Experts

Lilian Alcaraz

Senior Director, New Ventures and Transactions lead for Neuroscience, at Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Lilian is Senior Director, New Ventures and Transactions lead for Neuroscience, at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. He has experience in transacting across a range of collaboration and licensing opportunities, form small molecules and antibodies, technologies, multiparty consortium agreements to digital health.  

Lilian has over 20 years’ experience in Drug Discovery gained through working in both large pharma (AstraZeneca) and CRO (Galapagos/Charles River) environments.

Lilian received his postgraduate degree in Molecular and Supramolecular Organic Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Louis Pasteur University. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of York. Over the years, he has been involved in the successful delivery of nine clinical candidates, some of which are still in clinical evaluation. Lilian is the author and co-author of 78 publications and patents, and of a book on Medicinal Chemistry.  

Jelena Aleksic

CBO, PharmEnable

Jelena is a geneticist and serial entrepreneur, passionate about the potential of biotechnology to improve patients' lives. She is co-founder and CBO of PharmEnable, a drug discovery company using proprietary AI and advanced medicinal chemistry to develop the next generation of small molecule drugs for challenging disease areas.

She provides business mentorship for a number of UK startup accelerators, and has been involved for years in programs supporting female entrepreneurs. She is also the director of a life sciences consultancy, SparkBio Ltd.

She is the former CEO and co-founder of GeneAdviser, an online ordering platform for genomic medicine now owned by the UK NHS.

She is a trustee of the charity TReND in Africa, which focuses on scientific capacity building across the African continent.

Jim Allpress

Associate Director, External Innovation, Eisai

Jim is Associate Director, External Innovation at Eisai with more than 20 years’ experience in various roles within the biotech/pharmaceutic industry. Jim started his career in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry at Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), supporting the technology transfer process for the CAT phage display technology. CAT later became MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, where he took on roles in project and portfolio management. In his current role Jim supports the external innovation process for Eisai, based at the companies EMEA headquarters in Hatfield. The research group at Hatfield is focused on neuroscience drug discovery and the external innovation group supports both the Hatfield Research Laboratories and the wider global Eisai research group through a variety of collaborative models, involving both biotech and academia.

Charli Batley

Director of Operations, PhoreMost Ltd

Having completed my PhD in Biochemistry at Reading, I very quickly decided that research was not for me. I became a sales rep, where I met Chris Torrance just after he had started Horizon Discovery. I worked for free for two weeks to demonstrate my entrepreneurial credentials, then he took me on – first as Lab Manager, then QC Team Leader, then Purchasing Manager then Group Purchasing Manager when the company went global. To keep my brain going, I also dabbled in Innovate and EU Grant applications and administration, running 5 FP7 and 2 Innovate simultaneously and passing a dreaded EU audit with flying colours. As employee 3 in a log-growth company, I was lucky enough to be exposed to all areas of start-up life – and I was hooked!

In 2015 I left Horizon for another Torrance Start-up, PhoreMost – where I have been Operations Director. I am hoping to advise my mentees in all areas of Operations including the post funding admin stages e.g. EIS/EMI, also HR, accounting, project management - as well as helping them with grant applications and administration.

Rachel Bradley

Partner in the commercial, IP and IT team, Penningtons Manches Cooper

Rachel is a partner in the commercial, IP and IT team at Penningtons Manches Cooper, with a particular specialism in advising on IP and commercial issues in the life sciences sector. Rachel advises on all manner of IP related agreements, such as master services agreements, clinical trial agreements, patent licences, manufacturing agreements and more. She has over 19 years’ experience, having worked as an associate in a technology and commerce team at another leading law firm and as corporate counsel for a pharmaceutical company before joining the firm in 2015. Rachel is a regular speaker at conferences andseminars, in particular at events focused on the life sciences industry.

Paul Bourne

Communication Coach, Menagerie Theatre Company

Paul is a Pitch and Communication Coach at Menagerie Theatre Company who brings the X-factor of insights and knowledge around performance and storytelling from his experience as a professional Theatre Director. When not producing and directing plays, Paul teaches as a “Fellow in Entrepreneurship and Creative Processes” at the Judge Business School. Meanwhile… back in the ‘start-up world’, he coaches ventures to ‘tell effective stories for investment and engagement’, as Storyteller-in-Residence for Carbon13 Venture Builder (ClimateTech), and as Pitch Coach and Storyteller at The Wyss Institute @Harvard University and ETH Zurich (Bio-Medical).

Sarah Brereton

Director, Limewash

Limewash is a strategic marketing agency that helps clients understand their customers, propositions and processes better, before working with them to develop the right mix of communications to deliver value from their marketing spend. We do this with the help of our talented in-house creative team.

