading up a European Clinical Outsourcing function. As the outsourcing function developed and ultimately moved into the Global Procurement function at Bayer I assumed greater responsibility. These responsibilities have included leading regional teams across Europe & Asia for Pharma Development sourcing activities and Global teams responsible for Pharma Development Category strategy. During this time I have also been heavily involved in the management of key supplier partnerships.

In 2021 I moved into Bayer Clinical Operations to take up my current role leading an agile team to identify and manage a portfolio of future solutions supporting new approaches to clinical trial Planning and conduct to deliver faster, better, cheaper trials.

Richard Vellacott

Richard is co-founder, CEO and Chair of BiologIC Technologies Limited. BiologIC’s integrated processing development platform enhances yields, process robustness and scalability of advanced biology products.  The platform, enabled by novel biocomputer technology, is a new category of machine built from fluidic processing chips designed like computer chips.  Our vision is to help customers engineer biology to solve enormous challenges faced by humanity (feeding 9.8 billion people by 2050, mitigating climate change and reducing the threat of diseases) in an environmentally sustainable, economically accessible way.

An authentic and passionate leader, Richard inspires transformational change through the alignment of purposeful vision, high performing talent and quality capital.  He creates significant value through executive leadership, vision and strategy, commercialisation of science, capital market expertise, cultural and organisational change and building operational scale.

In seven valuable years as interim CEO, deputy CEO, CFO, COO and Company Secretary, Richard was instrumental in growing Horizon Discovery Group plc from an emerging private company of £3m revenue in 2012 to a recognised global leader in gene editing delivering revenue of £60m at a valuation of £350m.  Richard delivered one of the most successful ever Life Science listings on AIM raising £68.6m in a heavily oversubscribed IPO at the top of its valuation range within 3 months, fundraisings in the UK and the US, four acquisitions and hostile bid defence.

Richard was previously Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a dual listed FTSE 250 semiconductor company with $1bn of revenues, and a director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice.  Richard is a qualified chartered accountant with a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.

Christian Jones

Christian is the Chief Commercial Officer for Nanoform and leads the business activities for the company. In his role he works with Pharma and Biotech partners to bring their drug molecules back to life by rapidly improving their solubility and bioavailability through the application of Nanoform’s proprietary solution to nanoparticle technology.
He has a strong track record commercially in Drug Substance (DS) and Drug Product (DP) Development and Manufacturing services, Technology Development and Commercialisation, Sales and Marketing and Strategy Development and Implementation.

Christian has a strong knowledge of the healthcare market with global experience and an ability to quickly understand how best to strategically leverage an organisation’s strength to maximise success. He has experience of working across the pharma value chain from Drug Discovery through to Commercial Manufacturing in a range of organisations including Tripos Discovery Research Ltd, Prosonix Ltd, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Johnson Matthey Plc and now Nanoform Finland Ltd.

Christian is a Chemist by training and graduated from the University of Leeds in 2003 with a Masters of Chemistry Degree. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is passionate about new technologies and scientific innovation and he has a deep technical understanding of Crystallisation Science, Particle Engineering and Respiratory Drug Delivery.

Sam Windsor

Sam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ignota Labs. Ignota Labs’ Explainable AI platform predicts and solves safety problems throughout the drug development process. Sam is a former mathematician and leader in data-driven solutions to solve healthcare-related problems. He has an MBA from INSEAD Business School, a Masters in Mathematics from Nottingham University and experience working across the NHS, big pharma and other corporates, hospital trusts, and startups.

Nick Smith

An experienced pharmaceutical professional, Nick Smith has held various leadership roles within large and emerging organisations delivering complex programs and driving continuous improvement. Nick has successfully established the operational delivery new manufacturing facilities, extended and increased the productivity of new and mature lines as well as rapid new product introductions most notably the BDS for a COVID vaccine. With a background in Quality, Nick is well versed in delivering solutions that meet GMP requirements.

