Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.

Martin joined the BIA in April 2016 as Policy and Projects Manager and was promoted to Head of Policy and Public Affairs in January 2019. He is responsible for the BIA's policy outputs and public affairs activities. He also leads on innovation and industrial strategy policy and provides the secretariat for the BIA’s Finance and Tax Advisory Committee and the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee.

Martin has eight years’ experience in policy and public affairs and has worked at the Royal Society, the Campaign for Science and Engineering, and the Association of Medical Research Charities. Before embarking on a career in policy, Martin completed a PhD in molecular biology at the University of Sheffield, where he also co-founded and was director of an award-winning science communication charity called Science Brainwaves. He has a BSc in molecular biology from the University of Manchester.

Sinclair has over twenty years of experience successfully delivering competitive returns to international investors. Prior to co-founding Epidarex Capital, he raised and managed MASA Life Science Ventures, LP (“MLSV” ). MLSV’s investors include several leading institutions and corporations in Japan and Korea, including a ‘top-ten’ Japanese Pharmaceutical company, the largest distributor of cardiac-health medical devices in Japan, a global financial institution and one of Japan’s leading publicly-traded Biotechnology companies. Sinclair’s international network of blue-chip co-investors, his experienced management team and a Scientific Advisory Board of renowned experts successfully built and managed a portfolio of leading life science and health technology companies. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Clyde Biosciences Ltd., EM Imaging Ltd., Mironid Ltd., and Sirakoss Ltd. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, an M.A. (Honours) in Political Economy from th

Daniel Mahony is Co-Head of Healthcare at Polar Capital. He studied biochemistry at the University of Oxford and received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Daniel moved to California to work as a research scientist at Schering Plough Corporation (now Merck & Co.) in 1995 and made the transition into financial services in 1998, working for ING Barings in New York and Morgan Stanley in London as head of the European healthcare research team. In 2007, he set up Polar Capital’s healthcare team. He has over 23 years of experience within global healthcare covering sectors including biotechnology, medical technology and healthcare services.

Heather is a post graduate who has worked as an HR practitioner for over 25 years in industries ranging from North Sea Oil, through Technology, Space and Imaging before landing in Pharma and Biotech with key roles in Roche/Genentech and GSK, over eight years, as a global HR business partner, supporting leadership teams in Research and Development divisions. She relocated to both San Francisco and Switzerland to give her a better understanding of diverse cultures and best working practices throughout her Pharma years. Her journey in Biotech started in 2015 when she joined Horizon Discovery, and learnt to move faster, work more creatively and with a focus on cost. She was able to evolve the people strategy to create imaginative and diverse solutions that fit the uniqueness of Horizon; avoided creating an internal HR industry; and ensure that Horizon’s culture continued to focus on its diversity to deliver the same exciting future for its people, that its science creates for its customers.

She moved in 2019 to another innovative, founder lead organisation, LightsourceBP to deliver their global growth agenda with a mission to tackle another of the big challenges facing our environment - how to create an economic alternate to carbon that will offer continual power to all communities and industries around the world.

Natalia offers broad strategic and operating model experience with top-tier multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Before joining Freeline, Natalia worked for over 20 years in the life sciences sector, most recently as a partner at PA Consulting running strategy and transformation programmes for life sciences clients globally. She has broad strategic experience, spanning corporate strategies, pipeline and product strategies, and compound and technology strategies for top-tier multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson.

She has designed and set up new operating models for organisations, often underpinned by new partnership models and sourcing. Previously, she was in Corporate Development & Strategy at General Electric (GE) Healthcare, starting her career at Arthur Andersen in London, UK.

She holds a BSc and a PhD in Marine Microbiology from Bangor University, University of Wales, UK.

Rob was appointed as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Silence in January 2019. Rob holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester and is a qualified chartered accountant.