We work with a range of medium to large customers across a variety of industry sectors including life sciences and healthcare, financial services and commercial property - locally, nationally and internationally.

Prior to founding Limewash in 2008, I spent 15 years working in marketing strategy within the pharmaceutical, biotech and telecommunications industries formulating, implementing, communicating and measuring the effectiveness of marketing and PR campaigns across a number of target audiences with local, regional and global reach. It was during this time that I wished for an agency that truly understood our business objectives and the customers we were trying to communicate with. An agency that was focused on delivering solutions that provided value for money. Limewash is now that agency.

Kieran Coffey

Bridge Partners

In the last eleven years, Kieran has worked in partnership with many pioneering biotech clients, guiding and managing their IT systems and strategy through their exciting early years of growth. This has offered him the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse group of leadership teams, to provide strategic guidance and develop IT solutions that contribute towards clients achieving their business objectives.

Ann Connolly

A-Squared Consulting

Ann has over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry including roles at GSK and most recently J&J Innovation. She spent the latter part of her pharma career in business development, working to forge industry collaborations with biotechs and academic partners. She founded A-Squared Consulting in 2023 to support the biotech/academic ecosystem navigate the complexities of interacting with the pharma industry and provides strategic and business advice on collaborations/licensing deals etc. Ann also has extensive experience in preclinical development and was involved in progressing many R&D programmes across multiple therapeutic sectors for SmithKline Beecham/GSK. Ann studied for a Masters degree in Biochemical Pharmacology at Southampton University and holds a PhD in Toxicology from the University of Surrey

Jane Dancer

Independent Adviser

Jane has over 30 years’ experience in the life science industry across biotech, pharma and agrochemicals. She serves on the boards of Spirea, PharmEnable, Macomics and Nanosyrinx and is the Chair of the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust. Her past roles include Chief Business Officer at F-star, Vice President of Business Development at Cellzome, and Director of Business Development at MedImmune (formerly Cambridge Antibody Technologies). The first part of her career was spent in the agrochemical industry in research and project management.

Jane holds an MA and PhD in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, as well as an MBA from the Cambridge Judge Business School.

Oli Denne

Senior Associate, Taylor Wessing

Oli advises a range of companies in the tech and life sciences sectors on a variety of corporate matters, including venture capital investments, fundraisings, M&A and joint ventures. He has worked with many of the leading companies in Cambridge, from their inception or spin-out through to the larger fundraises.

Sam Dods

Sam Dods is a co-founder and COO of Triple Chasm.

He has over 30 years’ experience in starting, growing, selling and integrating companies ranging from a small start-up to a Euronext Amsterdam listed, €2+ Billion multinational. Former Technical Director, Managing Director and Head of Organisational Development, Sam is a values-driven leader who has lived and worked in 4 continents and developed a profound awareness of the importance of psychodynamics in today’s workplace.

Cassie Doherty

Investment Director, Parkwalk Advisors

Cassie is an Investment Director with Parkwalk Advisors specialising in Healthcare and Life Sciences.

Cassie joined Parkwalk Advisors in June 2019, a fund whose focus is investing in University spin out companies. Prior to this, from 2008 she worked at IP Group Plc as an Investor in their Life Sciences team. She has strong experience of investment rounds, company strategy, operations and governance. Cassie sits on several company Boards, including Ikarovec Ltd and MoA Technology Ltd. Cassie is also a Trustee for the Leeds Hospitals Charity.

In her early career Cassie had hands on experience of technology commercialisation. She worked for a start-up that took drugs developed during her PhD into Phase II clinical trials.

Catherine Elton

Co-founder, Qkine 

Catherine co-founded Qkine in 2016, whilst completing a Daphne Jackson fellowship at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Previously Catherine graduated from King’s College, University of Cambridge and received a PhD in Biochemistry from Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. In 2003, she joined Abcam where she was a member of the senior management team responsible for R&D and antibody manufacture. Following a career break, she returned to academic research in 2015 as a Daphne Jackson fellow. As co-founder of Qkine, Catherine is committed to improving bioactive protein quality, innovation, and reliability to develop exceptionally high-purity products that tackle fundamental biological and scale-up challenges for the fast-growing stem cell, organoid, regenerative medicine, and cellular agriculture sectors; areas she believes underpin future advances in human health and wellbeing.

Dr Sally-Ann Emmas

Lead Scientist, Medicines Discovery Catapult

Sally-Ann has a passion for supporting life science innovation and joined the Medicines Discovery Catapult in 2021 to help SMEs identify opportunities, optimise resources and de-risk their programmes.

Sally-Ann has over 25 years’ experience in the life science sector across pharma, diagnostics, and animal health. She has in depth expertise in preclinical development across different disciplines and disease areas, with a focus on translational research and clinical line of sight. Her past roles include Project Leader at GE Healthcare, Director at AstraZeneca and Head of Research and Development at a SME.

