Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top London based Director operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Paul Agapow
Health Informatics Director of AstraZeneca
Originally a labcoat-wearing biochemist and immunologist, Paul fell sideways into using computers for biology, at first for evolutionary biology and infectious disease. In more recent years, his work has focused on precision medicine and biomedical analytics.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
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Victoria Stewart
Director Of Communications of Abingworth
Victoria has more than 18 years experience in the life sciences sector. She manages and advises on Abingworth’s public relations strategy in Europe and the US and provides support to portfolio companies. Victoria joined Abingworth in 2000 from PJB Publications, where she was Biotechnology Editor of Scrip World Pharmaceutical News. Victoria has held editorial positions at Chemistry in Britain and the Financial Times, where she covered Pharmaceutical Business News, Biotechnology Business and Medical Device Business News. She has a degree in Biological Chemistry from the University of Kent at Canterbury.
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About Abingworth: Abingworth is an international investment group dedicated to collaborating with life sciences entrepreneurs.
Heresh Rezavandi
Ecosystem Strategic Intelligence Lead, Associate Director of UCB
Heresh Rezavandi is the associate director of ecosystem strategic alliance at [UCB Pharma](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ucb-pharma), a biopharmaceutical and specialty chemical company that develops therapeutics for central nervous system and immunological diseases.
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About UCB: UCB Pharma is a biopharmaceutical and specialty chemical company.
Anne Lenihan
Director Regulatory Affairs of Pfizer
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About Pfizer: Pfizer provides access to safe and effective and affordable medicines and health care services.
Jane Wiltshire
Senior Director, Business Technology – Collaboration Center of Excellence of Pfizer
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About Pfizer: Pfizer provides access to safe and effective and affordable medicines and health care services.
Jane Wiltshire
Senior Director, Business Technology – Collaboration Center of Excellence of Pfizer
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About Pfizer: Pfizer provides access to safe and effective and affordable medicines and health care services.
Jeremy Farrar
Director of Wellcome Trust
Former Director, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Vietnam, with research interests in infectious diseases, tropical health and emerging infections. 2013, joined the Wellcome Trust; currently, Director. Fellow: Academy of Medical Sciences; The Royal Society. Recipient of numerous awards and honours, including: appointed OBE for services to Tropical Medicine (2005); Memorial Medal and Ho Chi Minh City Medal, Government of Vietnam. Named 12th in the Fortune list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015.
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About Wellcome Trust: Wellcome Trust is a medical research charity that funds research that aims to protect and improving human and animal health.
Anna C. Catalano
Board of Director of Mead Johnson Nutrition
Ms. Catalano, age 54, joined the Board on July 21, 2006 and currently serves as a member of the Company’s Governance Committee and Compensation Committee. She was Group Vice President, Marketing for BP plc from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that she held various executive positions at BP and Amoco, including Group Vice President, Emerging Markets at BP; Senior Vice President, Sales and Operations at Amoco; and President of Amoco Orient Oil Company. She currently serves on the Board and the Governance Committee of Mead Johnson Nutrition and Chemtura Corporation and the Compensation Committees of Mead Johnson Nutrition, Chemtura Corporation and Kraton Performance Polymers. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Houston Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and serves as a director on the National Board of the Alzheimer’s Association. Ms. Catalano formerly served on the boards of SSL International plc, Hercules Incorporated, Aviva plc and U.S. Dataworks and as an advisory board member of BT Global Services. Ms. Catalano holds a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
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About : Mead Johnson Nutrition manufactures and sells infant formula, children’s nutrition, and other nutritional products.
Michael Brennan
Co Founder & Non-Executive Director of BenevolentAI
Mr. Michael Brennan co-founded BenevolentAI Limited in 2013 and serves as its Head of Corporate Development. Mr. Brennan co-founded Novum Securities in 2006 and served as it Chief Executive Officer. In 2009, Mr. Brennan joined Proximagen Group plc, as Head of Corporate Development, where he was focused on fund raising, corporate transactions and business development. Mr. Brennan has over 14 years of equity capital markets experience in the City focusing on the small and mid cap market. He is a Senior corporate finance executive with over 15 years City based capital markets experience. The majority of his time was spent with Evolution Securities where he served as a Director in their corporate finance department and has significant transactional experience including M&A and takeover work. He has been a Non-Executive Director at Litebulb Group Limited since September 13, 2013.
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About BenevolentAI, SimplyPayMe: BenevolentAI is a developer of artificial intelligence and computational medicine technologies.
Ken Mulvany
Founder & Board Director of BenevolentAI
Mr. Ken Mulvany is a serial entrepreneur and investor with more than 20 years of business leadership experience. He is the Founder and Chairman of BenevolentAI, a $2bn machine intelligence company with end-to-end drug development capabilities. Mr. Mulvany was previously Founder and CEO of Proximagen, a leading biotech company developing medicines for central nervous system disorders, which he sold in 2012. Mulvany sits on several advisory boards including the advisory panel to the UK Government on Artificial Intelligence and the Advisory Board for Oxford Sciences Innovations. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, and formerly, the Chairman of the Trustees of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust. Mr. Mulvany is a world champion sailor and competed in the 1992 America’s Cup.