Following his PhD, Rob trained as an accountant at Deloitte before joining GSK, with time spent working in internal audit, M&A and commercial finance. Rob's last role at GSK was as Area Finance Director for the Africa & Developing Countries business unit, covering sales of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to over 45 countries. Rob joined Silence in April 2017 as Head of Financial Planning and Analysis before broadening his responsibilities to Legal, IT and Manufacturing.

Hanno is a Partner at Monitor Deloitte, Deloitte’s strategy consultancy business. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience primarily in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sector. Hanno leads the Life Sciences and Healthcare team in Monitor Deloitte and is responsible for building the Real World Evidence Capability within that. His projects have focused on corporate and business unit strategy, competitive response, marketing strategy and capability building.

Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.

In her 26 years at SV, Kate’s biotech investments have resulted in the launch of six drugs for the treatment of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune disease and cancer.
She is one of five Managing Partners serving on the firm’s Investment Committee, which managed seven venture capital funds and one public fund (with greater than $2 billion in total assets) for life sciences investing in US and Europe. Kate is responsible for biotech investments and activities in the EU and serves or has served on the boards of companies in the UK, US, Ireland, Sweden and Germany. These investments include small-molecule drug discovery and development projects, biotherapeutic development projects, and drug discovery platforms in a broad range of clinical areas.
Kate played an active role in setting up the new Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and serves on the DDF Investment Committee.
Prior to joining SV, Kate worked in business development for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA and at Monitor Company, a strategy consulting firm.
Kate won the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by BioIndustry Association UK in January 2017. Kate also serves on the Board of the Francis Crick Institute, serves as Deputy Chairman of St Paul’s Girls’ School, London, and sits on the Investment Committee of Oxford University Spin-out Equity Management (OSEM).

Jon Ellis is currently VP Technology Business Development at GSK. Over more than 25 years in the pharma and biotech industry he has led a variety of R&D groups, drug development projects and strategic business development functions with a particular focus on complex technologies and emerging therapeutic modalities. Jon’s team has been responsible for many of GSK’s transactions in biopharmaceuticals, gene therapy, genetics and functional genomics over the last decade. In addition to his work at GSK, Jon is a non-executive director at Orchard Therapeutics where he has helped oversee a successful US IPO and European filing of a gene therapy for the life-threatening rare disease metachromatic leukodystrophy. Jon holds MA and PhD degrees from University of Cambridge in Medical and Natural Sciences and a MBA from Henley Business School. He is an inventor on more than 35 patent families including several clinical phase molecules and has published a wide range of peer-reviewed papers as well as pieces unrelated to drug discovery.

As VP Marketing for Cytiva, Conor leads a team of marketers along the wire between being new and exciting, while ensuring consistency and stability for customers in the life sciences industry. He’s been in the role since March 2016, but his career in marketing, communications and public affairs spans more than 18 years.

Before becoming VP Marketing, Conor had served as Chief Communications Officer and Head of Public Affairs for GE Healthcare Life Sciences since 2012. His grasp of the industry’s priorities earned him an appointment in 2014 as director and trustee of CaSE, the UK Campaign for Science and Engineering, where he still serves.

From 2003-2006, Conor served as Communications Lead at GE Consumer Finance in the UK during a turbulent time of consumer re-branding, unprecedented growth, and intense regulatory scrutiny. He moved to GE Healthcare’s Global PR team in 2006 and in 2010 set up GE Healthcare’s Public Affairs unit. Prior to GE, Conor worked in Stockholm, Sweden, with one of the Nordic region’s leading communications agencies. He has previously worked in communications in the UK, telecoms in the Netherlands, and taught at Al-Jubayl Technical University in Saudi Arabia.