Laura Ferguson

Associate Director, AstraZeneca

Laura is passionate about supporting life science innovation and connecting the early innovation ecosystem. She has a background in academia through her degrees in Biology from Oxford, cancer stem cells from Bristol, molecular evolutionary genetics from Cambridge, and a Fellowship in molecular genetics and genomics from Christ Church Oxford. She has experience in entrepreneurship and finance through her roles setting up the UK operation of an equity crowdfunding platform specialised in life sciences, and new company creation and financing in the Seed Funds team at Cambridge Enterprise. Laura has now joined industry as part of the Partnering and Strategy team at AstraZeneca, where she is supporting external innovation activities with particular responsibility for respiratory, digital, and ecosystem collaborations. She is also the proud mum of three rather active boys who, as complete strangers often like to point out, ‘keep her on her toes’.

Barbara Fleck

Partner, European and UK Patent Attorney, Appleyard Lees

Barbara has over 20 years’ experience in the legal profession, including as Head of IP at Babraham based Crescendo Biologics Ltd. Her in-house experience enables her to provide clear, commercially relevant advice to her clients, particularly on integrating IP into business strategy. Barbara works closely with many small biotech companies in the Cambridge ecosystem, helping them to build a robust IP strategy and get investment ready.

Jeremy Griggs

Business Development Director, Europe, GSK

Jeremy is a Senior Director in GSK R&D's Worldwide Business Development Team, with a focus on identifying and evaluating innovative emerging science, drugs and technologies aligned with GSK's R&D strategy.

Jeremy is a biologist by training and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. He has extensive knowledge of the drug discovery process, drawn from over fifteen years of post-doctoral experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has a broad-ranging professional network within Industry and Academia.

Beyond his GSK role, Jeremy is an appointed Expert-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, providing advice and industrial perspectives to academics interested in translating their discoveries into new medicines. He also lectures periodically at Cambridge on Oncology Therapeutics and Drug Discovery and serves on the Council of Governors of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Andy Gosden

Interim HR Consultant

Andy is an interim HR Consultant with many years of experience of leading HR activities in big pharma as well as mid-size, small and start-up biotechs. He has had specific responsibility for, and been involved in, multiple areas of HR including recruitment, learning & development, coaching, talent management, culture identity and development, compensation programmes, implementation of HR systems, organisational design, employee relations and benefits programme design and roll-out.

Alex Gould

Managing Director, Long Story Short

With over 15+ years of experience, Alex is an expert at transforming technical companies and solutions into unforgettable brand narratives and initiatives. He’s partnered with industry giants like MIT, GlaxoSmithKline, and Google, spearheading creative campaigns that don’t just catch attention—but capture hearts and drive results. Whether it’s simplifying the complex or driving fundraising, Alex knows how to turn ideas into action and deliver the kind of impact that fuels growth and success.

Bradley Hardiman

Business Development team, Astellas Pharmaceuticals

Bradley started his career in large pharma, conducting basic research in drug discovery. He has since amassed over 20 years’ experience in technology transfer, business development and venture capital investment. He spent seven and a half years within the Seed Funds team at Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge. Here he assessed, helped create, and invested in, a number of spin-outs founded on University research. These spin-outs spanned numerous areas including therapeutics (including small molecules, biologics and gene therapy), diagnostics & prognostics, medical devices, scientific instrumentation, reagents and digital health. He is currently within the Business Development team at Astellas Pharmaceuticals. His main duty in this role is as part of Astellas’ corporate venture arm, AVM, investing in early-stage companies of interest to Astellas.

Sally Hope

Director and Managing Partner, PIR International

Based in Cambridge, UK, Sally is a Director and Managing Partner of PIR International. With over 20 years’ experience in life sciences executive search and interim management, Sally partners with an exciting range of clients, including investors and their portfolio companies, at the leading edge of innovative science, therapeutics, and medical technology. Sally has a track record of delivering global searches and interim solutions for life science organisations appointing great leaders at C-suite, Board and Executive level. Her knowledge, energy and collaborative approach deliver exceptional results and value for all stakeholders; resulting in a loyal and committed client following. Sally’s vision for PIR’s future is clear; to be a trusted partner of choice for early-stage life science companies seeking to hire outstanding senior leadership to deliver the growth milestones of the Board and investors.

Anne Horgan

Anne Horgan is an investor focusing on biotech and biopharma financing.

