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 United Kingdom based CFO’ operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a CFO’ 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.
James Abell
Partner and CFO of Abingworth
Jams has more than 14 years of venture capital experience and three years of operational experience in life science companies. His directorships have included Chroma Therapeutics, Clinical Designs and Syntaxin. He joined Abingworth as CFO in 1998, prior to which he was CFO of Prolifix from 1995 to 1998. He trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG. He holds a degree in Biology with Chemistry from the University of Southampton. James handles Abingworth’s finance and administration as well as investment matters, focusing on start-up companies.
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About Abingworth: Abingworth is an international investment group dedicated to collaborating with life sciences entrepreneurs.
Neil Cooper
Chief Financial Officer of Abingworth
Neil is responsible for finance, administration, and investor relations. Before joining Kennet, he was the Financial Controller at Robert W. Baird Group. Prior to that he worked at Advent Venture Partners. He began his career at KPMG where he gained experience in both Audit and Transaction Services. Neil is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a BSc. in Biochemistry from the University of Warwick.
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About Abingworth: Abingworth is an international investment group dedicated to collaborating with life sciences entrepreneurs.
Alex Asquith
General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer of Abingworth
Alex joined Abingworth in 2005 having previously been a member of the UK legal team at The BOC Group plc, where she was responsible for providing legal advice on a wide range of issues to one of BOC’s lines of business. Alex trained as a solicitor at the London offices of Slaughter and May and was an assistant solicitor in the corporate and commercial department from 1994-1999. Alex’s role at Abingworth is to assist the General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer as well as to provide legal support to the life sciences team
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About Abingworth: Abingworth is an international investment group dedicated to collaborating with life sciences entrepreneurs.
Karam Hirji
CFO of Polymateria
Karam Hirji is the Chief Financial Officer of Polymateria.
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About Polymateria: Polymateria is a London-based startup advancing science to help nature deal with plastic pollution.
David Lawrence
Chief Financial Officer (Acting) of Valneva
CFO of vaccine biotech company Acambis, Vice President Finance, Business Development and Strategy at Chiron Vaccines, Vice President Finance GSK, non-executive and advisory experience, 30 years of experience in vaccines and life sciences.
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About Valneva: Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on prevention of infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need.
Gavin Horn
Chief Financial Officer of Eagle Genomics
Gavin is a Chartered Accountant with 15 years’ experience managing the varied financial operations of rapidly growing technology businesses. Gavin qualified with PwC in London before moving into the high technology sector and has worked extensively both in the UK and overseas. He has been involved with many companies during intense periods of both organic and acquisitive expansion. His most recent appointment was at AIM listed Brady plc during a time when the group went through a period of rapid revenue growth and geographic expansion including the integration of multiple significant acquisitions. The group also secured a substantial and significantly oversubscribed share placing. He has a BSc in Software Engineering from Durham University.
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About Eagle Genomics: Eagle Genomics is a enterprise software solutions company to enable the management, orchestration and exploitation of life sciences data.
James Rawlingson
Chief Financial Officer of Arix Bioscience
James has substantial experience at board and senior management level gained over 20 years of involvement in financial services and UK public companies. James’ former role was Group CFO of Charles Stanley plc, a leading wealth manager with over £20 billion of funds under management and administration. Previously, James was Group CFO for Coutts Bank, where he was responsible for the global finance function and held a key role in setting strategy. Before this James spent two years at UBS Wealth Management based in Zurich after promotion from his role as CFO of UBS Wealth UK.
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About Arix Bioscience: Arix Bioscience is a healthcare and life science company.
Keith Lovell
CFO of Antidote.me
Keith Lovell brings over 15 years’ experience gained from commercial, financial and management positions in a range of blue-chip, entrepreneurial and start-up organisations. Prior to Shazam at Extreme Mobile, Keith played an integral role in formulating commercial and financial plans for an MNVO venture with Vodafone. Previously, he was also responsible for all major network operator and supplier relationships at DX Communications Ltd and played a key role in negotiating the sale of the UK retail business to BT Cellnet, now 02.
