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 Life Science 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.
Giovanni Pericolini
Finance Director & CFO of Medicxi Ventures
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About Medicxi Ventures: Medicxi is a life sciences-focused investment firm.
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Merrion Edwards
Director, Global Market and Technology Development of Corning
Merrion Edwards is currently the director of market and technology development, optical fibre and cable, for Corning Optical Communications. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of telecommunications and is the author of 60 papers in industry journals, covering a broad range of applications: Core, Metro, Access, DataCenter, Transport and Photonics. During her career at Corning, Dr. Edwards has become a knowledge expert on emerging telecommunications trends and synergetic innovation of optical fibre, cable and components to enable advancement of telecommunications transport systems. Prior to joining Corning, Edwards conducted research into photonic devices for telecommunications and sensing. Edwards holds a PhD from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
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About Corning: Corning is a manufacturer of building materials including glass, ceramic, related materials and technologies, and more.
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.
Luke Mason
Director of Virtual Futures
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About The New Bionics, Virtual Futures: Virtual Futures is an events series that works in cyberculture conferences.
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.
Tauhid Ali
COO & Director of JATT Acquisition
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About JATT Acquisition: JATT Acquisition provides fund assistance to businesses from the life sciences sector.
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.
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.
