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 Partner operating in the Pharmaceutical space. If you think a Partner 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.
Jim Faulkner
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Jim Faulkner is a venture partner at ATP. A highly experienced biopharmaceutical development leader with specialist skills in gene and cell therapy, he has been significantly involved in taking more than 25 different medicines into the clinic, including multiple CAR-T assets. Most recently, Jim headed Product Delivery for Autolus Ltd, a clinical-stage CAR-T company spun out of University College London. During his tenure, he set up and led a team of over 75 scientists and engineers in the US and UK responsible for process development, technical operations, engineering and supply chain, and he served on the leadership team that took Autolus from start-up to successful IPO in three years. Prior to that, Jim held various leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including overseeing the chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) development and supply of a portfolio of pioneering product types that included gene and cell therapies, oligonucleotides, therapeutic enzymes, and molecular chaperones, and playing a significant role in the successful filing of the first-ever autologous ex vivo gene/cell therapy product license (for Strimvelis™). He started his career at British Biotech, the first biotechnology company to be publicly listed in the UK. Jim earned a BSc in biotechnology from the University of Leeds and completed his PhD in molecular biology at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Rajesh Chopra
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Raj Chopra is a venture partner at ATP. At The Institute of Cancer Research in London, as director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit, he led one of the largest academic drug discovery groups in the world and focused on targeted protein degradation and complex 3D cell culture models. Raj also worked at Celgene from 2009 to 2016 as corporate vice president of Translational and Early Drug Development, leading an international team of more than 100 scientists. Before joining Celgene, he held leadership positions in AstraZeneca’s Oncology Therapeutics group in the UK and US. Raj started his academic career as the director of Hematological Oncology at Christie Hospital and was group leader at the Paterson Institute of Cancer Research, both located in Manchester, UK. He is a non-executive director of Artios Pharma, established to develop a next-generation DNA damage response target pipeline of cancer therapeutics, and co-founder of Monté Rosa Therapeutics, a biotech focused on targeted protein degradation. Raj trained in medicine at University College London, where he earned his PhD in medicine, cell and molecular biology. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Pathologists, and the Royal Society of Biology.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Andrew Bayliffe
Venture Partner of Apple Tree Partners
Andrew Bayliffe is a venture partner at ATP. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, he possesses expertise in the discovery and development of both small molecule and antibody therapeutics across a broad range of diseases areas. Most recently, at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), he served as head of the Fibrosis and Lung Injury Discovery unit at GSK’s R&D headquarters in Stevenage, UK, and held senior roles in antibody discovery and development in the US and UK. Andrew is an honorary professor at the Wolfson Institute of Experimental Medicine at Queens College in Belfast. He completed his undergraduate and PhD studies in pharmacology, physiology, and molecular biology at Manchester University and Leeds University in the UK.
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About Apple Tree Partners: Apple Tree Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, and healthcare services.
Adam Kundzewicz
Global Head of Strategic Market Access Initiatives and Tech Partnerships of Boehringer Ingelheim
Adam is Head of Pricing and Contracting for UK and Ireland at Boehringer Ingelheim, working across the whole Boehringer Ingelheim prescription medicines portfolio. Before moving to the UK in 2015, Adam was a Senior Global Payer Strategy Manager working in oncology pipeline at Boehringer Ingelheim in Ingelheim, Germany. He was managing global pricing and market access strategies for the oncology portfolio and driving the development of innovative market access approaches and payment schemes. Prior to joining Boehringer Ingelheim Adam worked as a life sciences strategy consultant for IMS Consulting, IBM Watson Health and Simon-Kucher & Partners in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Romania and The United States. He also worked as a research assistant at Jules Gonin Eye Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland and as a Junior Project Leader at AnalyCen in Poland and Sweden. Adam holds a M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from University of Warsaw, Poland, and a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from University of Geneva, University of Lausanne and EPFL, Switzerland. He has published several articles in international peer reviewed journals, and lectured at international conferences on developmental neuroscience and retinal degeneration.
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About Boehringer Ingelheim: Boehringer Ingelheim is a global group of companies embracing many cultures and diverse societies.
David Davenport-Firth
Managing Partner, Brain Sciences Centre of Ogilvy Health
David Davenport-Firth leads health behaviour strategy and intervention, driving and supporting Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide’s position as the health behaviour specialists of Ogilvy. He is a self-confessed ‘quantified selfer’ and is passionate about health data visualisation and wearable technology. He is particularly interested in clinical decision making behaviour and how the psychosocial dimensions of health and illness can be better managed through visualisation and digital engagement. As such, he relishes collaborations with Central Saint Martins, Imperial College London, the University of Oxford Health Experiences Research Group, Warwick Business School the University of Westminster and is an active member of the #ogilvychange community. After working in innovation management and marketing, including two years in the United States, David returned to England to join Coley Porter Bell, becoming Chairman in 2001. He later moved into Ogilvy’s health network and after establishing a consulting offer and re-engineering the digital health practice in London, he switched his focus to behavioural medicine.
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About Ogilvy Health: Ogilvy Health is a marketing and advertising agency that specializes in the health care industry.
