Pioneer Group
Corporate Development Director
Pioneer Group’s purpose is to provide the environment in which ambitious life sciences and healthcare companies are more likely to be successful. We support entrepreneurs from early stage business concept onwards, helping them to test their commercial viability, raise money, launch and grow within our community.
I am part of a team of committed professionals dedicated to making this happen. In particular I am responsible for contributing significantly to the growth of Pioneer Group by leading on the recruitment of new companies to Pioneer Group’s sites and by helping the growth of existing client companies.
I started professional life at the British Consulate-General in Lyon and was appointed Commercial Consul heading up the life sciences sector for France.
I have worked in UK bio-incubators since 2005 and am chair of the UK Bioincubator Forum, representing 24 bioincubators across the UK.
Pfizer, ABPI
Country President UK, Pfizer, President, ABPI
Experienced global pharmaceutical marketing leader with 13 years in the industry & a track record of accomplishment in roles of increasing responsibility.
I am known for being able to jump into new situations & successfully align a team around a common vision, and am comfortable leading in diverse situations, including cross-functional, multi-cultural & virtual teams.
Consistent success across multiple therapeutic areas (from primary care blockbuster brands to rare disease biologics) and geographies, including the US, Europe & Emerging Markets.
Expertise in global launches, strategic and analytical thinking & change management. Demonstrated high degree of learning agility & ability to thrive in complex environments.
Pfizer, ABPI
Country President UK, Pfizer, President, ABPI
Experienced global pharmaceutical marketing leader with 13 years in the industry & a track record of accomplishment in roles of increasing responsibility.
I am known for being able to jump into new situations & successfully align a team around a common vision, and am comfortable leading in diverse situations, including cross-functional, multi-cultural & virtual teams.
Consistent success across multiple therapeutic areas (from primary care blockbuster brands to rare disease biologics) and geographies, including the US, Europe & Emerging Markets.
Expertise in global launches, strategic and analytical thinking & change management. Demonstrated high degree of learning agility & ability to thrive in complex environments.
Newmarket Strategy
Senior Partner
James is one of the UK’s leading policy advisors. He has operated at the highest levels of government, including as a Minister at the Department for Health & Social Care, as Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, and as an advisor to DHSC Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. James is driven by the twin goals of bringing life-changing health innovations to patients and growing the UK’s life science & healthtech industries. As Minister his responsibilities included implementing the Life Science Industrial Strategy, delivering a new pricing scheme with the pharmaceutical industry, chairing the National Genomics Board, and driving the digital transformation of the NHS. He was also responsible for preparing the health and social care sectors for Brexit and helping to design the post-Brexit regulatory regime. In 2021 James became co-founder and Senior Partner of Newmarket Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to improving access to health innovation by providing strategic advice and technical support to the healthcare, life sciences and health tech sectors. At Newmarket, James provides senior counsel to multinationals, SMEs, investors, universities, hospitals and charities, with a particular focus on technology, digital and data. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, where he chairs the Data, Health & Wealth programme, and a non-executive director of both Health Data Research UK and the Albion Development VCT plc. Outside of health, James chairs the Repairing our Social Fabric programme at the think tank Onward and has a keen interest in education reform.
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Managing Director UK & Ireland
With nearly 20 years’ experience through varying roles at Janssen, I have led teams across medical and commercial functions. I have worked in both advanced and emerging markets at a local and regional level. Prior to joining Janssen, I worked as a clinician in South Africa. At the heart of my work is a focus on patients, and ensuring they can access the best care according to their needs, irrespective of their geography or background.
As the Managing Director for Janssen UK & Ireland, I now lead the region’s business strategy, with the aim to improve healthcare and ensure timely access to innovative treatments for patients.
‘Artificial intelligence’, ‘data’ and ‘digital’ are still very much the buzz words of innovation. From accelerating drug discovery, to improving diagnosis, right through collecting health data through apps, how are these new tools transforming healthcare?
UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council
Head of Clusters (NW)
For the last couple of years Phil has had the pleasure of working with colleagues and stakeholders in developing High-Tech. regional innovation clusters, in key strategic sectors for the UK. This includes setting up and leading the North West of England’s Health and Life sciences Cluster (HealthTech) and establishing other clusters in sectors such as Space.
The clusters exist to connect key capabilities between stakeholders, national science facilities and innovators in the wider ecosystem to support collaboration, cross-sector innovation and community building.