Tamsin Berry

Tamsin has extensive experience in government and expertise in public policy. As the former Director of the UK government’s Office for Life Sciences she worked with Sir John Bell to write the UK’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, which led to £3 billion of investment into UK biotech across a number of public and private partnership projects.
During a successful career as a senior civil servant Tamsin held a number of leadership positions in government, spanning policy, corporate and communications roles including at the Cabinet Office, Department of Health and Public Health England. She began her career in consultancy at Accenture. She studied law at Nottingham University, holds a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Leeds and was a Science and Policy Fellow at University of Cambridge.

Tamsin has recently launched a new partnership venture in the UK and US specialising in population health.

Cedi Frederick

During a career that has spanned 40+ years, Cedi has held a number of senior management and chief executive positions across the public, Not-for-Profit and private sectors.

In addition, with over 30 years’ experience as a member of the boards of housing, social care and sporting national governing bodies, several housing associations and voluntary organisations, Cedi has held Non-Executive Director and Chair roles within the NHS and a university Governor role.  Cedi is currently Chair of NHS Kent and Medway, Chair of the Health and Europe Centre, Chair of the NHS London’s Vaccine Legacy Equity Group, Co-Chair of Inspire for Black Londoners and is a Non-Executive Director of Sage Homes.

Cedi is owner and Managing Director of Article Consulting Ltd, a company that works with the ‘Leaders of Today and Tomorrow’, the CEO of Consiliaris Digital Systems, a health tech start-up, and runs a successful executive coaching and mentoring practice.

On four separate occasions, Cedi was named as one of Britain’s ‘100 Most Influential Black People’; described as ‘…unsung hero of the Third Sector, who has changed as many lives in his life outside of work as he has in his job’.  In 2015, Cedi was recognised as one of the ‘1,000 Black & Asian Heroes 1950-2010’ by Our Heritage TV.

Catherine Kettleborough

Catherine (Katy) Kettleborough Heads up LifeArc’s Chronic Respiratory Infection Translational Challenge. The Translational Challenge is a £100- million programme focussing on acceleration scientific innovations to impact on healthcare interventions for people living with bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis. Prior to that she led a biology group at LifeArc, formerly MRC Technology, providing early drug discovery support to progress novel targets from academic into the drug discovery pipeline.  She has 30 years plus experience of working at the interface between academic research and pharma/biotech, as a bench scientist, project manager, team leader and start-up Director.

Miranda Mapleton

Miranda is the CEO and founder of the White Swan, a registered Charity on a mission to improve health for society using technology and analytics, working with academia, charities, government and companies globally, with partners such as the Royal Marsden Hospital, British Heart Foundation and Bayer Pharmaceuticals.  White Swan specialise in leveraging large volumes of social data combined with their Million Minds AI insights platform to bring the patient voice to the heart of healthcare innovation and improvement.

Since graduating in Business Management in the 90s, Miranda held various senior Marketing Director and CMO roles within global businesses like PepsiCo, Mars and MoneySuperMarket, and now combines running the charity with other Business and Marketing consulting with SMEs and global businesses across multiple sectors.

Steve King

Steve King is the CEO and Co-Founder of Black Swan, a UK scale-up, which combines cutting edge data science and software development to accurately predict trends in consumer behaviour, using a SaaS platform called Trendscope for customers like PepsiCo, P&G and United Airlines. 

Since reading Cognitive Science in the 90s, Steve has applied his tech, coding and visualisation skills to solving his clients’ challenges, helping them work out what will be important tomorrow by arming them with products that transform the way their brands create value from data.  

Outside of Black Swan, Steve is a Technology advisor to BT, sits on the Royal Mail advisory board and is an advisor to the Charity White Swan which uses AI to aid patients with rare diseases.  

Nina Skorytchenko

Nina is the co-founder and CEO of Avenna Ltd , a medtech company specialising in the development of precision medicine technologies for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases (CIDs).

