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 COO’ operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a COO’ 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.
David Brindley
Chief Operating Officer of Rational Vaccines
David is an international thought-leader in healthcare risk management, with a particular interest in regenerative medicines. His multi-disciplinary research seeks to evaluate and develop systematic, rigorous and transparent risk management tools supporting the translation of life-science innovations into commercially viable products and services.
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About Rational Vaccines: Rational Vaccines is a pre-clinical stage that develops live-attenuated herpes simplex virus vaccines.
Ivan Griffin
COO & Co-Founder of BenevolentAI
Ivan joined NESTA in March 2009. He makes and manages investments in the Healthcare sector. Prior to joining NESTA Ivan spent four years at IP Group where he was predominantly focused on healthcare and life science businesses. At IP Group his role encompassed all aspects of technology commercialisation, including identification of investment opportunities, spin-out company formation, business and corporate development as well as private and public equity financings and trade sales. Before joining IP Group Ivan spent two years at Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trust, and a year in post-doctoral research where he published several scientific papers.
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About BenevolentAI: BenevolentAI is a developer of artificial intelligence and computational medicine technologies.
Nick Lench
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Scientific Officer of Congenica
Nick was previously Director of the NE Thames Regional Genetics Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, with responsibility for the strategic and operational management of a genetics service that provides DNA diagnostic testing to a population of approximately 4.5M people. Nick is an honorary Reader at the UCL Institute of Child Health, London and has over 25 years of research experience in human molecular genetics and was awarded a personal chair in Medical Genetics at Cardiff University in 2005. As founding CEO of London Genetics Ltd and Programme Director at Oxagen Ltd, Nick has gained significant expertise in establishing and managing academic, healthcare and commercial partnerships in biomedical discovery and diagnostics.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
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.
Gerald Crabtree
Chief Operating Officer of PharmaCyte Biotech
Gerald Crabtree is the Chief Operating Officer of PharmaCyte Biotech and a Board member. He has spent almost 50 years working in academic, biotech and pharmaceutical companies with the majority of that vast experience being in the development of drugs and treatments for cancer. He has held positions of ever-increasing importance over that time. Crabtree’s background in the biomedical sciences has been substantial, having been involved with various biopharmaceutical companies where he has alternatively supervised and coordinated the development of multiple drug candidates, prepared clinical protocols, investigator brochures, monographs, and research and review articles. A highlight of Dr. Crabtree’s professional career was his tenure as Director of Project Planning and Management (Oncology and Immunology) at Bristol-Myers Squibb (“BMS”) from 1990 to 1997. While at BMS, Crabtree established and directed a department that monitored and coordinated the development of all oncologic and immunologic drugs from initial discovery through regulatory approval within BMS and served as Project Manager for the development of the major anticancer agent, Taxol®, the “number one” drug under development at BMS at that time. Taxol® ultimately became a multi-billion dollar drug for BMS and is still widely used to treat a variety of cancers. From 1989 to 1990, Crabtree was Director of Pharmacology at Viratek, Inc., a subsidiary of ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Costa Mesa, California. There he worked on the development of anticancer drugs first developed at the Nucleic Acid Research Institute (NARI, a joint venture between Eastman Kodak and ICN Pharmaceuticals) and with ribavirin (Virazole®), Viratek’s landmark antiviral drug. From 1985 to 1989, Crabtree served as Head of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at NARI where his department was tasked with elucidating the mechanisms of action of anticancer and antiviral drugs developed by NARI chemists. From 1970 to 1985, Crabtree held several faculty positions at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island as well as at the Roger Williams Cancer Center (“RWCC”) at that institution. These positions culminated in his attaining the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine. During his time at Brown and the RWCC, Crabtree studied the mechanisms of action of putative anticancer and antiparasitic drugs and participated in clinical trials of anticancer agents. After leaving BMS in 1997, Crabtree consulted with several biotech companies, all of which were developing cancer drugs or treatments. Then, from 2000 to 2003, Crabtree served as Vice President of R&D at ETEX Corporation, a “device” company, where he was tasked with developing that company’s proprietary calcium phosphate formulations as depot/delivery platforms for cancer drugs. Upon leaving ETEX, he resumed his consulting business, which soon became focused on PhytoCeutica, Inc. located in the Yale Science Park in New Haven, Connecticut, where he assisted in the preparation and review of FDA documents, clinical study protocols, investment acquisitions, and contracts and business plans. PhytoCeutica was developing a traditional Chinese medicine four-herb combination as a treatment for liver and pancreatic cancer. During his time with PhytoCeutica, Crabtree assumed ever-increasing responsibilities and from 2009 to 2010, ultimately serving as its Interim CEO. Dr. Crabtree resumed his consulting business after leaving PhytoCeutica until he joined PharmaCyte Biotech. Crabtree received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He was a National Cancer Institute of Canada Research Fellow. Crabtree is currently a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. He has served on research grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.
