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 Oxford based CEO’ operating in the Biopharma space. If you think a CEO’ 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.
Emma Sceats
CEO of Isogenica
Dr Sceats joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Commercial Manager to spearhead the organisation’s sales, marketing and business development activities. She has led sales and partnering initiatives with major pharmaceutical organisations and overseen academic research and licensing programs, including with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that have led to the development of the company’s leading products. Dr Sceats was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in May 2013 with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company, focussing on delivering the objectives of company investors. Dr Sceats holds degrees from Oxford and Bristol Universities (UK) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied Chemistry. Her previous roles include working as a research scientist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours (Wilmington, DE, USA) and in intellectual property management and licensing for the University of Oxford.
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About Isogenica: Isogenica operates a range of discovery platforms supported by state-of-the-art methodologies for identifying antibody and peptide ligands.
Gordon Sanghera
Chief Executive Officer, Co – founder of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Gordon Sanghera was co-founder of Oxford Nanopore, together with Hagan Bayley and IP Group. He was appointed CEO in June 2005 having acted as a consultant since February 2005 whilst the Company was established. He brings over 15 years experience in the design, development and global launch of novel point-of-care biosensor devices. At Abbott Laboratories, Dr Sanghera held both UK and US Director level positions, including Research Director and Manufacturing Process Development Director. Before its acquisition by Abbott, Gordon led the R&D of Medisense Inc. where he was instrumental in the launch of several generations of blood glucose biosensor systems for the consumer and medical markets. He has also developed and validated market production processes to meet with the regulatory requirements for USA and Europe. Gordon has a DPhil in biosensor technology and a degree in Chemistry.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
James Noble
Founder & CEO of Adaptimmune
James Noble has served as our full-time Chief Executive Officer since March 2014 and part-time CEO from July 2008 to March 2014 and is one of our co-founders. From July 2008 until March 2014, Mr. Noble was also part-time CEO of Immunocore. Mr. Noble has 24 years of experience in the biotech industry. He has held numerous non-executive director positions, including at CuraGen Corporation, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford GlycoSciences plc, MediGene AG, and Advanced Medical Solutions plc. Mr. Noble is also Deputy Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc and a non-executive director of Immunocore Limited. Mr. Noble is qualified as a chartered accountant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and spent seven years at the investment bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where he became a director in 1990. He then joined British Biotech plc as Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1997. Mr. Noble was previously Chief Executive Officer of Avidex Limited, a privately held biotechnology company that was our predecessor, from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Noble holds an MA from the University of Oxford.
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About Adaptimmune, Advanced Medical Solutions, Curagen Corporation, MediGene, Oxford GlycoSciences, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals: Adaptimmune develops T cell therapies to treat cancer, human immunodeficiency virus, and infectious diseases.
Martin-Immanuel Bittner
Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris
Martin-Immanuel Bittner MD DPhil is a clinician-scientist and life sciences entrepreneur. He is a Rhodes scholar, an active member of several leading cancer research organisations, and an elected member of the Young Academy of the German National Academy of Sciences. Martin is a Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris, the world’s first fully automated drug discovery platform.
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About Arctoris: Arctoris is a tech-enabled platform company in biotechnology, combining robotics & data science to accelerate drug discovery.
Peter Donnelly
Chief Executive Officer of Genomics
Peter Donnelly is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, and a founder and director of Genomics plc, a fast-growing company in the genome analytics space. He has played a leading role in many of the major projects and developments at the interface between genetics, healthcare, and clinical medicine, including the HapMap project, the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortia, and WGS500, one of the studies pioneering whole genome sequencing in clinical medicine.
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About Genomics, University of Oxford: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Eliot Forster
CEO of F-star Therapeutics
Eliot Forster is Chief Executive Officer at F-star Therapeutics.
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About F-star Therapeutics: F-star is developing a pipeline of novel bispecific antibodies with a therapeutic focus in immuno-oncology and oncology.
David Hughes
CEO of CN Bio Innovations
Dr Hughes joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Head of Engineering, was promoted to Technical Director in 2013 with responsibility for the management of all in-house and collaborative research and development programmes and the contract research services business. Dr Hughes was subsequently promoted to Chief Technology Officer in July 2014 with responsibility for managing the technical programs with the company’s academic and industrial partners. and, in 2018, he was promoted to CEO. During his career at CN Bio, he has secured and overseen the successful delivery of government and pharmaceutical research contracts and research grants totalling more than £2Mi.
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About CN Bio Innovations: CN Bio develops human organ-on-a-chip platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases.
David Hughes
CEO of CN Bio Innovations
Dr Hughes joined CN Bio Innovations in 2010 as Head of Engineering, was promoted to Technical Director in 2013 with responsibility for the management of all in-house and collaborative research and development programmes and the contract research services business. Dr Hughes was subsequently promoted to Chief Technology Officer in July 2014 with responsibility for managing the technical programs with the company’s academic and industrial partners. and, in 2018, he was promoted to CEO. During his career at CN Bio, he has secured and overseen the successful delivery of government and pharmaceutical research contracts and research grants totalling more than £2Mi.
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About CN Bio Innovations: CN Bio develops human organ-on-a-chip platforms for the testing and development of therapeutics for serious human diseases.