A scientist by background, he undertook a PhD for the European Space Agency at King’s College London, conducting numerous studies on a SkinSuit which was designed to support astronauts in space and reduce the risk of spinal issues post flight. This has subsequently been used on several astronaut missions.
Passionate about cross sector opportunities, including Health & Space, for 5 years he coordinated the UK’s Space Life and Biomedical Science Association, which among other core activities he led the development of the UK Position Paper ‘Why Space? The opportunity for Health & Life Science Innovation”. He currently chairs the UK’s Regional Space Cluster Advisory board and at a European Level serves as the elected President for the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA).
BiologIC Technologies
Chief Executive Officer
Richard is co-founder, CEO and Chair of BiologIC Technologies Limited. BiologIC’s integrated processing development platform enhances yields, process robustness and scalability of advanced biology products. The platform, enabled by novel biocomputer technology, is a new category of machine built from fluidic processing chips designed like computer chips. Our vision is to help customers engineer biology to solve enormous challenges faced by humanity (feeding 9.8 billion people by 2050, mitigating climate change and reducing the threat of diseases) in an environmentally sustainable, economically accessible way.
An authentic and passionate leader, Richard inspires transformational change through the alignment of purposeful vision, high performing talent and quality capital. He creates significant value through executive leadership, vision and strategy, commercialisation of science, capital market expertise, cultural and organisational change and building operational scale.
In seven valuable years as interim CEO, deputy CEO, CFO, COO and Company Secretary, Richard was instrumental in growing Horizon Discovery Group plc from an emerging private company of £3m revenue in 2012 to a recognised global leader in gene editing delivering revenue of £60m at a valuation of £350m. Richard delivered one of the most successful ever Life Science listings on AIM raising £68.6m in a heavily oversubscribed IPO at the top of its valuation range within 3 months, fundraisings in the UK and the US, four acquisitions and hostile bid defence.
Richard was previously Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a dual listed FTSE 250 semiconductor company with $1bn of revenues, and a director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice. Richard is a qualified chartered accountant with a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.
Moderna
Country Medical Director, UK
Country Medical Director at Moderna UK, Dr Philip Cruz, has over 15 years of experience in medical affairs in the field of vaccines and paediatrics within the pharmaceutical industry. At Moderna in the UK, Dr Cruz is responsible for the development and execution of the medical affairs strategy for Moderna’s infectious disease franchise and drives scientific leadership for the vaccine portfolio, while ensuring compliance with applicable policies and procedures. He also ensures effective interactions with key UK scientific leaders, public health experts, scientific and medical associations and healthcare authorities at the national level, providing country insight-gathering activities to meet the company needs around the clinical development and innovation in the field of vaccination.
Dr Cruz worked at GSK Vaccines for over 11 years, eventually assuming the role of Vaccines Medical Director for the UK and Ireland. Following his time at GSK, he was appointed as Senior Global Medical Affairs Leader (Vaccines) at AstraZeneca. He has a breadth of experience in clinical development and continues his involvement in clinical trials as a local medical lead. His role as an ABPI final signatory has given him established knowledge in medical governance and he has extensive experience in pharmaceutical medical affairs.
A paediatrician by training, Dr Cruz is actively involved in clinical research, research and development and pharmaceutical medicine.
Pfizer UK
Director Portfolio Excellence
Nicola Clear, is a leader of global RD teams and external digital partners to deliver innovative digital solutions to accelerate drug development and enhance operational efficiency. Improving access to data, automation, data analytics, embedding new systems and predictive models to workflows, Nicola understands the importance of connecting people, process, and technology to a compelling destination, across scientific lab and OpEx disciplines.
Nicola has a background in drug discovery and development, having initially trained as a pharmacologist/microbiologist, she transitioned into formulation drug delivery/CMC sciences, and latterly to digital transformation. Most recently, she has delivered a resource management system and process responsible for portfolio level prioritisation of over $350M internal and sourced resources. Passionate about female leadership, Nicola joined MenopauseX, not for profit, to deliver data insights and influence employers on menopause policies.
Mills & Reeve
Partner and Head of Life Sciences
James heads Mills & Reeve’s multi-disciplinary life sciences practice. He supports businesses across the full product lifecycle, from start-up to commercialisation.