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About BenevolentAI: BenevolentAI is a developer of artificial intelligence and computational medicine technologies.
Tom Holgate
Finance Director of BenevolentAI
Mr. Tom Holgate is Group Finance Director of BenevolentAI Ltd. He is responsible for all financial aspects of the Group including operational, reporting, strategy, planning and forecasting, transaction support and investor relations. Prior to joining BenevolentAI, he held senior positions at American Express), FP & A (Amlin Plc) and EY.
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About BenevolentAI: BenevolentAI is a developer of artificial intelligence and computational medicine technologies.
Simon Barter
Commercial Director of Proveca
Simon Barter is a commercial director at Proveca. Simon is an experienced pharmaceutical professional having held several significant senior level roles including the head of Global Marketing capability for AstraZeneca, the head of the Global Commercial Innovation function. He has a track record of delivery in global marketing, innovation, corporate and portfolio strategy and operating company delivery. He has broad therapeutic experience having led the commercial therapy areas for Pain, Anaesthesia, Infection and Oncology. Simon has lived and worked across several European countries in sales and marketing roles, amassing first hand experience of several healthcare systems. Simon has a BSc (Hons) from London University and a Masters in Science of Management from Boston University.
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About Proveca: Proveca Ltd is a UK based pharmaceutical company.
Ed McDermott
Co-Founder and Managing Director, UK of EMMAC Life Sciences
Ed McDermott is the co-founder and managing director at EMMAC Life Sciences.
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About EMMAC Life Sciences: EMMAC is a medical cannabis company that works to join together the latest science and research with cutting-edge cultivation.
Danilo Casadei Massari
Board of Directors of TargEDys
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About BCD Bioscience, Nemysis: TargEDys develops functional food, medical food and medical products to harness the microbiota’s ability to regulate appetite.
Jonathan Tobin
Managing Director of Arix Bioscience
Jonathan specialises in therapeutics and diagnostics investments and has a background in medical research and drug discovery. Prior to joining Imperial Innovations he worked at MRC Technology, sourcing and evaluating new opportunities for small molecule and antibody drug discovery worldwide. He has a PhD in molecular medicine from UCL, and undertook post-doctoral research at the Cancer Research UK LRI. He has published in journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, and PNAS. Jonathan has a First Class degree in Biological Science from Oxford University and an MBA with Distinction from Imperial College.
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About Arix Bioscience: Arix Bioscience is a healthcare and life science company.
Philip Beales
Medical Director of Congenica
Phil is a consultant physician and Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), an NIHR Senior Investigator, an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the lead on Personalised Medicine for UCL. He is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics and pathogenesis of ciliopathies and pioneering use of next generation sequencing in mapping disease genes in this area.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
Robert Perin
Managing Director of Protak Scientific
Prior to his current role as CEO & partner at Protak Scientific in the biotechnology industry the last 5 years, Robert Perin worked at Blackberry as Senior Commercial Director, Europe for just under a decade.
After his time in telecommunications, he worked as an investor and advisor for several start-ups including launching Oscobo, Becovi Media and CST Automotive amongst others. Since becoming CEO and partner in one of the most exciting and ground changing Biotech companies to date, Robert has been instrumental in bringing major pharma companies onboard such as Pfizer, Bayer, Novo Nordisk, and AstraZeneca.
Protak Scientific provides rapid validation solutions to large isolator manufacturers, global pharmaceutical companies, and scientific universities with established and recognised ground-breaking technology that assists pharmaceutical companies to validate their decontamination in aseptic production.
He has been key to both setting the corporate strategy and gaining international recognition and acceptance, as the innovative way of approaching validation, with the regulators and international scientific community.
He has also been a key part in the expansion of the company globally into countries such as the US, India, and China, trebling revenue in recent years. Although relatively new to the pharmaceutical industry, his belief in the technology, passion for the industry, and commercial acumen have enabled Protack Scientific to become a growing UK success story within the international pharmaceutical industry.
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About Protak Scientific: PS is a biotechnology firm that manufacturers enzyme indicators.
Dominic Falcao
Founding Director of Deep Science Ventures
Founding Director at Deep Science Ventures
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About Deep Science Ventures: DSV is a venture studio and a fund that develops a systematic, optimized approach to science company development and investment.
Mark Hammond
Founding Director of Deep Science Ventures
Mark manages the commercialisation of software including web and mobile apps. Since joining the technology transfer team in 2011 he has founded the Imperial Digital Enterprise Accelerator and built a community of student entrepreneurship around the accelerator under the icstartup brand. This initiative drives venture creation via workshops, talks, funding and mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs in collaboration with both College initiatives and student societies. Mark completed a combined Masters in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence from UMIST and went on to obtain a PhD whilst leading a project which investigated how networks of neurons generate behaviour by implementing a biological neuronal network as the brain of a mobile robot. He has also been featured in New Scientist and given talks at the Science Museum and Dana Centre. Marks commercial background includes setting up an IT service business unit and an analyst role at a boutique investment bank in which he worked with IT and cleantech start-ups to develop their commercial and fundraising strategy.