Nerida oversees the EMEA IC portfolio of co-investments and collaborations to construct, prioritize and advance the early external innovation portfolio of Johnson & Johnson. She identifies and accelerates science and technology outside the company in areas of strategic value to consumer health, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, exploring new models to support external R&D collaboration and grow early stage innovation networks.
Nerida has been an integral part of the Johnson & Johnson Innovation team since 2015. She was Vice President New Ventures & Transactions, and she led a senior team to identify, develop and execute early-stage transactions with diverse partners in the life sciences ecosystem, including academia, venture capital, entrepreneurs, NGOs and governmental organizations.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Nerida was Director for Business Development & Licensing and Executive Team member at Vernalis PLC, a UK biotech company with US commercial activities, responsible for transactions from evaluation through negotiation to closing. Before that, Nerida worked in business development at RiboTargets, a biotech building on Nobel Prize-winning science from the lab of Venki Ramakrishnan. Her experience also includes The Boston Consulting Group in London, where she was a project leader providing strategic counsel to clients on M&A opportunities, R&D, manufacturing and business strategies.

Karin has over 25 years’ experience with a sustained track record of successful leadership roles within the life sciences, biotech and therapeutic industries at Exelixis, Inc., Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Horizon Discovery Group plc and PredictImmune Ltd. Karin has brought over 20 innovative products to market internationally, across a wide scientific spectrum, with recent emphasis on clinical products and has additional experience in legal, commercial and regulatory pathways. Karin obtained her PhD in molecular biology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, followed by three years of post-doctoral research in genetics at the University of Cambridge.

Alette is currently the Worldwide Head of Business Development for the Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic (CRM) Franchise at Novartis Pharma. In this capacity, she has helped transform the CRM portfolio into one of the most innovative and attractive growth engines within Novartis and in the industry. Her participation in the successful acquisition of The Medicines Company (MedCo), coupled with strong capabilities in navigating change management, have resulted in her leadership role for the global integration of MedCo within Novartis Pharma. Alette was previously with MSD/Merck & Co and UCB Pharma, where she created the BD&L department, set strategic direction, built a solid team and established governance processes. She has spearheaded numerous amount of creative and strategic deals across multiple therapy areas during her career, ranging from traditional in/out-licensing, divestments, NewCo spin-outs, equity investments, risk-sharing/project financing approaches, to major company acquisitions. She has trained as a pharmacist, successfully commercialized a newly approved compound, and solidified her R&D expertise during her tenure at PPD, one of the world’s largest CRO’s. This broad experience enables her to synthesize and translate a large range of disciplines, formulate strategic imperatives, manage executive stakeholders with the ultimate objective to serve the life science community and impact patient lives.

Neil was previously Senior Vice-President, Discovery, at UCB S.A., overseeing an integrated portfolio of small molecule and antibody therapeutic projects in the areas of immunology and neurology. Neil and his teams have been responsible for transitioning 33 new chemical entities into development in immunology, oncology, bone and neurology.

Neil was one of the inventors of the drug Cimzia®, a novel pegylated anti-TNF. Prior to his role at UCB, Neil was Head of Discovery at Celltech R&D in the UK, during which time he was involved in the discovery and development of antibody and antibody fragment-based drugs including the first dual signalling domain chimeric receptor now known as second generation CAR-T.

Neil received a BSc in Biology from Edinburgh University and a PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Kent at Canterbury studying metabolic flux through amino acid biosynthesis pathways. Neil served as chair of the board of Beryllium BioSciences and is a non-exec member of the boards of the RNA Medicines company and Ondek. Neil chaired the UK ABPI innovation board from 2012 to 2018.

Tim leads the healthcare and education sectors at Synova Capital, which focuses on supporting UK-headquartered companies, typically valued between £15m and £100m, to realise their growth ambitions both in the UK and internationally.

Tim currently sits on the boards of Charnwood Molecular (a leading provider of outsourced drug discovery services), Preventx (The UK’s largest provider of online-led sexual health testing and diagnostic services), Clyde Munro (Scotland’s largest group of dental practices), Oakland (a provider of premium private pay elderly care focused on South East England) and Chatsworth Schools (an independent schools group focused on providing high quality education from nursery through to secondary levels).