A key focus of his work is supporting clients on strategic contracting covering technology / IP in and out- licensing transactions, research collaborations, clinical trial agreements and long term partnering agreements. James also advises on sector regulation including pharma and medical device regulation, market access, borderline products, advertising and clinical trials.
Monument Therapeutics
Chief Executive Officer
Jenny is a cognitive neuroscientist and CEO of Monument Tx. She was previously Chief Scientific Officer at Cambridge Cognition where she led clinical trial, healthcare and R&D functions before spinning out Monument in 2021. She has an MA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, a PhD in the Epidemiology of Schizophrenia from the University of Cambridge, and completed post-doctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She is the author of more than 70 papers, six patents, and two popular science books and is an honorary member of the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry.
If we’re to hit the UK target of Net Zero by 2050, all sectors must take action now. As an industry built on innovation, how can the pharma sector lead this change?
PwC
Partner, ESG Reporting and Assurance
Laura is a Director in ESG Reporting and Assurance PwC who is passionate about the transformational power of an organisation ( whether private or public) focused on broader societal value creation and supporting clients to navigate the complex ESG reporting journey both now and in the future.
She has experience in ESG reporting, assurance, governance risk and controls including the development of reporting frameworks over complex subject matters and building an assurance map against key ESG risks. She works across the FTSE 350, private business, International Development Sector and Central Government and has experience of green bonds, social bonds and innovative funding models in sustainable finance.
Prior to her experience at PwC she has hands on on the ground experience building and running a variety of climate change adaptation and mitigation funds across East, Southern and West Africa including the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund and the Strategic Climate Institutions Programme in Ethiopia.
Her experience includes TCFD, EU Taxonomy, SASB, GRI, ICMA Green Bond Principles, IFC OPIM Principles.
The rapid adoption of GLP-1’s have made this class of drugs a blockbuster. With indications from diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and dementias, these drugs offer great promise to patients and healthcare systems. There are current supply chain shortages and around 150 new GLP-1 projects have been initiated.
– how will GLP-1’s impact treatment of chronic conditions?
– how will the rest of the healthcare system need to adapt [eg mental health support, resistance training and gyms to help manage potential side effects?]
– how will supply chains need to adapt to the massive demand for the current injectable products and further oral therapies. How will the regulatory manage non prescribed use?
University of Glasgow
Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine / Honorary Consultant
Naveed Sattar is Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow and an Honorary Consultant in Metabolic Medicine at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he also co-leads a cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention clinic. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He has sat on several national and international guideline committees, including the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Task Force to develop 2023 Guidelines on diabetes and cardiovascular disease; Joint British Societies 3 CVD prevention recommendations; Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) obesity and CVD prevention guidelines (latter as Chair); and European CVD prevention guidelines. In late 2023 he was appointed as the UK Government’s new Obesity Mission Chair.
His main research activity is investigating the causes, prevention and management of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, and has published many guideline-relevant papers in these areas. He has contributed to several lifestyle (e.g. DIRECT, STANDBY, UPBEAT, EUROFIT) and drug (e.g. REMOVAL, TRUST, AMPLITUDE-O, EMPEROR Heart failure) trials, with ongoing steering committee activity in several large outcome trials. He is an Associate Editor for Diabetes Care and past Associate Editor for Circulation. Prof Sattar has authored / co-authored over 1400 published papers, and is among the world’s most Highly Cited Researchers in Clinical Medicine (https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/). He has received several national and international prizes for his research, including: Banting Memorial Lecture (Diabetes UK), Camillo Golgi and Minkowski Lectures (EASD).
Closed Loop Medicine
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr Hakim Yadi OBE is a co-Founder and chief executive of Closed Loop Medicine. He joined CLM from the Northern Health Science Alliance Ltd, the pan-Northern health partnership which brought together for the first time 20 research-based NHS hospitals, the North’s Academic Health Science Networks and Universities to collaborate on improving health outcomes across the North.
As the founding CEO of the NHSA, Hakim was instrumental in raising the profile of the region in parliament, with investors and the media to help focus resources on improving healthcare services for the 15 million population living in the North and its eight great cities. Central to the NHSA’s mission was to raise awareness of the region’s high mortality rates and to seek national solutions to improve these morbidity levels by working with all local agencies to improve health – and therefore wealth and well-being -outcomes.