Her mission is to make healthcare for CIDs more preventive and personalised. This can be achieved by developing more effective, affordable, and accessible precision medicine solutions, which enable early detection and treatment personalisation for CIDs.  She has a background in finance, business, and healthcare and worked in large multinational companies including Nomura, Bloomberg and Schlumberger as well as several entrepreneurship ventures. Her first company, Wellcode Life is a scientific wellness company which provides integrated health transformation programmes tailored to an individual’s unique molecular, genetic and physiological profile.

Nina’s main ability and expertise is to connect clinical, science and business worlds. She uses wealth of experience to translate the most promising research-grade technologies into practical solutions for individuals, clinicians, and biopharma. This includes design and execution of clinical studies and trials, developing informatics infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of precision health programs for chronic disease prevention.

Camilla Easter

Dr Camilla Easter, has ten years biotech/mechtech start-up as CEO/COO working exclusively on hydrogel based medical devices. Originally a veterinary surgeon, she has run veterinary clinical trials and launched the veterinary arm of a biotech company. Following on from this she moved into the human biotech sector, here she was involved with all aspects of the company including, R&D, fundraising, regulatory and preclinical trials for medical devices.

John Deanfield CBE

Martin Doorbar

Martin brings extensive experience of the full lifecycle of drug and medical device development covering pre-clinical stages through commercial approvals to global launches. In his career he has played a pivotal role in thirteen drug approvals and over forty IND / IMPD applications. Prior to joining Ellipses, Martin was Global Head of CMC and Manufacturing Operations with HUYA Bioscience International where he led the pharmaceutical development team. Martin began his career at Aventis and has held roles of increasing seniority with Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Mundipharma Research, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Innovata Biomed (now part of Vectura). Martin completed his BSc (Hons) in Applied & Analytical Chemistry at Staffordshire University.

Christophe Le Ret

Christophe Le Ret started to work 25 years ago in the chemical industry, where he occupied various sales, marketing and business development positions. As a Global Marketing Director, he contributed to establish Umicore as a leading supplier of advanced catalysts and technology in the life science industry and he now leads the team responsible for strengthening Umicore’s image and leadership position in the industries it serves.
His expertise and interest span from marketing and communication, to bringing new technologies to market, through customer centric innovation. He is convinced that a caring society, where human beings and environment are at the core of its values, is possible and will benefit to the whole mankind while saving the planet from a major ecological disaster. This triggered him to cofound Khemia, a think and act tank proposing solutions to move to a caring society.

David Harrison

David Harrison sits on UCB’s external manufacturing leadership team and is responsible for partnering with device and technology companies. He builds high-level relationships with key external partners and provides strategic market insights to inform UCB’s long term manufacturing strategy. David believes in partnerships, and these alliances have already brought several successful combination products to the market. Away from his professional life, David is a fledgling novelist, with several projects nearing completion. He is married with two children and lives in Cambridge, UK.

Manjit Jhooty

I have a strong affinity with West Midlands having been born and educated in Walsall. I
attended the Blue Coat School and subsequently the Wood Green College in Wednesbury.
I have over 15 years of senior banking, strategic management and business growth planning
experience, having started his career with West Bromwich Building Society in 1992 before
moving to Staffordshire Building Society in 1998.

In the summer of 2007, I was invited to the join the family’s community pharmacy
businesses with the objective to help stabilise and grow the family business.
Over the years I have helped the business grow from a family business comprising of 4
stores to what now has become a corporate business comprising of around 120 community
pharmacy stores. The core community pharmacy businesses now have a turnover c £60
million per annum and we employ around 600 staff members.
During my tenure as CEO, I have also been directly involved in relocating the business head
office from Darlaston to a prestigious brand new Headquarter building in the heart of
Walsall’s emerging new office corridor.