Prior to joining CIC, Anne was a Partner at Advent France Biotechnology (now AdBio Partners), a Paris-based venture capital firm specialising in Life Sciences seed investments, and Senior Associate at Sofinnova Partners. Anne brings over 20 years’ experience, acquired as Business Development Executive at Cancer Research Technology and Senior Medicinal Chemist at Cambridge Biotechnology (now part of Benevolent AI). Anne’s experience includes equity financing (mostly seed and series A), technology transfer and scouting, business development and biotech R&D. Anne carried out postdoctoral research at Yale University after her PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Bristol. She holds a diplôme d’ingénieur (Chemistry) from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen, authored several peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor on eight patent families.

Jackie Hunter

Chief Executive Clinical Programmes & Strategic Partnerships, Benevolent AI

Jackie Hunter is currently a Board Director of BenevolentAI, a UK unicorn company that uses artificial intelligence to disrupt the drug discovery and development process. She has held numerous senior leadership positions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and innovation industries, working for a number of companies including SmithKline Beecham, GSK, Proximagen and latterly OI Pharma Partners, which she founded in 2010. Jackie served as CEO of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council between 2013 and 2016. She is also a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences. For her services to the pharmaceutical industry, she was awarded a CBE in 2010 Birthday Honours and the 2010 Women of Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology Award for Discovery, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Biomedical Advisory Board member for A* Singapore and a non-Executive Director of the UK Bioindustry Association.

Steve Jackson

University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK Professor of Biology, and Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the Gurdon Institute

Steve Jackson FRS, FMedSci is University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK Professor of Biology, and Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the Gurdon Institute. His research (publication h-index 128, citations >71,000; Google Scholar) has identified key principles by which cells respond to and repair DNA damage, and helped define how their dysfunction yields cancer and other age-related diseases. Steve is a fellow of the Royal Society and has received many prizes, including the 2015 Gagna and van Heck Prize for Medicine, the 2016 King Faisal International Prize for Science, the 2016 AH. Heineken Prize for Medicine, and the 2019 Fondation ARC Léopold Griffuel Award for Translational and Clinical Research. 

To translate his academic work towards patient benefit, in 1997 Steve founded the drug-discovery company KuDOSPharmaceuticals Ltd., then served as its part-time Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) until and after its acquisition by AstraZeneca. Several KuDOS-derived drugs are in clinical trials, with the most advanced, the PARP inhibitor olaparib/Lynparza^TM, being a marketed drug for ovarian and breast cancers worldwide. In 2010, Steve founded Mission Therapeutics Ltd. (Babraham, Cambridge) to exploit advances in protein ubiquitylation and deubiquitylation to derive new medicines, and until recently served as its part-time CSO. Steve’s science also underpinned the foundation of Carrick Therapeutics Ltd., for which he now serves as a scientific advisor. Steve is a Science Partner of Ahren Innovation Capital, and serves as part-time Chief Executive Officer for Adrestia Therapeutics Ltd., a company that he co-founded in 2018. Steve’s academic laboratory is currently further defining mechanisms of DNA repair and associated processes, with a view to delivering new biological insights and identifying therapeutic opportunities for cancer and various other diseases.

Jens Kieckbusch

Scouting and evaluating early-stage opportunities, AstraZeneca

Jens is responsible for scouting and evaluating early-stage opportunities for AstraZeneca with an impact horizon of 5-10 years and turn them into projects. These activities are often delivered in partnership with start- ups and internal stakeholders and cover all areas of interest for AZ R&D including quantum computing, cell & gene therapy, and new approaches in drug discovery. Before joining AstraZeneca, Jens worked as Partner in Business Development at The Wellcome Trust and led Wellcome’s product development efforts in cholera and vaccine development for other diseases with global health relevance.

Kristina Kordova

Student Investment Partner in the Creator Fund

She is broadly interested in multiomic approaches to discovery and has previously carried out research in human and non-human species. She has previous experience working with start-ups and investments though UCL Innovation and Enterprise, the early-stage investment fund Plug and Play and the Included VC programme.

Allan Marchington

Managing Partner, Bridge Valley Ventures

Allan Marchington is a founder and Managing Partner at Bridge Valley Ventures a UK based Life Science investor which was established by LifeArc of the UK leading medical charities.  Prior to BVV, Allan was formerly a Founding Partner at Apposite Capital and an EIR at Abingworth management. Before Abingworth Allan has a number of  operational roles; as Senior Vice President at Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he served on the senior management team in Cambridge Mass. He also served as Chairman of Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Europe. Allan joined Millennium following their acquisition in July 2000 of UK based company Cambridge Discovery Chemistry, where he was CEO and founder. Allan began his career as a medicinal chemist at Pfizer Central Research.

Allan has served on a number successful company Boards  including the UK BioIndustry Association, Ambit Biosciences Inc., Ambrx Inc., Birdrock Bio Inc., Calchan Ltd and Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Christine Martin

Head of Life Science Investment, Cambridge Enterprise

As Head of Life Science Investment within the Life Sciences team at Cambridge Enterprise (part of the University of Cambridge) Christine focuses on drug discovery and is responsible for a broad portfolio including University of Cambridge spin-outs Carrick, STORM, Z-factor, PhoreMost, Qkine and PolyProX.