Prior to joining Synova, Tim was a partner and head of healthcare and education at Phoenix Equity Partners and previously spent several years advising and supporting companies whilst working for Close Brothers Corporate Finance and for PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Tim’s healthcare experience covers a broad range of subsectors, across the spectrum of life sciences, social care, healthcare services and wellbeing.

Over her career, Emma has worked with many of the leading European and international private equity houses and their investee companies on a wide range of leveraged buy-outs and related transactions. Emma also has specific life sciences and healthcare sector experience, having acted for several generic pharmaceutical companies on both buy-side and sell-side transactions.

Emma was listed in The Lawyer's Hot 100 for 2018, and in Legal Business' feature on female deal stars in the City. Her team's buy-out expertise was recently recognised when they were named Private Equity Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards.

Simone serves as Vice President and Editor in Chief of BioCentury, bringing experience from both industry and academia in translational science, where she focused for over 15 years on the scientific, commercial and strategic considerations for advancing laboratory discoveries to products for patients.

Since joining BioCentury in 2013, Simone has written and edited on innovation from idea to patient, most recently serving as Executive Editor. Previously, she was a director of translational research at Nektar Therapeutics and a senior managing consultant at Exponent Inc., where she specialized in projects for the biopharma industry. Simone serves as an adviser on multiple university translational programs, including initiatives at the University of California and Stanford University. Simone is also active in programs to advance women's careers; she is a board member of Women In Bio and served as its President in 2013-14.
Simone is a Fulbright scholar and performed a post-doc at the University of California San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and an M.A. and B.A. in Pharmacology from Cambridge University.

Roger has over over 20 years of senior business leadership experience in the pharmaceuticals, chemicals and public/private partnerships (ICI, Johnson Matthey and IBioIC), and has been based in UK, USA, Germany and Australia as well as working extensively in China, India and Europe.

Roger is graduate of the University of South Wales with a first class degree in Chemical Engineering. He is a guest lecturer at Heriot Watt University and Chaired and sat on the boards of numerous Government, industrial, academic and learned institutions.

Eric Olson, VP, Head of Business Development of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has led or supported more than $11.5 billion in both buy-side and sell-side aggregate transaction value. Prior to his joining Alnylam in October 2019, Eric was VP, Head of Rare Disease and Immunology Global Business Development at Takeda as a result of Takeda’s acquisition of Shire plc. Eric joined Shire Corporate Development in 2017 initially as Head of Ophthalmology Transactions and then also assumed Head of Internal Medicine transactions in 2018.

Prior to Shire, Eric was a Sr. Director, Corporate Development at AGTC, a biotechnology company developing gene therapies for rare ocular and central nervous system disorders. Eric began his biotech industry career in 2008 at Genzyme Corporation where he held various roles of increasing responsibility in business development, corporate development, corporate venture capital, global marketing, and new product planning. Eric was also an Associate and Analyst at an investment banking boutique firm headquartered in New York City.

Eric holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia, an MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from New York University, and a BA in biology from Connecticut College.

David has over 30 years of experience in private equity and investment banking. He has advised on a wide range of companies and at Apposite, he serves or has served on the Boards of MC Care Holdings, NIMGenetics, Swanton Care, CancerPartnersUK, Ulthera, Zonare and Xthetix. Prior to co-founding Apposite in 2006, David worked on a number of large leveraged buy-outs with Nomura’s Principal Finance Group. He then founded and headed Nomura International’s healthcare investment and corporate finance groups. David has been the CEO of a number of companies, including CLF Municipal Bank, an authorised bank. David is very involved in the UK healthcare industry, having served as a member of the UK government’s Health Reform Group looking at reforms to the provision of healthcare to NHS patients and on the London Health Commission. David has a degree in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Qionger He, PhD, is Head of Pharma for the Department of International Trade, British Consulate Shanghai. She is a former senior scientist at GSK Neurodegeneration DPU. Qionger received her Neuroscience and Pharmacology PhD from UCL and was the recipient of the D.H. Jenkinson and H.O. Schild Prize for Pharmacology. She completed her postdoc at University of Chicago and was Senior Research Associate at Northwestern where she led FRAXA Foundation research. She has more than 10 publications, including papers in Nature Communications and Scientific Reports. She is also the Mandarin translator of the international bestseller End of Alzheimer’s.