I take a keen interest in Walsall’s economic, business and civic affairs and am passionate
about assisting local community and voluntary organisation with whatever support I may be
able to offer. Quite often it’s my banking and business experience ranging over 15 years
which is often ‘tapped’ upon.

I sit on a number of local boards and committees for example Innovation Health and
Wellbeing Ltd, Walsall Economic Board, and further afield I am a member of the
Independent Chemists Association. I am also the chairman of the Walsall Town Fund a 50
million bid to Central government. I am also a mentor to a group of leading CEO’s and
Executives and sit on the Local Integration Partnership Board.

Jagjit Singh Srai

Jag is a Director of Research at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, where as Head of the Centre for International Manufacturing, Institute for Manufacturing, his research brings an engineering and strategic operations management perspective to the design, analysis and operation of international supply chains. Research projects explore the disruptive impacts of new production and digital technologies on supply chain configurations involving advisory roles and close collaborations with industry, government and international institutions, including UNCTAD, UNIDO, and the World Economic Forum where he co-Chairs the Council on Advanced Manufacturing. Previous roles were in industry with Unilever, as a Supply Chain Director of a multinational regional business, Technical Director of a national business and other senior management positions. Jag holds a first-class honours degree in Chemical Engineering (Aston), a PhD in International Supply Networks (Cambridge), is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Casper Wilstrup

Casper is the founder and CEO of Abzu®, the Danish/Spanish startup building AI to answer the world’s unanswered questions in science, business, and everyday life. Casper is the inventor of the QLattice® symbolic AI algorithm. He has 20+ years of experience building large scale systems for data processing, analysis, and AI, and is passionate about the impact of AI on knowledge work and the intersection of AI with philosophy and ethics.

Mark Buswell

Mark Buswell is the VP of Vaccines Tech, GSK. He has accountability for the Tech solutions supporting GSK vaccines division spanning R&D, manufacturing, quality and business operations. He joined GSK in 2002 and has held roles in R&D, manufacturing and Tech. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge and an MBA from Cranfield University. His interests include information technologies, synthesis of APIs using novel methods, novel formulation technologies, fermentation technologies, advanced analytical technologies and automation. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Jorge Costa

Jorge has 20+ years’ experience in the Life Science Industry, including defining global strategy, managing international teams, and projects, leading innovation and standards, process digitalization, control strategies, systems integration, computerized systems validation, and operations support. Jorge has 15+ years’ experience in manufacturing equipment design (design review, HAZOP, FMEA), commissioning and qualification, plant maintenance (24×7 support. Shutdown coordination), production shifts engineer, HSE auditor, Site visits host, on-boarding trainer, and speaker (Academia and Industry forums).

Trevor Jones CBE

Prof Jones is Chairman of the Oxford based Drug Discovery Company, e-Therapeutics plc and a Board member of Respiratory Innovation Wales Ltd and Ascension Healthcare plc. He was formerly a Director of Allergan Inc. (USA) ,R&D Director of The Wellcome Foundation and Director General of the ABPI.

Prof Jones is a visiting professor at King’s College, London and holds honorary degrees and Gold Medals from 6 universities. He was a founder member of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a member of The UK Government Regulatory Agency …The Medicines Commission. … advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome project, Chair of the UK Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research.

He is currently a member of the Wales Government, Bevan Commission on Health, was a Commissioner at The World Health Organisation, WHO, has advised the Government of the Netherlands TiPharma Board on Life Science and was a member of the EU Commission IMI Scientific Advisory Board.

He was the first winner of the SCRIP Life Time Achievement award.

Hilary Mills-Baker

Hilary is the European Quality and Validation Manager for Emerson Automation Solutions where she oversees all Life Science projects being supplied with Syncade or DeltaV from a Quality and Validation stance. Hilary started working for Emerson as a systems engineer 30+ years ago, developing ProVox and DeltaV systems. She has also worked as an automation engineer and a validation consultant.

