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 President operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a President 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.
Shaun Grady
Vice-President Business Development Operations of AstraZeneca
Shaun Grady has responsibility for Global Business Development at AstraZeneca, leading the company’s transaction execution, due diligence and Alliance and Integration Management function including externalisation, licensing and partnering, M&A, and divestments. Shaun was appointed to his current role in 2013 with the creation of the Global Product and Portfolio Strategy (GPPS) unit. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Strategic Partnering & Business Development (2010-13) and Vice President, Corporate Business Development (2006-10). Shaun originally joined ICI as an attorney and held positions in the pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and legal departments. Following the demerger from ICI, he was appointed Assistant General Counsel, Corporate for Zeneca. Shaun worked on the merger of Astra and Zeneca, the merger of Zeneca Agrochemicals with Novartis Agribusiness to form Syngenta, and the creation of Avecia. Shaun also worked on the acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), led the acquisition of Amylin, and subsequent buy-out of Bristol-Myers’ Squibb’s interest in the AZ-BMS Diabetes Alliance. In addition, he has spent time in the US business managing the legal function and also completed a two year secondment to HR, leading a global People Strategy change project. Shaun is an Honorary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Cambridge Judge Business School and is a member of the Board of Cambridge United Football Club and Cambridge Arts Theatre. Based in Cambridge, Shaun enjoys rugby and football, and occasionally turns his hand to sports writing.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Jeanne Bolger
Vice President Venture Investing of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Jeanne Bolger, MB BCh BAO, Vice President, Venture Investments, joined Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) in 2013. She is based in London, UK. Dr. Bolger has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in management roles across R&D, Commercial and Business Development (BD). She spent 11 years in Licensing and Acquisition (L&A), most recently as Global Head of Scientific Licensing for Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical business, having joined Johnson & Johnson in 2005 from the Business Development group at GlaxoSmithKline. In 2009, Dr. Bolger became Vice President, Alliance Management at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, working with Pfizer and Elan. Dr. Bolger received her medical degree from University College Dublin. She also holds diplomas in Child Health (NUI) and in Finance and Accounting (ACCA). She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland (RAMI). Dr. Bolger has served as the sole pharma industry representative on two Irish government taskforces seeking to enhance the commercialization of IP from Irish academic centres. She is a visiting lecturer on the MSc Pharmaceutical Medicine curriculum at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Pulmocide: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Martin Lachs
Vice President Global Project Management of ICON plc
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About ICON plc: ICON is a global provider of outsourced drug development services to biopharma, medical device, biosimilar and generic organizations.
Pablo Graiver
President and Founder of Antidote.me
Pablo Graiver is Co-Founder of Antidote Technologies Ltd. (a/k/a TrialReach Ltd.) and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Pablo Graiver served as Vice President of Business Development, Europe of Kayak Software Corporation. He has over 12 years of entrepreneurial and management experience in the online industry. He was an early member of NetJuice, one of the largest Internet incubators in Europe; MD at Donde Comprar.com, the first e-commerce directory in Spanish; and later co-founder and Vice President of Strategy at Kelkoo, acquired by Yahoo! in 2004. Pablo Graiver set up and launched Kayak.com in Europe, and served as European Sales Director at ValueClick (NASDAQ: VCLK). He studied Biology and Business Administration at UAM in Madrid.
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About Antidote.me: Antidote is a digital health company that accelerates and improves medical research by combining technologies, data, and business models.
Christopher Vann
Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of Autolus
Christopher Vann leads commercial activities for Autolus. An industry veteran with 30 years’ experience in both development and business roles, he joined Autolus from Hoffmann-La Roche’s Swiss headquarters, where he was latterly responsible for leading the lung cancer commercial team and general management of the Tarceva brand. He has extensive experience of global lifecycle management of oncology products as well as implementing marketing strategy at a regional and national level. This includes launching several oncology, immunology and transplant products in countries such as China, Japan, Romania, Russia, South Africa, the UK and the USA. He gained his degree in toxicology and pharmacology from the School of Pharmacy, University of London.
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About Autolus: Autolus is in T-cell programming and manufacturing technology.