Shaun Grady is Senior Vice-President Business Development Operations, leading AstraZeneca’s transaction execution, due diligence and Alliance and Integration Management function.
This includes late-stage as well as on-market licensing and partnering, M&A, and divestments.

His career background includes roles at ICI, Zeneca, and AstraZeneca in Corporate, Pharmaceuticals and US Legal departments, HR and Business Development.

Shaun has worked on major projects including the AstraZeneca merger, creation of Avecia and Syngenta, acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), MedImmune and Amylin, and the spin out of Albireo.

Patrik is founder and CEO of Venture Valuation AG, Switzerland. He started the company in 1999 when he noticed a need for independent valuation services in high growth industries during a collaboration with Novartis Venture Fund, which became his first client. Since then he has been involved in over 450 valuations for investors as well as biotech, Pharma and medtech companies. Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen and completed his Ph.D thesis (”Assessment and valuation of high growth companies”) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL Lausanne. Patrik was a board member and one of the original founders of Ineo, a holding company of the Swiss dental implant VC-backed firm Thommen Medical and also the Chairman of Ophthalmopharma, a Swiss based biotech ophthalmology company, where he successfully out-licensed a portfolio of 4 products. Furthermore, Patrik was member of the board of Aventron AG (AVEN:Berne) a publicly quoted cleantech company, which raised over USD 160m during his time as board member. Patrik’s articles have been published in a number of scientific journals including “Nature Biotechnology”, “Chimia” and other business publications (“Starting a Business in the Life Sciences: From Idea to Market” and “Building Biotechnology: Starting, Managing, and Understanding Biotechnology Companies”). He has also lectured at Seoul National University, South Korea, EPFL Lausanne, University of St. Gallen and gives regular workshops on valuation.

Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.

Dr. McMurry-Heath is a long-time advocate for innovation, science and patients. She has served in senior leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson since 2014. Most recently, as Vice President of External Innovation and Global Leader for Regulatory Science, she led 900 employees charting the evidence generation and regulatory strategy across J&J’s medical device companies, using cutting-edge tools and innovative methods to bring breakthroughs to patients.

Michelle, a Harvard-educated former senior FDA science official, is a physician and molecular immunologist who became the first African-American to graduate from Duke’s Medical Scientist Training Program. She served as the founding director of the Aspen Institute’s Health Biomedical Science and Society Policy Program, broadening access to personalized medicine and bolstering international preparedness for pandemic disease threats.

Michelle served as a science and technology policy fellow at the AAAS, and served as lead health and science policy for Senator Joe Lieberman, drafting legislation to protect the US from biological attacks. Additionally, she oversaw health policy for the Senator’s 2004 presidential campaign. Michelle sharpened her science policy skills as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar and as the Macarthur Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Bahija Jallal is Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Board of Immunocore, a pioneering, clinical-stage T cell receptor biotechnology company working to develop and commercialize a new generation of transformative medicines to address unmet needs in cancer, infection and autoimmune disease.

Prior to taking the helm at Immunocore in January 2019, Bahija was President of MedImmune, the global biologics research and development unit of AstraZeneca. She was also Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca and was a member of its senior executive team reporting to the CEO. Dr. Jallal joined MedImmune in March 2006. Under her leadership, MedImmune/AstraZeneca developed and launched five new biologic medicines in three therapeutic areas.

Dr. Jallal serves on the Boards of Anthem, Inc. and Guardant Health. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Johns Hopkins University and the Board of Directors of the University of Maryland Health Sciences Research Park Corporation.