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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.
Wendy Britten
Chief Financial Officer of Congenica
Wendy Britten is a Senior Finance professional with an extensive track record of delivering in leadership positions across a range of industries, including numerous M&A transactions. Most recently Wendy headed up the Group Finance Business Performance team at AstraZeneca, working in close partnership with the CEO, CFO and the Senior Executive Team. Prior to joining AZ Wendy progressed her career in a variety of roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers, starting in Audit and culminating as a Director in M&A in London and New York. Wendy holds a BSc in Mathematics from University of Sheffield and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
John Bradshaw
Chief Financial Officer of Syncona Partners LLP
John Bradshaw is the Chief Financial Officer of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He has worked extensively with companies in the life science sector as a part-time and interim CFO. He was previously CFO of Gyrus Group PLC and qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen. John has a degree in Law from the University of Liverpool.
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About Avillion, Syncona Partners LLP: Syncona Partners LLP is a healthcare company focused on investing in and building global leaders in life science.
Anne Hyland
Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary of Kymab
Hyland has a strong track record within the biopharma sector, bringing with her over 25 years of financial experience with both public and private companies. Most recently, she served as Chief Financial Officer of BBI Diagnostics Group Ltd and FTSE-listed Vectura Group plc (LSE: VEC). Ms Hyland currently serves as Non-executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the global pharmaceutical and services company, Clinigen Group plc (AIM:CLIN). Prior to Vectura, she held a number of senior finance position, including Director of Corporate Finance at the then FTSE 100 Celltech Group plc, Medeva plc and KPMG. Ms Hyland is a Chartered Accountant (FCA), a Corporate Tax Adviser (CTA–AITI) and holds a degree in business studies from Trinity College, Dublin.
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About Kymab: Kymab is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing fully human monoclonal antibody therapeutics.
Fiona Stewart
Chief Financial Officer of Cambridge Epigenetix
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About Cambridge Epigenetix, Fusion Global Capital: Cambridge Epigenetix is using epigenetics to reduce several routine & important diagnostic tests for common cancers to a simple blood draw.
Barry Knight
CFO of Edinburgh Molecular Imaging
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About Domainex, Edinburgh Molecular Imaging: Edinburgh Molecular Imaging is a developer of optical molecular imaging technology.
Benjamin Palleiko
Chief Financial Officer of KalVista Pharmaceuticals
Ben joined KalVista as Chief Financial Officer in August 2016. He has over 20 years of industry experience as a life sciences investment banker at firms including Robertson Stephens and SunTrust and a Senior Executive of several public and private biotech companies including SVP & CFO of Ore Pharmaceutical Holdings and Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. In his roles, Ben has overseen strategic planning, business development, business operations, finance, human resources, legal, and investor relations. He has completed over 50 strategic, licensing and financing transactions and raised more than $2 billion in capital. Ben holds a BA in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University and an MBA in Finance and MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago. He served as a Naval Aviator in the U.S. Navy.
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About KalVista Pharmaceuticals: KalVista Pharmaceuticals is an ophthalmology company focused on developing drugs for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).
Theo Harold
CFO of Crescendo Biologics
Theodora Harold is a chartered accountant with significant experience as a Chief Financal Officer and Company Secretary with early stage and growing companies in the biotech sector. She has a background in both industry and corporate finance with 16 years of experience in SMEs in the biotech and hi-tech sectors and has held roles with Cytomyx Holdings plc, RioTech Pharmaceuticals Ltd, OrthoMimetics Ltd, Hybrid Biosystems Ltd, Myotec Therapeutics Ltd and Mission Therapeutics Ltd. Prior to this, Theodora trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers and read Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge.