She is a member of the ISPE and co-lead the update of the Process Control Systems guide following the publication of GAMP5 in 2008. She now delivers the training on this topic for ISPE. She has been involved in the team writing the GAMP guidance for Practical Approaches to Data Integrity for Manufacturing Systems, which was published in 2019 and is the co-chair of the GAMP UK steering committee.

Dave Wightman

Dave Wightman heads up the External Development and Manufacturing group at AstraZeneca, leading outsourced activity with global CDMOs across API and Drug Product in support of drug programmes spanning pre-clinical to Phase 3. He joined AstraZeneca in 2000 and has held leadership roles in chemical development, API manufacturing and clinical and commercial supply chain. He has an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham and is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional. Dave is passionate about developing individuals and teams in pursuit of bringing life changing medicines to patients.

Rina Newton

Rina is a PhD pharmacist with a wealth of pharma experience in medical and compliance roles.

She believes that compliance confidence should belong to the many and not just a few – thus allowing better implementation and bolder innovation – especially when it comes to beneficial collaborations with patients and healthcare professionals.

Rina co-founded Code Clarity in June 2023 and prior to that was MD of CompliMed, which was the UK’s largest Compliance and Medical agency.

Andrew Croydon

A scientist and educationalist, Andrew started his career in Developmental Neuroscience research at King’s College London, and subsequently moved into science education, graduating with a PGCE and subsequently a Masters in Educational Leadership. After a number of years in the classroom and subsequent leadership roles within mainstream education, Andrew joined the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

In his current role as Director of Education and Examination Policy & Partnerships, Andrew has focused on strategic leading and driving of the UK Life Sciences skills and education agenda to ensure access to a skilled workforce and inspiring STEM education – including delivery of the ABPI schools initiative.

Andrew publishes the industry’s substantive authoritative biennial skills gap analysis, as well as reviews of industry-academic collaborations. Andrew’s public speaking engagements have covered topics including: apprenticeships, STEM education, digital skills, professional examination standards and equality, diversity & inclusion – from conferences to parliamentary committee evidence sessions.

Alongside education and skills policy development, Andrew directs ABPI Professional Exams – Ofqual regulated accredited qualifications for industry personnel to meet mandatory competency.

Andrew remains passionate about STEM education, workforce development, lifelong learning and informed career choices to support fulfilling careers.

Andrew Webb

Andrew is currently Chief Executive Officer at Extruded Pharmaceuticals, a plaƞorm drug delivery technology company. The Company’s lead products are for the treatment of brain tumour, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

Andrew has over 30 years of commercial experience in the Diagnostics and Life Sciences industry. His previous roles include Chief Commercial Officer at Novel Technologies Holdings
Ltd. (NTH), Chief Executive Officer and founder of EKF Molecular Diagnostics and a nonexecutive director for Arcis Biotechnology.

Prior to EKF, Andrew joined QIAGEN as Senior Director, Personalised Healthcare following the acquisition of the pioneering personalised healthcare company, DxS Ltd in 2009 where he was Commercial Director. His early career included roles at Amersham Biosciences (now GE Healthcare) and in pre-clinical research at SmithKlineBeecham (now GlaxoSmithKline).

Abigail Epstein

The Head of Communications and Patient Advocacy for Takeda in the UK and Ireland, Abigail Epstein is an external affairs leader with significant experience in the field. In her role, Abie leads a team of experts to deliver corporate, brand and internal communications strategies alongside meaningful patient advocacy programmes and is a member of the UK and Ireland External Affairs Leadership Team. Ahead of joining Takeda in 2018, Abie held a robust career in communications consultancy working at both a Global and local level across pharmaceutical and NGO sectors. Abie has an MSc in Health Policy from Imperial College London, which she achieved while working full-time with Takeda, is fluent in Chinese having grown up in Shanghai and achieved a first-class Honors degree in English Literature and Chinese from Lancaster University.

Alongside her role, Abie co-leads the UK Gender Parity Network Takeda Resource Group and is passionate about driving Takeda’s commitment to employees internally and externally.