Joanna Holbrook
Senior Vice President of Research of Cambridge Epigenetix
Joanna started her career in GSK R&D, working for seven years in the UK bioinformatics department, processing the integrating ‘omic data for drug target identification and validation mostly focussing on neurological disease, and then for three years in GSK USA Oncology R&D working on biomarkers for targeted therapies. She then left GSK and the USA for Singapore and built an academic group in A*STAR Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences. Her group focused on epigenomic trackers of complex disease, especially the interaction of genetic, environmental and disease states in shaping the human epigenome. Her work in Singapore encompassed set-up of observational and interventional cohorts, biobanking, clinical databases, production, processing and analysis of biosample ‘omic profiles and multiple industrial collaborations. Moving back to the UK five years later, she took up a professorship at the University of Southampton, still working on epigenomics and also integration of electronic health record data to clinical cohorts. Most recently she has been VP of Translational Medicine at BenevolentAI, a fast growing British Biotech, where she initiated and led integration of ‘omic data into a large biomedical knowledge graph and machine learning approaches to analyses of patient-level data for precision medicine.
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About Cambridge Epigenetix: Cambridge Epigenetix is using epigenetics to reduce several routine & important diagnostic tests for common cancers to a simple blood draw.
Philip M. Toleikis
President & CEO of Sernova
Dr. Toleikis is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sernova Corp since April 2009. From 2006 until 2009, Dr. Toleikis consulted for multiple device, combination product and pharmaceutical companies. From 1996 to 2006 he held multiple roles at Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. including Vice President, Research and Development – Pharmacology and Drug Screening where he built a product development team of over 50 scientists and was responsible for multiple corporate and academic product development collaborations. While at Sernova, Dr. Toleikis has secured over $60 million in various forms of financings, including equity raises and multiple non-dilutive grants and has been responsible for negotiating a worldwide exclusive license with UHN and University of Miami for its stem cell derived technologies as well as developing business relationships and or collaborations with multiple pharmaceutical and academic institutions involving its Cell Pouch™ device and cell technologies. Dr. Toleikis is an author of over 100 patent applications ande issued patents, and multiple scientific publications involving transplantation, metabolic, cardiovascular, oncology, and autoimmune disease. He obtained his Ph.D. in Medicine, Pharmacology and Therapeutics from the University of British Columbia, his M.Sc. at the University of Michigan and B.A. at the University of Vermont.
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About Sernova: Sernova develops regenerative medicine therapeutic technologies for treatment of chronic metabolic diseases.
Debasish Talukdar
President, Global Head of Advisory of Prescient Healthcare Group
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About Prescient Healthcare Group: Prescient Healthcare Group was founded in London in 1995, originally specializing in competitive insights.
Noor Shaker
Senior Vice President and General Manager of X-Chem
Noor was an assistant professor at Aalborg University in Copenhagen working on machine learning. She has more than 50 publications and 1100+ citations and has co-authored a book on generative methods.
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About Lynura, X-Chem: X-Chem, Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company.
Wayne Danter
Founder, President & CEO of Cotinga Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Wayne Danter is the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director. Previously, he held the position of Chief Scientific Officer at COTI. Dr. Danter is the inventor of the CHEMSAS® process and one of the founders of COTI. He trained at the University of Western Ontario in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Prior to founding COTI, Dr. Danter was an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. His clinical focus, in addition to his teaching role, at the University was in General Cardiology, Cardiovascular Diseases associated with HIV a1d Cardiovascular Risk Management. Dr. Danter’s initial research focused on the medical application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to disease diagnosis and outcome prediction. The primary aspect of his research has focused on developing Hybrid AI models to pattern the relationship between molecular strudzure and biological activity. This research has resulted in a sophisticated process for decomposing complex molecules into critical elements that permit accurate molecular structure activity modeling (CHEMSAS). His research has been published in peer-reviewed publications and he has presented at numerous international meetings. Dr. Danter is a pioneer in the evolving interface between AI Technologies and pharmacotherapeutics. These AI technologies are anticipated to play a major role in 21st century drug development.
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About Cotinga Pharmaceuticals: Cotinga Pharmaceuticals discovers and develops drug therapies for diseases.
Jim Knight
President of xRapid
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About xRapid: xRapid is a mobile health diagnosis through disruptive solutions leveraging the use of artificial intelligence.