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About Crescendo Biologics, Crescendo Biologics, Crescendo Biologics: Crescendo Biologics is engaged in the development of a proprietary drug portfolio based on their VH antibody fragment platform.
Zalakben Kataria
CFO & DIrector of CLYZ Labs
Zalakben holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from S.P. University in India. Zalakben has a number of years’ experience as a project manager in Clinical Finance Ltd. Prior to her work with Clinical Finance Ltd Zalakben was based in India
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About CLYZ Labs: CLYZ Labs are developing a testing service to select the best drug therapy for personalised cancer treatment.
Zalakben Kataria
CFO & DIrector of CLYZ Labs
Zalakben holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from S.P. University in India. Zalakben has a number of years’ experience as a project manager in Clinical Finance Ltd. Prior to her work with Clinical Finance Ltd Zalakben was based in India
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About CLYZ Labs: CLYZ Labs are developing a testing service to select the best drug therapy for personalised cancer treatment.
Andrew McMeeking
CFO of Prescient Healthcare Group
Andrew joined Prescient’s team in 2012 after holding finance director positions in marketing services companies such as Publicis and Gyro. He is a qualified chartered accountant and holds an honors degree in accountancy from Dundee University. He manages Prescient’s finances and is the company secretary. He was heavily involved in setting up the shared resources service center in the UK and arranging Prescient’s de-merger/MBO in 2014.
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About Prescient Healthcare Group: Prescient Healthcare Group was founded in London in 1995, originally specializing in competitive insights.
Anjum Ahmad
CFO of Touchlight Genetics
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About Touchlight Genetics: Touchlight Genetics, a British bio-pharmaceutical company founded in 2007.
Paul Hayes
Chief Financial Officer of Consort Medical
Group Finance Director, British, aged 49, appointed to the Board on 13 June 2011. Previously he was Group Financial Controller at Signet Jewellers Limited (formerly Signet Group plc) between 2007 and 2011. Prior to that, he held a senior role at RHM plc from 2004 to 2007, through its flotation in 2005 and subsequent sale to Premier Foods plc. Paul was with Smiths Group plc for over ten years from 1993, including a number of divisional and operating company finance director roles. He is a Chartered Accountant having qualified with EY, and has a first class Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacture & Management.
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About Consort Medical, Vitec Group: Consort Medical offers medical device technologies for drug delivery and hospital products for the management of patient airways.
Jayesh Pankhania
Chief Financial Officer of Horizon Discovery
Jayesh joined Xtera in February 2017 with over 25 years’ senior finance experience having started his career with PwC. He has since held senior roles in public quoted and privately owned companies, rising rapidly to the CFO role in his latest two positions, most recently with the HOC Group, a $150M privately owned construction group. Prior to that he was with Asia Resource Minerals PLC (Group Turnover >$1B) as Deputy CFO. Jayesh was responsible for improving corporate governance and financial controls in both cases. Jayesh attended the University of East Anglia studying Accountancy, holds an MBA from the London Business School and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
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About Horizon Discovery: Horizon is a gene editing company that designs & engineers genetically-modified cells, applying them to advance human health.
Didier Le Normand
Chief Financial Officer of Minoryx Therapeutics
Didier Le Normand graduated from the ESLSCA Paris business school (F) and holds a MBA degree from Pace University NY (USA). After a start of his career in banking, both United States and France, he moved to industrial corporate environments. Now he has a 20 year CFO experience, Finance and Operations, for private equity and venture backed private and listed companies in Europe, particularly in the Technology and Healthcare sectors. Over the past ten years Didier worked for Novagali Pharma (listed ophthalmic Biotech sold to Santen Pharma Japan), Cellnovo (listed Medtech, diabetes management systems) and, in his previous role, for STAT-DX (Spanish private medical diagnostic, successful sale to Qiagen in April 2018).
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About Minoryx Therapeutics: Minoryx Therapeutics offers pharmacological chaperones, which are small molecule drugs used for the treatment of genetic diseases.