Christine previously worked within the Cambridge Enterprise Technology Transfer team, managing the licensing of University intellectual property. Christine was also responsible for the University of Cambridge-GSK open innovation drug discovery initiative based at the Stevenage BioScience Catalyst (SBC), where she worked closely with academics to attract funding for translational projects. Prior to Cambridge Enterprise, she worked at Biotica Technology, a University of Cambridge biotech spin-out, for 11 years. 

Christine has an MA and DPhil from the University of Oxford, has authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and is an inventor on over 20 patents. She was the recipient of the Arthur E. Schwarting award in 2006 and featured in BioBeat’s 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness 2018. Christine joined Cambridge Enterprise in September 2011.

Jolyon Martin

Ross McNaughton

Lead Partner, Taylor Wessing

Ross is a lead partner within the firm's Tier 1-ranked Biotechnology practice of Taylor Wessing in Cambridge. His practice involves helping life sciences and technology companies as they progress through their life cycle in all aspects of their growth, capital raising and international expansion. As a sector specialist, Ross focuses on biotech, medical devices, diagnostics and tools, and digital health within Life Sciences. Ross has extensive experience of a variety of venture and growth financing, public capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions andgeneral corporate advice.

Jason Mellad

CEO and Co-Founder, Start Codon

Jason is a scientist and entrepreneur, passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and Co-Founder of Start Codon, a UK-based accelerator, he aims to discover the most disruptive life science, BioTech and healthcare founders and help them translate their innovations into successful ventures. This is achieved through a combination of seed funding and a bespoke venture- building programme, which taps into the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster as well as the global network and knowledge of Jason and the Start Codon team. Previously, he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix (now Biomodal) and Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division. He also served as an associate for Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office of the University of Cambridge.

Jonathan Milner

CEO, Meltwind Advisory Limited

Jonathan is an experienced entrepreneur and investor who is passionate about supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups.

Jonathan gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath. From 1992–95, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Bath, following which he worked at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Professor Tony Kouzarides researching the molecular basis of breast cancer.

He identified the market opportunity for supplying high-quality antibodies to support protein interaction studies, and in 1998, founded Abcam with David Cleevely and Professor Tony Kouzarides.

Since then Jonathans’ passion for supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. Has seen him provide considerable investment and support to over 30 companies and assist three technology companies to IPO on the London AIM Stock exchange.

Jonathan’s other passion is philanthropy. His projects are focused on education, human health, and conservation.

Tim Minshall

Tim is the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing and Head of the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management.

Since joining the University of Cambridge in 2002, Tim has played a very active role in the development of innovation and technology management activities across the University. He also works closely with companies in the Cambridge cluster, the largest and most successful technology cluster in Europe.  Tim was appointed as Head of the IfM in 2017 and is a member of the board of directors for IfM Education and Consultancy Services Ltd and St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC) at Doshisha University in Japan. He is a member of the IET's Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel, and the UK Made Smarter Commission’s Expert Panel. 

Tim is a Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge, where he is also the Director of Innovation and Engineering Outreach.   He is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and a Royal Academy of Engineering/ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award. He is also actively involved in outreach activities to raise awareness of engineering and manufacturing among primary and secondary school children and their teachers.

Before joining the University, he was a Project Manager at St John's Innovation Centre, where he worked on a series of projects to support industry / academic collaboration focused around new technology ventures. Prior to working at St John's Innovation Centre, he worked as a teacher, consultant, plant engineer and freelance writer in the UK, Australia and Japan. He has B.Eng. from Aston University and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering.

Ryan Mitchell

Senior Associate, UK and European Patent Attorney, Forresters

Ryan regularly advises on all aspects of patent law to ensure his clients have the necessary protection in place to cement their position within the market. His areas of expertise lie in the immunology, gene editing and medical device fields. Ryan particularly enjoys working with early-stage companies to provide cost-effective strategies to build up their IP portfolio whilst also ensuring that any commercial activities are not prohibited by any competitor IP.

Mike Murphy

Portfolio Manager, Meltwind Advisory

Mike is the Portfolio Manager of Meltwind Advisory LLP, the due diligence and portfolio management team for Abcam founder Jonathan Milner. Mike gained his doctorate in Physics at Cambridge University and has since worked for Cambridge start-up companies in engineering, computer science, and biotechnology. He now serves as board director or observer on behalf of Jonathan Milner across a range of life science and biotech startups while managing a portfolio of 70+ investments.