Dr. Jallal has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and has more than 15 patents. She is a member of the Women in Cancer Research Council of the American Association of Cancer Research; and the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She is the past President of the Association of Women in Science. Dr. Jallal was named the 2017 Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Mark is a stem cell biologist and neurosurgeon at the University of Cambridge. By combining synthetic and stem cell biology, his team has developed a benchmark technology for the efficient and consistent production of human cells for use in research, drug development, and cell therapy. He is the founder of Bit Bio and co-founder of the cultured meat startup Meatable.

Bibhash is a Principal at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), where he focuses on investing in emerging therapeutics and device companies, assisting them grow and create value. Previously, he was at AstraZeneca / MedImmune as an Associate Director of Business Development, where his responsibilities spanned end-to-end in the deal-making spectrum, from search and evaluation to transactions, with focus on the immune-oncology and immunology spaces. He started his career at Johnson and Johnson, where he held multiple Business Development roles, at different times, in Global Surgery, Oncology and Emerging Technologies. Bibhash’s doctoral research work focused on pathophysiology of retinal diseases using tools of cell biology and mathematical modeling, during which he also consulted for venture funds and start-ups.

Josh Resnick is a Managing Director at RA Capital Management. Josh’s primary responsibility at RA Capital is to lead early-stage private investments in and oversee the creation of new companies developing drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and research tools. Josh holds a BA in Chemistry from Williams College, an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He has more than 15 years of experience in investing, company formation, and company leadership across all stages of drug development, from discovery through commercialization.

Josh was previously co-lead of SV Health Investors’ US Biotech practice where he was responsible for SV’s US venture creation activities, including its incubator, Brahma Discovery. Before SV, Josh was President and Managing Partner at MRL Ventures Fund, the early-stage therapeutics-focused corporate venture fund within Merck & Co. Prior to MRL Ventures, Josh was a Venture Partner with Atlas Venture and a Partner at Prism Venture Partners, focusing on company formation and seed and Series A investing. Josh is currently a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and continues to practice medicine as an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Melanie is an experienced biopharmaceutical industry analyst, reporter & commentator following strategic, commercial and scientific issues affecting the sector. She is a regular contributor to Nature Biotechnology, Informa Business Intelligence (IN VIVO, Datamonitor, Scrip) and EY Life Sciences, and provides specialist & feature coverage and consulting across market access, pricing, outcomes-based care, precision medicine, digital health, AI, R&D strategies and consumer empowerment for a range of clients in biopharma and investment community. She previously taught European pricing and market access module at Wharton Business School's Pharmaceutical Executive course in Philadelphia, PA.

Daniel Glazer is an American technology lawyer, strategic business advisor, and the founding partner of WSGR’s London office. Since the launch of the UK Government's "Tech City" initiative, Dan has advised high-growth UK and European tech and life sciences companies on raising capital, expanding into the US, and connecting with US stakeholders through their US life cycle: US launch, expansion, commercial contracts, fundraising, M&A, and IPO.

Dan works with GBx, Tech Nation, Disruptive GC Network, Silicon Valley Comes to the UK, Mayor of London's International Business Programme, US Commercial Service, UK Department of International Trade, London Stock Exchange ELITE, Scottish Development International, and similar organizations to support US expansion and fundraising by UK companies.

Dan is a Fellow at Tech Nation, the British-American Project, and the Royal Society of Arts, was appointed a GlobalScot trade advisor by the Scottish Government, and worked with the US Department of Commerce to develop its SelectUSA Tech program supporting non-US tech companies with US expansion.

Dan was honoured as The American Lawyer's "Transatlantic Innovator of the Year" and by UK Tech News as one of London's top "International Connectors." Chambers USA cited Dan for his "very deep level of experience" and his "practical advice" supporting non-US companies on US matters.