Hakim was also highly successful in working with companies in the North to attract substantial domestic and overseas investment into the region’s life science sector, one of the most vibrant in the country.
Having worked with specialist drug and digital companies all around the world, he has a deep understanding of innovation systems integration. Hakim started his career at PA Consulting, where he co-managed the company’s translational medicine team. During his time at PA, he was seconded to the UK Government where he worked as the Chief Operations Officer and was a founding member of the UK Department of International Trade (DIT) Life Sciences Organisation (LSO).
He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and in 2017 he was awarded an OBE for services to Healthcare Technology and the Economy.
Strategic partnering with CDMOs and CROs is changing. With a rise in equal partnership models, ‘one-stop shop’ solutions, and collaborative risk management, what is the future of partnering?
Vitarka Therapeutics
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Scientific Officer
As the founder and functioning CEO and CSO of Vitarka Therapeutics, Vineeta has more than 15 years’ experience in drug development. She has led multi-million-pound multi-site projects at UCL, Boehringer Ingelheim and Ipsen Bioinnovation. As an asset leader, she has delivered 2x therapeutics being tested in 7x clinical trials and 3x therapeutics for clinical development. She is a co-inventor on 13x granted patents. At Ipsen Bioinnovation, she was the strategic alliance leader for collaborations with Harvard Medical School (Isaac Chiu and John Collier), Boston Children’s Hospital (Min Dong) and Broad MIT (David Liu) where she sat on the Joint Steering Committee with the tech-transfer offices for in-licensing negotiations and research contracts. Previously, as a member of Prof Chris Shaw’s team she co-discovered mutations and functional properties of TDP-43 and FUS genes. These are breakthrough discoveries, with an entire disease pathology now termed as “TDP-43 proteinopathies”. Her work as first author and co-author is published in several imminent journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, etc. with a citation record of >7000. Outside of work, Vineeta is a professional dancer with a Bachelors in Bharatnatyam and Post-Diploma in Indian Classical Dance form Kathak. A fun fact about her is that she has the memory of an elephant!
BDD Pharma
Chief Executive Officer
Carol Thomson is CEO of BDD Pharma, an integrated development and clinical trials company. With more than 20 years’ experience of management in the sciences sector, Carol co-founded formulations company Drug Delivery International prior to becoming CEO of BDD. Carol has strong operational management and leadership skills and has led the growth of BDD including three successful funding rounds. Carol has a degree in Genetics from the University of Glasgow and a PhD from the University of Sheffield.
Patients are taking an increasingly proactive role in the development of new treatments. With an increase in patient and public involvement across research, trials and government initiatives, how are we ensuring we design treatments for the people who need them?
Precisia C2-Ai
Chief Medical Officer and Business Unit Director
Sheuli is a highly experienced and respected leader in life sciences.
Sheuli originally trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford then worked in the NHS before moving to pharmaceutical medicine. Sheuli has worked internationally in medical affairs, clinical development and life science policy.
She is the Vice President of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and a Global Fellow in Medicines Development with IFAPP.
Sheuli is a member of the Steering Group for the UKRI Multiple Long-Term Conditions Programme, the AoMRC Genomics Professional Partnerships Group and the UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network Steering Group.
Sheuli is also a visiting lecturer at King’s College London.
ValiRx PLC
Chief Executive Officer
Dr Suzy Dilly is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the AIM-listed UK biotech, ValiRx PLC. Suzy is an experienced entrepreneurial scientist. After commercialising her Chemical Biology post-doctoral research in the University of Warwick spin-out, a2sp Limited, Suzy was awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, during which formal commercial and entrepreneurial training completed her transition from lab to boardroom. Completing commercial transactions to progress projects through multiple companies, Suzy has been working in small company virtual biotechs since 2006.
The panel will explore what the next generation of digital technology will look and feel like from users’ perspective and will touch on the following questions: Will R&D and manufacturing business processes become more autonomous? How will digital technology and automation technologies come together? Will the patient notice anything different about their medicines?