Jo Parfrey

Non-Executive Director, Babraham Research Campus Ltd

Jo Parfrey is an experienced and successful investment professional with more than 10 years in the private equity industry. A qualified accountant, ACA, by training, she has worked in the corporate finance departments of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies. She is a Non Executive Director on Octopus AIM VCT plc and Babraham Research Campus Ltd. She is also a mentor on the Accelerate Program at the Judge Business School, Cambridge. Jo has had significant board exposure, having held a number of non-executive posts. Having been a member of the Investment Committee of a leading private equity house, Jo is experienced in investment appraisal. Skilled in the evaluation of businesses, her strengths include identifying value creation opportunities at both a revenue and profit level. She has supported businesses in growth through investment and cost management, with a wealth of experience of developing business plans and working with businesses to secure appropriate financing. Passionate about growing businesses, Jo has worked closely with entrepreneurs/management teams. She has a wealth of experience of arranging, working with and managing complicated shareholder structures, including a broad range of stakeholder groups. She has a proven track record of working with businesses to drive strategic initiatives and deliver outstanding financial results.  Previous non executive roles include Classic Hospitals Ltd, a group of ten private acute hospitals, IDH, the largest provider of NHS dentistry in the UK, and Verna Care, a manufacturer of infection control products. She has a chemistry degree from Oxford University. 

Scott Parmenter

Managing Associate in the Corporate department, Mishcon de Reya

Scott is a Managing Associate in the Corporate department at Mishcon de Reya, with experience in both transactional and general corporate advisory work, and a focus on venture and growth capital. Scott advises companies/founders on fundraising (from early-stage S/EIS-compliant investments, through to later stage financings), mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, and other corporate transactions. He acts with companies whose interests span a range of industries, with a particular focus on technology (including GreenTech, HealthTech, and EduTech).

Stuart Penney

Director and Senior Partner, PIR International

As a Director and Senior Partner at PIR International, Stuart has over fifteen years of experience in executive search within the international life sciences sector having worked with advanced science, therapeutic and medical technology businesses across Europe and the US. Stuart has a track record of delivering global retained search assignments at Executive and Board level, partnering with Venture Capital and Private Equity funded growth stage businesses pre and post IPO to drive patient centric innovation, in particular during critical stages of international expansion. Stuart is based in Cambridge, UK, and holds a BSc (Hons) in International Business Management from joint studies in Sweden and the UK.

Chris Poole

Co-Founder, Cambridge Partners Ltd

Chris has over 25 years’ experience in finance, holding senior positions at a variety of organisation types mostly ranging from business start-ups through to mid-size. Chris co-founded Cambridge Partners Ltd in 2020, having successfully run his own consulting business for several years. Cambridge Partners provides outsourced financial and strategic support to companies to help them navigate through their start-up and growth phases.

Chris has held numerous CFO positions in venture backed bio-tech and hi-tech companies, undertaking a range of fundraises and steering a number to successful exits. Chris is a qualified Chartered Accountant, having trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cambridge.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys keeping active, most notably through running and playing football.

Uday Phadke

Co-founder and CEO, Triple Chasm.

His career over the last 40 years has spanned three distinct but related areas: commercial businesses enabled by science and technology; academic research and teaching in technology and business; and the design and promotion of national and international innovation initiatives.

Becki Quick

Managing Associate in the Corporate department, Mishcon de Reya.

Becki is a Managing Associate in the Corporate department at Mishcon de Reya, and enjoys supporting companies, founders and the investors behind them at every stage of their growth-cycle. She has particular expertise in complex transactions with a multi-shareholder base, later stage investment work and M&A exit structuring and delivery. A fluent Spanish speaker, prior to joining the firm, Becki supported international technology companies with their global expansion plans whilst based in Latin America.

Jill Reckless

Chief Executive Officer, RxCelerate Ltd

In April 2013, Jill Reckless co-founded RxCelerate Ltd with David Grainger, an out-sourcing drug discovery and development platform, which specialises in providing complete preclinical and clinical development programmes to the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. RxCelerate focuses on delivering the highest quality cutting edge research and development capabilities, at the same time as cutting costs and timelines for client companies of all sizes.

As Chief Executive Officer, Jill provides extensive leadership within the business (currently 38 employees). She offers an insightful strategic vision and manages business development globally. As Chief Scientific Officer, Jill also oversees drug development programmes and clinical trials that are carried out for external clients.

In April 2018, RxCelerate acquired Cambridge based specialist Contract Research Organisation Total Scientific Ltd. In May 2018, RxCelerate further acquired The Cambridge Partnership, which specialises in providing accountancy, company secretarial and IP management to assist in supporting small biotech companies.