Julian has spent more than 25 years in biologics product development with specific expertise in viral and non-viral gene therapy, antibody and recombinant vaccine products. He has held numerous manufacturing and commercial senior management positions and joined NightstaRx from Cobra Biologics where he served as Commercial Director. Reporting to the CEO has was responsible for the international business development & sales team as well as managing project management and commercial technical support teams. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President of Development at Renovo plc where he was responsible for drug development and outsourcing. He previously worked at Cobra Biologics’ Keele facility for 11 years progressing from Senior Scientist to Director of Production. He has also held positions at the National Institute for Medical Research, Bio Products Laboratory Ltd and AstraZeneca.

He holds an Honours Degree in Biochemistry from University College London and went on to obtain an MSc at The University College of North Wales.

Kevin Lee, Ph.D., MBA, is chief executive officer of Bicycle Therapeutics.
Kevin joined Bicycle Therapeutics from Pfizer, where he served as senior vice president and chief scientific officer of the Rare Disease Research Unit. In that role, he held responsibility for more than 20 novel programmes across the full spectrum of research and development, established Pfizer’s rare disease strategy, conceptualized and implemented the company’s gene therapy strategy with the creation of the Genetic Medicine Institute and founded the Rare Disease Research Consortium. Prior to joining Pfizer, Kevin worked at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and, in addition to leading the formation of multiple strategic commercial and academic partnerships, he led epigenetics research and was responsible for the creation of the EpiNova Discovery Performance Unit. Before joining GSK, he lectured at Warwick University Medical School and founded Cambridge Biotechnology (acquired by Biovitrum) and Neurosolutions.

Kevin studied pharmaceutical sciences at Nottingham University followed by a Ph.D. in pharmacology at Cambridge University. He undertook postdoctoral training as a Wellcome Trust International Prize Fellow before joining the Parke Davis Research Unit in Cambridge, U.K. Kevin is an author on over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, has an MBA from Warwick Business School and has been awarded an honorary Chair in Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Warwick.

Matthew J. Meyer is chief client corporate development advisor in the life sciences practice of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Based in San Francisco, Matthew leads the firm's life science business advisory practice—a newly formed, innovative resource aimed at providing start-up and emerging life sciences companies with business insights, capabilities, and strategies to help them thrive and address some of their most challenging issues.

Matthew is an experienced executive and attorney who has held diverse roles of increasing responsibility across a wide range of private and public biopharma, medtech, and precision medicine companies from start-ups to Fortune 50 in the US and Europe, including Pfizer, Novartis, and CareDx. His leadership capabilities include delivery of strong commercial results, structuring and executing partnering transactions across the product life cycle, raising debt and equity capital in the private and public markets, and working with founders, management teams, and boards to address complex business issues to support rapid growth.
Prior to joining WSGR, Matthew was managing director of Allwell Life Science Advisors, a boutique life science advisory firm focused on biotech start-ups and emerging growth companies. Previously, he was senior vice president of corporate development at Counsyl, a venture and private equity-backed personalized medicine company that was acquired by Myriad Genetics in 2018.

Autumn Waska is Vice Consul, Trade and Investment Officer, based in Houston, TX. She leads activity for the UK’s Department For International Trade in Life Sciences and Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing sectors in Texas and surrounding States.

To support UK Life Science companies, Autumn launched a strategic relationship with the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical campus. The partnership, known as the UK TMC BioBridge, facilitates entry into the US market by highlighting UK strengths in local markets.

Autumn started working for the UK’s Department for International Trade in 2015. Prior to her role with International Business, Autumn founded and built a logistics company, which focused predominantly on service the oil and gas industry. She graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in marketing communications before earning her MBA at Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. She also holds a Masters in Clinical Translation Management from the University of St. Thomas.

Véronique is the CMO of PrecisionLife Ltd, an AI enabled precision medicine company, with over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech and digital health sectors.