Michael Neame
Chief Financial Officer of Nature Metrics
Michael Neame is the Chief Financial Officer at Nature Metrics.
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About Nature Metrics: Nature Metrics is an award-winning technology start-up using cutting-edge genetic techniques to monitor biodiversity.
Jiahao Huang
Co-founder, Director and CFO of Nuclera
A molecular biologist by trade, Jiahao has coordinated multi-national collaborative projects and experienced first hand the limitations of the current provision of DNA. This intimate knowledge of user requirements enables him to guide Nuclera’s commercial operations towards creating the right product for the right market. Jiahao holds a BSc from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge.
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About Nuclera: Nuclera makes biology accessible through desktop enzymatic protein and gene synthesis.
Dawn Watson
Chief Financial Officer of AMR Centre
Experienced Financial Director of both high potential start-ups and established businesses across a broad range of industries. Having trained with Ernst & Young and after gaining many years in industry established her own company in 2010, FinStra Ltd, to provide strategic and financial support either as a part time or ad hoc Finance Director together with undertaking specific projects to help companies achieve their full potential.
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About AMR Centre: AMR Centre is a joint private-public initiative to support/accelerate the development of new antibiotics and diagnostics.
Peter Worrall
CFO of Rex Bionics
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About Rex Bionics: REX is a hands-free, self supporting, independently controlled, robotic mobility device.
Julien Cotta
CFO of Inion
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About Inion: Inion is a medical devices company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative biodegradable applications.
Bob Finnigan
Chief Financial Officer of Monica Healthcare
Bob qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG (Thomson McLintock) and worked for over 20 years’ in various senior financial roles for a large international market research company, including 6 years as Regional CFO. Following that, for the last 8 years he has operated as an independent specialist providing CFO services to early-stage businesses and undertaking financial due diligence work on VCT investments. Bob has put in place and manages a robust financial control and reporting system and brings a high level of financial experience to the management team.
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About Monica Healthcare: Monica Healthcare is developing a series of wearable devices.
John A. Tattory
Chief Financial Officer of Windtree Therapeutics
Joined Discovery Labs in January 2008 and serves as Discovery Labs’ Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, after several years as Vice President, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Tattory brings to Discovery Labs more than 20 years of finance and accounting experience, including eight years as a CPA and auditor at Ernst & Young LLP and eight years at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) managing financial matters for various BMS pharmaceutical businesses including international operations. Mr. Tattory is currently responsible for managing the Company’s financial and accounting operations, including financial planning and forecasting, financial analysis, accounting systems and policies, internal controls, commercial accounting matters including sales forecasting and product pricing, cost accounting, and financial reporting.
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About Windtree Therapeutics: Windtree is a clinical-stage focused on developing novel surfactant therapies for respiratory diseases and other potential applications.
Raymond Spencer
CFO of OxStem
Raymond Spencer, CFO has over 30 years’ experience as a senior financial officer in biotech. For 12 years he was the CFO of LSE listed Antisoma plc. Whilst at Antisoma he was instrumental in completing the IPO in 1998, several fund-raising rounds that totalled over £100 million, the acquisition of two private US biotech companies and the closing of three licensing deals with big pharma with total upfront licence fees exceeding £100m. Raymond was CFO for AIM listed Summit plc for 5 years to July 2014 having completed a restructuring of the company, raised over £20m in equity financing and the acquisition of the Oxford University spin-out MuOx Ltd. Raymond is currently part-time founder, Director and CFO of MGB-Biopharma Ltd, which has raised over £6m from angel investors, Scottish Enterprise and won a Biomedical Catalyst award from Innovate UK to progress drugs for treatment of anti-microbial resistance. He has also established his own consultancy company, Bio-CFO Ltd providing services to biotech and cleantech companies. Raymond qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1979.
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About MGB Biopharma, OxStem: OxStem is a drug discovery company.