Previously, Jill was an academic in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge until December 2011, having completed her PhD at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London. Her research career has been involved in the development of novel anti-inflammatory drugs by investigating the molecular mechanisms responsible for chronic inflammation and disease, both within the University as a Senior Research Associate and as part of Funxional Therapeutics and Epsilon-3 Bio as Head of Biology.

Andy Richards

Andy is an entrepreneur and investor with an established track record in founding and scaling up innovative Biotech and Healthtech companies in the UK. He is currently Chairman of Arecor, Congenica, Abcodia, Closed Loop Medicine and is a Director of Owlstone Medical, Ieso Digital Health, Cancer Research Technology (commercial board of CR-UK) and The Scale Up Institute. He is an advisor to several investment funds including Cambridge Innovation Capital and the UCL Technology Fund and was, until recently, a director of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Andy is a Cambridge Graduate with a PhD in Chemistry and an early career spanning positions with ICI (now AstraZeneca) and PA Technology. He was a founder and executive director of Chiroscience plc until its merger with Celltech in 1999 and since that time he has founded, invested in and helped to scale more than 25 innovative ventures including companies such as Vectura, Arakis, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd and Geneservice. Andy is also a founder member of the Cambridge Angels. He received a CBE for services to life-science investment in 2015.

David Sade

David has worked with DeepTech startups as fractional CFO for over 5 years, helping build companies around technologies ranging from healthcare to AI to clean tech. David's background both as a startup investor and founder give him a unique perspective into how to practically structure companies and processes for strong investability and scaling.

Kai Stoeber

Senior Director, External Innovation Lead, World Without Disease Accelerator / Lung Cancer Initiative

Kai Stoeber is Senior Director, External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Prior to joining J&J Innovation, he was Vice President, Global Innovation at the Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi. He received his MSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Bonn and his PhD from the University of Cambridge. In academia he had successful tenures at Cambridge and UCL where his research focused on cell-cycle control of DNA replication and cell division. He identified new drug targets and cancer biomarkers commercially developed by start-up and biopharmaceutical companies. He is an advocate for open innovation and open science, is experienced in establishing and coordinating private-public partnerships, and has led projects designed to accelerate research towards medical advancements by forging close collaborative academia-industry interactions. In his current role he identifies and evaluates external opportunities, in partnership with the J&J Global External Innovation network, to accelerate the development of an innovative portfolio of projects, assets and solutions in support of disease prevention, interception and cure.

Charlotte Teall

European & UK Patent Attorney, UPC representative - Partner at Forresters

Charlotte has over 15 years of experience in all aspects of patent law in the UK and overseas. She is primarily involved in the drafting and prosecution of UK and European patent applications in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. Charlotte enjoys getting to know her clients and their technologies, breaking down the complexities of intellectual property (IP) and guiding them through their IP strategy to align with their commercial goals. 

Rebecca Todd

Venture Partner, Long Wall Ventures

Rebecca began venture investing in 2006 while at Oxford Capital, where she took responsibility for the Oxford Gateway Funds’ investments into healthcare and life science companies, and went on to become Director, Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations (now Touchstone Innovations).

Her earlier career was as a marketing consultant to pharmaceutical and life science technology companies. Rebecca has a PhD in Genetics from Nottingham University and an MBA from Oxford University.

She joined Longwall Ventures after a couple of years sabbatical break spent exploring South America in a VW camper van and focuses predominantly on medical technology opportunities.

Chris Torrance

Chief Executive Officer, PhoreMost Ltd 

Dr Chris Torrance is a cancer researcher and entrepreneur. In 2007 he founded Horizon Discovery to translate advances in human genome editing into a range of research tools and services to accelerate the discovery of new and improved ‘Personalized Medicines’, including the identification of novel drug targets for pharmaceutical development. By 2014 Dr Torrance and his colleagues had built Horizon into the fastest growing Biotech company in the UK. In the same year, the company listed on the London Stock Exchange with over 100 commercial and scientific staff and significant deal-flow with the pharmaceutical Industry, for which Horizon received the Queens Award for International Trade in 2012.

Previously, Dr Torrance was Head of Oncology and Biology at the UK Biotechnology company Vernalis PLC (LSE: VER), where he was responsible for progressing several novel kinase oncology programs.

Dr Torrance has a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Technology from Sheffield Polytechnic; a PhD in Biochemistry from East Carolina University (U.S.A) and completed Post-Doctoral training in the laboratory of Professor Bert Vogelstein at the Johns Hopkins University (U.S.A), where he pioneered the use of ‘X-MAN’ isogenic disease models in high-throughput screening and drug discovery. 

In 2014, Dr Torrance and Dr Venkitaraman (Cambridge University) founded PhoreMost Ltd to develop a new technology platform solution to the next big issue in delivering Personalized Medicine, which is developing a toolbox of therapies big enough and affordable enough to impact the diverse array of key targets in cancer and other complex diseases, most of which are intractable to current drug discovery technologies.