Paul Wicks

Paul Wicks, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and independent consultant in digital health, clinical trials, rare disease, and patient centricity. For 13 years he led the R&D team at PatientsLikeMe, an online community for over 750,000 people living with medical conditions. Specialising in clinical research using the Internet, Paul has over 160 publications including a patient-driven observational trial of lithium in ALS, numerous patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures, a “dose-response” curve for the benefits of friendship between patients, virtual clinical trial designs, and applications of artificial intelligence (AI).

He sits on the editorial boards of the BMJ, BMC Medicine, JMIR, Digital Biomarkers and The Patient. Prior to joining PatientsLikeMe, Paul worked at the Institute of Psychiatry (King’s College London) studying cognition and neuroimaging in ALS, with a postdoc in psychological consequences of Parkinson’s disease. His work has been profiled by the BBC, NPR, CNN, BBC Radio 4, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. In 2011 he was awarded MIT Technology Review’s TR35 “Humanitarian of the Year” award, recognized as a TED Fellow in 2012, and joined the inaugural FLIER Program at the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019.

Olivia Boyce

Olivia has been a member of the team at Swords Campus since 2013. Her undergraduate degree is in Analytical Science from Dublin City University (DCU) and she holds three Masters Degrees: MPhil in Plant Genetics from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), now TU Dublin, MBA from the Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin (UCD) and an MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour, also from DCU. She is a qualified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and completed the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Olivia started her career as a Technical Transfer Chemist in a Large Pharma global commercialisation and launch facility and held roles of increasing scope and responsibility in new product introduction and operations, including the role of IPT Lead, ultimately joining the Swords site as Director of Operations. She also has extensive experience in Operational Excellence and lead the local Project Management Office before transitioning into roles in project management and customer relationship management and now leads Project and Customer Management activities as Director of Project Management for SK biotek Ireland.

Joep Hufman

After having worked as an emergency physician, Joep joined Bayer 12 years ago. He started his career as a Medical Science Liaison, gained product management experience as Senior Product Manager and moved back to medical as the Country Medical Director in the Netherlands. Between that and his current role, he was the Medical Lead for the Bayer-CureVac collaboration in 2021 for the launch of a COVID vaccine and was Director of Medical Affairs in the UK. Currently, Joep is Medical Director for the UK & Ireland for Bayer’s Pharma division. He leads the medical departments and oversees clinical trials, Medical Governance, and various therapy area’s including Oncology, cardiovascular, Ophthalmology, Woman’s Health and Radiology.

Giuliano Perfetti

Giuliano has more than 20 years of experience across diverse businesses and global markets with expertise in Sales, Marketing, Strategic Planning and Business Development. His career started with Accenture and he was instrumental in providing innovative strategy for top pharma customers like Serono, Eli Lilly. Later, he worked with AstraZeneca and Euticals, held Strategic Planning and Business Development roles in cardiovascular, respiratory, gastro-intestinal, pain franchise and led global sales and marketing for APIs.

Giuliano was associated with F.I.S. FabbricaItaliana Sintetici as Chief Commercial Officer, and was responsible for strategizing and executing the company’s growth plan and ramping up the global scale-up and commercial service business. His achievement includes establishment of a new business unit, conceived and formulated a new business line and resulted in the launching of Animal Health offering. Since 2019, he is also serving as Chairman of the European Innovation Committee and Member of the Board of EFCG (European Fine Chemical Group). From 2021, he is Official co-rapporteur for the European Innovation stream at the EU ‘structured dialogue on security of medicine supply’ led by European Commission.

He is a Post Graduate in Economics, with a Thesis in Financial Mathematics, from the University of Tor, Vergata Rome, Italy and has done Strategy to Value business management course from Cranfield University – School of Management.

