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 COO’ operating in the Biopharma 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.
Sebastian Brunemeier
Founder & COO of Samsara Therapeutics
Sebastian Brunemeier is the Founder and COO of Samsara Therapeutics.
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About Cyclone Therapeutics, Samsara Therapeutics, U.S. Department of State, University of Oxford: Samsara Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that aims to discover therapeutics to treat rare genetic and neurodegenerative disease.
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.
Thomas Fleming
Co-Founder & COO of Arctoris
Thomas Fleming is an award-winning chemist, cancer researcher, and SME Leader of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Tom is the Co-Founder & COO at Arctoris.
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About Arctoris: Arctoris is a tech-enabled platform company in biotechnology, combining robotics & data science to accelerate drug discovery.
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.
Daniel Green
Chief Operating Officer of Caristo Diagnostics
Experienced start-up executive, most recently COO at Perspectum Diagnostics. Led multiple products through successful FDA and CE clearances. 20 years in medical device industry, both hardware and software.
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About Caristo Diagnostics: Caristo Diagnostics utilises standard CT scans to identify potentially heart-stopping plaques
Jamie Ferguson
Chief Operating Officer of ADC Biotechnology
Jamie Ferguson currently serves ADC Biotechnology as chief operating officer. Jamie has more than 30 years of commercial experience, developing, managing and delivering strategies for growth in the contract manufacture of agrochemical, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical products.
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About ADC Biotechnology: ADC BIO is an innovative biotechnology company. Specialising in Antibody Drug Conjugates.
Simon Tyler
Chief Operating Officer of CatSci
Simon obtained an MA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from Hertford College, Oxford in 1995 and earned a PhD in 1998 after research on asymmetric synthesis in the group of Prof. Laurence M. Harwood. Then followed a two-year post-doctoral stint with Prof. Barry M. Trost at Stanford University, studying the catalysis of the Claisen rearrangement. In 2001, Simon returned to the UK to join Process R&D in AstraZeneca, gaining experience and understanding of the multi-disciplinary needs of drug development to lead significant process development projects ranging from candidate selection to Phase III, therein establishing a record of exploiting innovative synthetic and catalytic chemistry for the manufacture of drug candidates. After ten years in big pharma, Simon played a pivotal role as a co-founder of CatSci Ltd, negotiating the financial terms for the asset transfer and service agreement with AstraZeneca. After an initial operational role during the establishment of the new start-up, he subsequently took on commercial responsibility for the company, overseeing growth to a multi-million pound business. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer, focused on unleashing the talents of staff across the organisation to exceed the expectations of customers. As a dynamic leader, he is committed to the development of others through vision, participation and affiliation.
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About CatSci: CatSci provides innovative process research and development services to emerging, mid-sized and large pharma.