NGT BioPharma Consultants
Head of Digital Services
Mark Buswell is an experienced pharma life sciences leader with a unique blend of experience in pharma late-phase development and manufacturing, and digital transformation strategy and system delivery. He is noted for his blend of deep life sciences knowledge and strategic business thinking. He has proven skills delivering technology-driven business transformation. His functional expertise includes:
· Late-phase development and manufacturing strategy
· Advanced manufacturing technologies
· Digital life sciences transformation
· IT transformation to a product-centric agile philosophy
· Creative and inspirational leadership
Mark worked at GSK from 2002 to 2023 where he held senior roles in R&D, manufacturing and IT. He currently provides consulting and advisory services, through NGT Biopharma Consultants where he heads up Digital Services, and he also consults independently. He has experience across a range of modalities including small molecules, large molecule biologics, oligo’s, cell and gene therapies and vaccines. He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge and an MBA from Cranfield University. His interests include information technologies, synthesis of APIs using novel methods, novel formulation technologies, fermentation technologies, advanced analytical technologies and automation. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineering and a
TetraScience
Co-Founder, CTO
Siping “Spin” Wang is the Co-Founder and CTO of TetraScience, the Scientific Data and AI company with a mission to improve and extend human life radically. TetraScience works with half the world’s top 25 drug companies, providing a platform to design and industrialize AI-native scientific datasets to power a growing suite of lab data management products, scientific use cases, and AI-based outcomes. Spin helps oversee the company’s product and corporate strategy. He graduated from Cornell with a B.S. in applied physics and electrical engineering and an M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.
Microsoft
Global Business Leader, GM Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences
Elena is Microsoft’s Global Business Leader for Healthcare, Pharma Life Sciences. In this capacity she is responsible for go-to-market, commercial and industry pharma strategy and commercial go-to-market, enabling co-innovation and strategic partnerships to accelerate transformation with cloud and AI. She leads as the executive sponsor of digital transformation initiatives in a number of providers, payors and life Sciences’ organisations. In 2023 Elena was elected as Member of the DIA Europe, Middle East & Africa Regional Advisory Council. She is the Vice Chair of the DIGITALEUROPE Executive Council for Healthcare since it’s creation in 2021. She recently joined the Board of The Movement Health Foundation, an organization founded by Roche, Siemens Healthineers, Microsoft and CIFS to build strong and sustainable healthcare systems. A signature outcome of her work – together with a core team across engineering and research – was the design and launch of the AI R&D partnership with Novartis in 2019, and the AI for Leprosy initiative with Novartis Foundation and Fiocruz, recently published in The Lancet/Elsevier. Elena co-chaired the Health Cloud Council for Microsoft and partners from 2015-2019 where she led work on secondary use of health data and championed the initiative on data collaboratives, leading to the creation of the first global data collaborative in cardiovascular population health. Elena has been working in the health sector for 18+ years, first in health policy at EU level and then as regional business leader in public healthcare across EMEA. In July 2017, Elena was elected to the HIMSS Europe Governing Council. In 2020 she was nominated one of the top 50 AI Innovators by Intelligent Health. Elena is one of the founding members of the Holomedicine Association. She is an active advocate and public speaker, invited to represent the approach of Microsoft for Healthcare and AI and how “Data help save Lives”, and a contributor to the creation of the Healthcare Data Innovation Council, a partnership of healthcare actors to progress regulatory frameworks for data sharing in health and life sciences. She is also a champion for the transformational impact of meditation in personal and professional development, working with the Centre for Evolutionary Learning; and the empowerment of women in leadership as founding member of WiL Network and as champion for Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft.
Speed of development is increasing and demand forecasts becoming more uncertain due to pricing, market access and competitive behaviour. Governments have been on-shoring and nationalising supply chains and shortages of key drugs remain. How do we optimise manufacturing networks to be nimble and fit for the future? What can we learn from supply chains in other industries to help manage uncertainty and innovation? (semiconductors, aerospace, automotive)
University of Cambridge
Director of Research
Jag is a Director of Research at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, where as Head of the Centre for International Manufacturing, Institute for Manufacturing, his research brings an engineering and strategic operations management perspective to the design, analysis and operation of international supply chains. Research projects explore the disruptive impacts of new production and digital technologies on supply chain configurations involving advisory roles and close collaborations with industry, government and international institutions, including UNCTAD, UNIDO, and the World Economic Forum where he co-Chairs the Council on Advanced Manufacturing. Previous roles were in industry with Unilever, as a Supply Chain Director of a multinational regional business, Technical Director of a national business and other senior management positions. Jag holds a first-class honours degree in Chemical Engineering (Aston), a PhD in International Supply Networks (Cambridge), is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers.