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About Deep Science Ventures: DSV is a venture studio and a fund that develops a systematic, optimized approach to science company development and investment.
Ozgur Tuncer
CEO & Executive Director of Stablepharma Ltd
Ozgur Tuncer CEO & Executive Director – two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including working for blue chip companies such as Pfizer, IQVIA and Pharmacia. Most recently, he was Global Vice President in IQVIA, and strategic adviser to life sciences investors. In addition to his role in Stablepharma, Özgür is an Investment Partner with Ascension Ventures.
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About Stablepharma Ltd: An innovative Biotech, developing a wide range of reformulated thermostable and fridge free StablevaX vaccines
Adam George
UK Managing Director of GW Pharmaceuticals
Adam George has served as our Managing Director – UK since March 2017. Mr. George also acts as our Company Secretary. Prior to taking on his current role, Mr. George served as our Chief Financial Officer since 2012 and Financial Controller since 2007. Mr. George has previously occupied several senior finance roles within both public and privately-owned companies, most recently as Finance Director from 2004 to 2007 and as Group Financial Controller from 2001 to 2004 of Believe It Group Limited (now 4Com plc), a telecommunications service provider. Mr. George holds an BSc. in Biology from Bristol University and is qualified as a chartered accountant.
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About GW Pharmaceuticals: GW Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel therapeutics.
Susan Searle
Non-Executive Director of Horizon Discovery
Susan Searle is Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Innovations Group plc, an AIM listed company founded by Imperial College. Imperial Innovations is an integrated business combining the activities of technology transfer, incubation and investment across healthcare, engineering, environment and IT sectors. Susan has been instrumental in growing the business since joining the Ltd company in 1994. Previously she worked at Montech (Australia), Signet Group plc, Bank of Nova Scotia and Shell Chemicals Limited in the UK and internationally in a variety of business development and commercial roles. She has served on the boards of 15 spin-out companies including TurboGenset Inc. and sits on the boards of Thiakis Limited, EVO Electric Limited and i2india Holdings Limited. She has an MA in Chemistry from Exeter College, Oxford University.
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About : Horizon is a gene editing company that designs & engineers genetically-modified cells, applying them to advance human health.
AF_initDataCallback({key: \’ds:1\'” alt=”” class=”wp-image-14850″ width=”154″ height=”152″/>Roy Lobb
Director and Co-founder of Aleta Biotherapeutics
Roy Lobb is the Director and Co-founder at Aleta Biotherapeutics.
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About Advent Life Sciences, Aleta Biotherapeutics: Aleta Biotherapeutics focuses on transforming cellular therapeutics to allow a broader spectrum of cancer indications to be targeted.
Bijendra Patel
Director of Surgical Skills and Science of Barts Cancer Institute
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About Barts Cancer Institute, Barts Health NHS Trust: Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) is one of the top cancer research centres in the UK.
Kat Bruce
Co-founder and Managing Director of Nature Metrics
Kat Bruce is the Co-founder and Director of NatureMetrics.
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About Nature Metrics: Nature Metrics is an award-winning technology start-up using cutting-edge genetic techniques to monitor biodiversity.
Michael O’Neill
Co-Founder and Director R&D of Inflection Biosciences
Michael O’Neill has more than 20 years’ experience working in the pharmaceutical industry. He was a Senior Research Scientist and Portfolio Manager at Eli Lilly for much of this time where he was responsible for developing project plans for the selection of projects and for their progression from discovery through to important development milestones. He established his own consulting business, Eolas, to help early stage companies to organize their research along commercial lines, becoming accomplished at building highly streamlined development plans. He has built consortia of commercial and academic groups to apply for major EU grants. Previously Dr. O’Neill was Head of Laboratory at Almirall and a Research Neuroscientist at Merck. He has authored over 80 papers, book chapters, patents and abstracts and is Honorary Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. He holds a BA Psychology from UCC and a PhD from QUB Belfast.
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About Inflection Biosciences: Inflection Biosciences is a company that develops small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.
Charles Hindson
Non Executive Director of Diaceutics
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About Diaceutics: Diaceutics Group leverages analytics, software, services and consulting.
Marpin Kho
Managing Director of Advanced Retention Therapeutics & Research Ltd
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About Advanced Retention Therapeutics & Research Ltd: At ART Research, we are revolutionising the way medicines are delivered to patients in the fight to defeat medicine non-adherence.
Jan Berghe
Managing Director & Co-Founder of Novalis Biotechnology Incubation
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About Novalis Biotechnology Incubation: Novalis Biotech Incubation is an early-stage vc fund that invests in biotechnology and life sciences related companies.