She is a former Director of Corporate Strategy and Head of Venture Strategy at AstraZeneca, where she was responsible for global corporate venturing activities, including the creation and $40M financing of the company’s first spinout, Albireo Pharma. She has also held posts in clinical research, licensing, M&A, venture capital and the NHS. This varied experience has given her an in-depth understanding of what is required to translate cutting edge science into commercial reality. Véronique is the Senior Independent Director of International Biotechnology Trust plc. and of the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

She is a member of Oxford University's Expert Panel supporting The Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) scheme, and also sits on the Advisory Board of QMUL School of Business and Management. She was recognised as one of 50 Movers and Shakers challenging the status quo to bring better health in BioBusiness 2019.

Having gained a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Cambridge, Milly subsequently stepped into the world of commercial strategy, which she now leads at Exscientia. Prior to that, she spent time as a Director at Huron Management Consulting and as a Consultant in Global Pricing and Market Access for Evidera, a leading global contract research organisation within pharmaceutical product development.

Steve is a serial technology entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience developing and commercializing ground-breaking data science and informatics in the healthcare, life sciences and agri-food sectors.

Never afraid to innovate, Steve has an established track record in building world-class companies, teams and products working at senior levels in the UK, EU and US for Fortune 500 and start-up companies. He is a former Global Director of Research Informatics for Astra A/B and has consulted with drug discovery and safety teams in over 20 biopharma companies. Steve has held CxO positions and led teams in several international businesses, supplying innovative computational biology, chemistry and semantic data integration tools. He was involved in Oxford Molecular’s IPO and the acquisition and integration of 11 companies. He is an Advisory Council member for Breast Cancer Now and UKCRC.

Duncan is a clinical geneticist and early drug development expert. He co-founded Weatherden after six years as VP and Head of Global Exploratory Development at UCB.

He trained in General Adult Medicine and obtained a PhD in genetics, afterwards spending more than 17 years focusing on pharmacogenetics, early development and personalised medicine as VP for Personalised Healthcare and Biomarkers at AstraZeneca, and European Head of Clinical Pharmacogenetics at Pfizer.

Duncan was Visiting Professor in Clinical and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, Chair of the MRC’s Stratified Medicine Governance Committee, and previously sat on the UK Department of Health’s Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Board.

Jane Reed is Director Life Science at Linguamatics, an IQVIA company. She is responsible for developing the strategic vision for Linguamatics’ product portfolio and business development for the pharma and biotech market. Jane has extensive experience in life sciences informatics. She has worked for more than 20 years in vendor companies supplying data products, data integration and analysis and consultancy to pharma and biotech - with roles at Instem, BioWisdom, Incyte, and Hexagen. Before moving into the life science industry, Jane worked in academia with post-doctoral positions in genetics and genomics research.

Emma is a chemistry graduate and chartered accountant with experience across the life sciences, consulting, venture capital and private equity industries. She brings a strong record in leadership, strategy, ideation and company creation and is an advocate for the biotech industry, advising multiple small companies pro bono and serving on a committee of the UK Bioindustry Association. She began her career at KPMG in the life sciences audit team before moving into technical accounting advisory. She joined Weatherden as CFO from SV Health Investors in 2017 and was appointed CEO in 2020. 

During her time at Weatherden, Emma has grown the team from 5 to 25 and is regularly engaged by clients to support their strategy and financing, focusing on maximising value through pre-seed to Series A. She is highly motivated by Weatherden’s mission of delivering value and de-risking drug development and is leading the company’s expansion into new service areas, integrating cutting edge technologies and innovative approaches based on the experience of the team.

Jason is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and co-founder of Start Codon, a Cambridge based accelerator, he aims to identify and recruit the most disruptive healthcare startups worldwide, seed fund them and leverage the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster to de-risk and drive their success. Previously he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix and Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division. He also served as an associate at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office of the University of Cambridge.

Steve Bates has been the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association since 2012. He currently chairs the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a Board member of Europabio since 2015. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He sits on the UK’s Life Sciences Council and Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Steve has championed with government effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Cataylst which have crowded-in private sector investment into UK SMES. He has forged links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before the BIA, Steve worked for Genzyme and as an advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017.