UCB
Business Lead
David Harrison sits on UCB’s external manufacturing leadership team and is also responsible for partnering with device and technology companies. He builds high-level relationships with key external partners and provides strategic market insights to inform UCB’s long term manufacturing strategy. David believes in partnerships, and these alliances have already brought several successful combination products to the market. Away from his professional life, David is a fledgling novelist, with several projects nearing completion. He is married with two children and lives in Cambridge, UK.
Magnitude Biosciences
CEO
Fozia is the CEO of Magnitude Biosciences, one of the world’s leading contract research organisation (CRO) for age-related diseases, providing services to pharma, health and nutrition sectors for determining the effects of drugs and products targeting healthy ageing, longevity and neurodegeneration. Fozia has a proven track record of delivering profitable innovations to the market and has worked in the FMCG and pharmaceutical industry for 15+ years. Fozia’s professional journey includes transformative leadership roles steering high growth commercial strategies, regulatory submissions and global product launches. Beyond her role as CEO, Fozia is a fervent advocate for empowering women, championing diversity, and catalysing social change. Fozia recently appeared on the ‘We Are Power’ Future List 2024 and was recently appointed as Regional Vice Chair (North East) Growth Board for Lifted Ventures, an organisation that supports and helps to secure funding from VCs and angel investors for high growth female led businesses. Fozia has a 1st class honours degree in Pharmacology from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Molecular Neuroscience from the College of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
McKinsey estimate generative AI to produce $60-100bn in annual value across the harm a value chain. $15-28bn is estimated in drug discovery and we have seen the greatest adoption in this area. A further $38-67bn value is estimated across the rest of the value chain
– how will AI impact clinical development, manufacturing, commercial and medical affairs?
– what regulatory framework do we need to support the effective application of AI? What are the risks and opportunities?
– how do we organise for success?
Vertual
CEO
Debra has worked in technology companies and the pharmaceutical industry for the past 35 years, leading companies in the US, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. During her career she has held various C-level and senior positions in large multinational companies, including Pfizer, GSK and GE Healthcare. She is a serial entrepreneur and investor and has led 4 start-up companies.
She is currently CEO at Vertual Ltd, a leading international supplier of virtual reality software systems. Prior to that she was CEO at Physeon in Switzerland, and prior to that Managing Director for Avita Medical, Cambridge.
For the past decade she been a business adviser for university start ups and has mentored and supported early stage founders to take their research-led innovations to commercialisation, supporting their pre-seed, seed and series A fundraising activities along the way.
In April she accepted the position of Regional Chair (North East) Growth Board for Lifted Ventures, which is an organisation that supports and helps to secure funding from VCs and angel investors for high growth female led businesses.
She holds public and AIM listed board roles including RemCom Chair and Non Executive Director for Cambridge Cognition Ltd, RemCom Chair and Non Executive Director for Spectrum X and she holds the post of Visiting Professor of Innovation and Enterprise at the University of Newcastle Business School.
She has a degree in Pharmacy, an MBA from Warwick Business school and is a part-qualified Management Accountant (CIMA).
Genomics England
Strategic Partnerships Director
Dr James Duboff is a Strategic Partnerships Director at Genomics England, driving the translational impact of National genomic and clinical data by partnering with global Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies working in Cancer and Rare Disease. He has previously worked in Biopharmaceutical R&D at GlaxoSmithKline and consumer health R&D management at Procter & Gamble, as well as executive leadership roles within a number of UK-based life science focussed start-up and scale-up organisations. Dr Duboff has an Undergraduate and Masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Cambridge.
Victoria House, located in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, is a Grade II listed venue with state-of-the-art laboratories available for rent, designed to support scientific research and innovation. The laboratories are fully equipped with advanced technology and facilities, making them ideal for startups, established companies, and research institutions. In addition to labs, Victoria House also features flexible event spaces, advanced AV technology, and professional on-site support.
As part of the Pioneer Group, Victoria House is connected to Europe’s largest collective of scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs. This dynamic environment supports collaboration with universities, high-growth enterprises, large corporates, healthcare providers, and local government. Pioneer Group offers a range of programmes, including Pre-Accelerator Workshops, Accelerator Programmes, and Launch support, to help businesses grow and innovate. Companies also benefit from expert networks, investment opportunities, and tailored events that foster a unique culture.