Adrian Toutoungi

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Adrian is a Partner at Taylor Wessing (IP licensing, biopharma partnering & commercial agreements). He has over 20 years' experience in the sector, acting for a diverse range of clients include small-molecule therapeutics, biologics, cell & gene therapy, diagnostics and medical devices. Adrian has a degree in BioPhysics from the University of Oxford. He is a board member of the Pharmaceutical Licensing Group UK and sits on the Cell & Gene Therapy committee of the BIA. He was previously the General Counsel (on secondment) for the UK Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult.

Kim Wedral-Rooke

Partner, Mishcon de Reya

Kim is a Partner in the Employment department and heads up the Start-up and Scale-up Employment practice at Mishcon de Reya. Kim collaborates with emerging and fast growth companies, and the investors who support them, to manage their global talent strategy and employment legal risks, in a pragmatic and cost-effective way.

David Weston

David Weston, Associate Director of Emerging Innovations

David is an Associate Director in AstraZeneca’s Emerging Innovations Unit, where he is responsible for driving entrepreneurial activities and identifying game-changing technologies for use across R&D. A neuroscientist by training, David holds a PhD in Molecular Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge, where he investigated the structure and function of ligand-gated ion channels in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. Prior to joining AZ, David was a strategy consultant for PwC’s Strategy& where he advised Life Sciences companies and public organisations on topics related to R&D strategy, M&A, pricing and market access, and growth strategy. David maintains an active network in Cambridge, London and beyond and interacts with numerous start-ups, particularly within the digital health space. He is also interested in entrepreneurship and understanding how pharma can support innovation.

Anna Williamson

Anna Williamson is a Director of Business Development at Roche Pharma Partnering and the Head of Roche’s Cambridge Innovation Hub providing business development support to both Roche and Genentech.

Anna joined Genentech’s Business Development group in 2004 and was based in San Francisco before moving to Cambridge in 2016 to establish a partnering presence in the UK initially for Genentech, and more recently for both Genentech and Roche. Anna holds a BA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge and carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado and the University of California, San Francisco.

Marcus Yeo

CEO, DefiniGEN

Dr Marcus Yeo is a founder and CEO of DefiniGEN. He is an experienced Company Director and life scientist who took the Oxford-based diagnostics biotechnology company Cybersense Biosystems Ltd to acquisition in 2008 by the FTSE 100 company Severn Trent. He oversaw the integration of the business into the Severn Trent ISO 17025 structure and led sales and marketing of the Severn Trent analytics division. Marcus previously worked for the University of Oxford company Zyoxel Ltd (now CN Bio Innovations), which markets advanced 3D human tissue culture systems to the investigative toxicology drug discovery sector. He specialised in the development of next-generation stem cell derived liver toxicology products and disease modelling systems for drug discovery lead optimisation. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology and is an accredited European Commission Technology Expert who has managed in excess of £15m of R&D funding.

Tom Weaver

Black Hawk Innovation

Tom received a PhD in oncology (Wisconsin), trained in genetics at the MRC LMB and University of Cambridge, eventually serving as an MRC Director in Oxford. He specialises in technology development, genomics and drug discovery, with expertise in forming, building and exiting companies, including: Hexagen/Incyte (target discovery), Geneservice/Source Bioscience (genomic CRO), Congenica (human genome Dx), NextGen Diagnostics (microbe genome Dx), PetMedix (mAbs for pets), Maxion (mAbs against ion channels/GCPRs), ArkVax (vaccines), and CanCan (Pet Dx).

Karolina Zapadka

Investor, Parkwalk Advisors

Karolina has nearly a decade of experience in investing and building life sciences and healthcare companies within the Cambridge Cluster. She is currently an investor at Parkwalk Advisors, one of the UK’s leading growth EIS fund managers, where she supports world-changing technologies emerging from UK universities and research institutions. She sits on the boards of five life science companies in Cambridge, specializing in platform technologies, genomics, target discovery, and therapeutics. Before joining Parkwalk, Karolina co-founded and successfully launched the first life sciences startup accelerator in Cambridge, nurturing portfolio of 20 early-stage ventures in biotech, techbio, tools, medtech, and digital health. She played a pivotal role in securing seed and Series A investments from a distinguished syndicate of investors. Her career began as a scientist at a leading biopharmaceutical company, where she contributed to the development of several pre-clinical and clinical-phase therapeutics. Prior to this, she worked as an academic scientist, publishing herresearch in peer-reviewed journals. Karolina holds a PhD in protein folding from the University of Cambridge and conducted postdoctoral research in drug development at both the University of Cambridge and AstraZeneca.