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 Venture Partner operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a Venture 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.
Michael Carter
Venture Partner of SV Health Investors
Dr. Michael Carter joined SVLS in 1998 as a Venture Partner. From 1986 to 1998 Michael was on the board of ICI/Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and from 1995 – 1998 was also a board member of Salick Healthcare – a US subsidiary of Zeneca. He was International Marketing Director at ICI/Zeneca Pharmaceuticals; in addition as International Medical Director he was involved in the clinical and commercial development of over 20 new medicines. For 10 years (1986 – 1996) he was a member of the UK Government’s Medicines Commission. He has also worked at Roche Products as Director of the Pharmaceutical Division. Before entering the pharmaceutical industry, Michael practiced as a physician for eleven years. Michael is currently on the boards of GTx Inc, Oxagen / Atopix, Oncoethix, Santarus Inc. and a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Healthcare Royalty Partners. Previously Dr Carter was on the boards of CancerVax, Genosis, Fulcrum, KuDOS, Micromet and Warner Chilcott.
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About OncoEthix, SV Health Investors: SV Health Investors is a Boston-based venture capital firm focused on investments in biotechnology and healthcare industry.
Hamish Cameron
Venture Partner of SV Health Investors
Hamish Cameron is the Operating Partner at SV Health Investors.
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About Janssen Belgium, SV Health Investors, SV Health Investors: SV Health Investors is a Boston-based venture capital firm focused on investments in biotechnology and healthcare industry.
Patrick Round
Venture Partner of Forbion Capital Partners
Before joining NorthSea Therapeutics, Patrick Round was CMO and CEO of Xention Limited which conducted all the development work for Dezima BV which was acquired by Amgen. Before Xention he was Senior Vice President of Development at Cambridge Antibody Technology when it was acquired by Astra Zeneca. He also served as Director of Development at Celltech, Director of Clinical Development at Glaxo Wellcome and started his pharma career as a medical adviser at Novo Nordisk in 1991 in the UK and later in Denmark. He has also worked as CMO for a number of Biotech start-up companies. He received his medical degree from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in London in 1982, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 1990 and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in 2005
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About Forbion Capital Partners, NorthSea Therapeutics: Forbion Capital Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm for making investments in buyouts.