Stephanie Campbell

Stephanie is an experienced eye specialist, vision scientist and founder & CEO of OKKO Health, a digital eye care start up in Bristol, UK.  Years of simultaneously working in a hospital eye clinic and studying for a PhD in the early detection of eye disease, Stephanie realised that there was a wide gap between the vision testing possible in a research setting; and what was actually available to the patients and doctors who needed it most.   

OKKO’s video game apps collect lab-grade measurements of vision on a smartphone anytime and anywhere and harnesses the modern phone sensors to provide much more clinical information than a regular eye chart ever could.  This has the potential to deliver early diagnosis and on-time treatment to millions, with quality eye care now possible in the comfort of the patient’s own home. 

OKKO are developing digital biomarkers of visual health to power the remote monitoring, screening and diagnosis of eye disease.  This is to fuel vast efficiencies in the eye care industry, driving toward high quality eye care that is affordable and accessible.

Valeria Ciarnelli

Valeria is Senior Director of Product development with responsibility for scientific program design and product development strategies.

Valeria has 15 years experience in preformulation and formulation development, in academia and contract development manufacturing organisations.  Valeria’s expertise lies in understanding challenging formulations and development of phase appropriate solutions. Her passion is to support customers in the realisation of successful products for unmet clinical needs.

Valeria received her PhD in physiochemical characterisation of novel bioabsorbable eluting stents from The University of Nottingham

Sir Keith Mills GBE DL

Sir Keith Mills GBE DL is a British business entrepreneur who founded the Air Miles and Nectar customer loyalty programmes and has established numerous businesses, both in the UK and internationally.  In September 2003, Sir Keith was appointed International President and CEO of London 2012 established to bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Having won the bid, he established LOCOG to organise the Games, where he was Deputy Chairman alongside Lord Sebastian Coe.  In 2014 Sir Keith established, and was Chairman of, the Invictus Games, working with Prince Harry to deliver a new major international sport event for wounded servicemen and women.  Sir Keith has chaired the Invictus Games Foundation and the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Sir Keith is also Chair of the National Lottery Operator, Camelot.

Sir Keith has received numerous awards including:  Master Entrepreneur of the Year, Chief Executive of the Year, and the Sports Industry Businessman of the Year, and was knighted by The Queen in 2006 and again in 2013 when he received the Grand Knight Cross for his services to sport.  Sir Keith has advised Government on a number of Taskforces.

Jonathan Smith

With 15 years of experience in senior management within the education and skills sector, Jonathan brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the realm of governance and transformation projects. This extensive background has provided him with a unique perspective in managing projects centred around data, robotics, AI and governance. His expertise has been instrumental in driving growth and managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects across the South-East.

As the Co-Founder and Director of Veraxis, Jonathan leads a forward-thinking organisation that is at the forefront of leveraging AI to solve complex business challenges. At Veraxis, his dedication is focused on harnessing the transformative power of AI, creating innovative solutions in AI governance, and developing educational training tools. These tools aim to enhance efficiency and foster growth among clients, in line with the evolving demands of businesses in the AI era.

Jonathan’s commitment to integrating AI into business processes extends beyond achieving business growth; it’s about embedding ethical, transparent, and beneficial AI practices in all operational facets. His extensive background in education and skills development, combined with a dedication to responsible AI use, underscores his approach to leadership and innovation in the AI space.

Hui Yi Tee

Dr Hui Yi Tee is Business Development Manager at Nanoform, an innovative nanoparticle medicine-enabling company. One of Hui Yi’s roles is to leverage Nanoform’s proprietary AI platform (STARMAP®) as a digital twin to help clients predict the value Nanoform’s services and solutions can bring to their individual drug candidates, and portfolios as a whole.

Before joining Nanoform Hui Yi held a leadership role in Janssen’s Global Commercial Strategy Organization where she and her aligned teams provided insights to maximise patient, physician, and payer access across twelve disease areas. Hui Yi holds a degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in Pharmacy from University of North Carolina.