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About PharmaCyte Biotech: PharmaCyte Biotech is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing and preparing to commercialize treatments for cancer.
Victor Dillard
Founder , COO & CEO of Desktop Genetics
A former chemical engineer keen on seeing personalized treatment realized, Victor has spent the past three years leading Desktop Genetics’ business development and CRISPR genome-editing initiatives. He has closed several partnerships with leading life science companies, placing Desktop Genetics at the forefront of CRISPR therapeutics research. Informed by his previous experience at P&G, GlaxoSmithKline, Flagship Ventures, Victor believes that software will be the key to unlocking the full potential of biotech R&D. He holds MEng, Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.
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About Desktop Genetics: Desktop Genetics is an international company to help researchers discover and treat the root genetic causes of human disease.
Sacha Carton
Co-Founder & COO of Airfinity
Sacha is co-founder & COO at Airfinity – a science information and analytics company. He is a data, tech and media entrepreneur who previously co-founded ad pepper media (FRA: APM), Adbrain (sold to NSDQ: TTD), Scala Ventures and advisory firm Ogmenta and has been an investor, advisor and director in multiple media, data, adtech, PE and M&A companies in Europe and the US.
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About Airfinity, Scala Ventures: Airfinity is a science information and analytics company
Katherine Willetts
COO of DynamX Medical
After graduating from the University of Warwick in 2011 with a BSc. in Biochemistry Katie became interested in translational medicine and biophysics. She went on to complete her PhD at UCL in 2015 in the technical development of infrared spectroscopy for biomedical applications. She has published several papers relating to the handling and analysis of biological samples in infrared spectroscopy research. Several aspects of her research have proven key in the development of the BeamLine algorithm. Katie co-founded BeamLine Diagnostics in March 2015 and continues to work on technical development and data analysis.
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About DynamX Medical, Oxford Pharmagenesis: DynamX Medical has developed a diagnostic system for cancer and pre-cancer.
Nick Denison-Pender
COO of Prescient Healthcare Group
Nick, is COO joined Prescient in 2010. After studying engineering, he held various positions focused on business improvement, mainly in the construction industry. He has worked in many parts of the world, establishing and embedding businesses into local markets. At Prescient, he holds overall responsibility for their operations and infrastructure and has been instrumental in setting up the departments, processes and procedures required to support a growing business.
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About Prescient Healthcare Group: Prescient Healthcare Group was founded in London in 1995, originally specializing in competitive insights.
Fiona du Monceau
COO of ExeVir Bio
Fiona du Monceau is the Chief Operating Officer of ExeVir Bio.
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About ExeVir Bio: ExeVir Bio is a Belgium-based company that develops single-domain antibody-based therapies that help patients ward off viral infections.
Cameron Shaw
Founder and COO of Virax Biolabs
Cameron Shaw is the founder and Chief Operations Officer at Virax Biolabs.
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About Virax Biolabs: Virax Biolabs is an innovative Biotechnology company focused on the prevention, detection and diagnosis of viral diseases
Jaymin Amin
COO of Ingenza
Jaymin Amin has a successful track record of 15 years of sales, marketing and financial experience in life sciences start-up companies. Working in the life sciences publishing division of the Daily Mail group, Jaymin delivered record revenues and profits, before leaving to co-found a life sciences media company of his own. He joined the board of Ingenza in 2006 as financial director. After helping to grow the business four fold in his first four years, Jaymin was promoted to chief operating officer in 2011.
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About Ingenza, ProFactor Pharma: Ingenza is an industrial biotechnology company.
David Lane
COO and Co-Founder of EProfiler Solutions
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About EProfiler Solutions: EProfiler Solutions develops technology solutions to diagnose diseases.
Peter Bryant
COO of FarmaTrust
Peter Bryant the Chief Operating Officer of FarmaTrust. This is a new company which uses modern technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data analytics to prevent counterfeit drugs from contaminating the supply chain. This gives customers and patients the security that the medicines they are purchasing are genuine. The FarmaTrust system also creates efficiencies for Pharmaceutical companies and also regulatory compliance. Peter Bryant also works in numerous positions supporting companies and startups, he is the Chairman of Imployable, an app startup looking to disrupt the recruitment and education sectors.
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About FarmaTrust: FarmaTrust is the most efficient global tracking system which provides security to both patients and the pharmaceutical industry.
John Whittaker
Chief Operating Officer of Celleron Therapeutics
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About Celleron Therapeutics: Celleron Therapeutics is an oncology company dedicated to funding new and innovative treatments for cancer.
