BioLeaders

Namir Hassan BioLeader Interview - Namir Hassan (July 2020) CEO of Zelluna Immunotherapy, a Norwegian biotech with a vision to save life through innovative cancer targeting cell therapies. I am forty-one, living in London and married to my quiet strength, Aseel; a father of three young energetic boys and deeply passionate about parenting. A degree from UCL and PhD in T Cell Immunology from Oxford University. Inspired by lifting others and I find energy from intense calisthenic workouts, learning and reflecting. Key milestones in your career journey to date? As Steve Jobs puts it: "you can't connect the dots looking [...]

Giulio Cerroni BioLeader Interview - Giulio Cerroni (June 2020) Since joining IXICO as CEO in Feb 2017, I have enjoyed setting and achieving a path to profitability to turn around the fortunes of IXICO as a listed business.  Milestones achieved include a three-year revenue growth CAGR of 35%, an oversubscribed capital placing of £5.5m and reporting the company’s first profits as a listed business for fiscal year 2019. As my first CEO role in a listed business, it has been particularly satisfying to see these achievements translate to very significant share price accretion over the past 12 months. I have [...]

Miguel Forte BioLeader Interview - Miguel Forte (June 2020) During my 20+ year career as a pharmaceutical Industry executive I have performed and led operational and strategic functions at all phases of medicinal product clinical development; from early stages of academia, via industry first-in-man translation, to launch and commercialization. My experience has been gained in global corporate organizations as well as in start-up environments. A strong, challenging and energetic leader with a team spirit and clear strategic vision. Keen to drive organizations, by challenging and being challenged, to surpass themselves in delivering value to stakeholders and patients. Thought leader in [...]

Jackie Hunter BioLeader Interview - Jackie Hunter (May 2020) I have enjoyed such a rewarding career; in the early days as a young post-doc with the forerunners of GSK (working at both Glaxo and SmithKline French) leading to the role of SVP and Head of Neurology and GI CEDD. This encouraged more entrepreneurial thinking; and my first Board role was with Proximagen. On leaving GSK I founded two companies, including OI Pharma Partners, encouraging open innovation in bioscience; before becoming Chief Executive of the BBSRC in 2013. At the BBSRC I was able to create greater partnerships between academia and [...]

Jason Mellad BioLeader Interview - Jason Mellad (May 2020) Jason is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and co-founder of Start Codon, a Cambridge based accelerator, he aims to identify and recruit the most disruptive healthcare start-ups worldwide, seed fund them and leverage the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster to de-risk and drive their success. Previously he was CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix and Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division. He also served as an associate at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office of the University of Cambridge. Key milestones [...]

Maureen Coleman BioLeader Interview - Maureen Coleman (April 2020) After training as a pharmacist at Strathclyde University, I enjoyed a stimulating and varied 30+ year career in the life science sector; firstly at Sterling Winthrop and then at Glaxo where I stayed for 25 years in a variety of leadership roles; and supported the Glaxo R&D executive through the two major mergers. When GSK was formed, as the VP Global R&D Strategy Development I worked on the early game-changing CEDDs, and co-chaired the GSK Innovative Technologies board. I have represented EU industry in the drafting of the first ICH guidelines [...]

Carolyn Porter BioLeader Interview - Carolyn Porter (April 2020) Following my PhD in Immunology, I spent some time as an academic researcher in Oxford and then I joined EY in corporate finance from which I learnt the nuts and bolts of valuations and fund raising; alongside an MBA from Warwick. This prepared me for a business development career in pharma and biotech (Chiron Vaccines and Novartis Vaccines) where I was involved in both in and out licensing and M&A transactions. My experience of fundraising and evaluating and executing complex licensing deals was attractive to the technology transfer and spin-out world [...]

Peter Leyland BioLeaders Interview - Peter Leyland (April 2020) Following my early career in agriculture working in the less developed world, I did an MBA with a leading business school which opened the door to a successful and rewarding global corporate career with Baxter Healthcare. In 2005 I transitioned the wide array of leadership and commercial skills I had developed in a blue-chip culture into the world of early stage, investor backed life science companies. Whilst the more entrepreneurial environments require the capacity to formulate and execute quick decisions and manage risk, other skills are relevant to both; building sustainable [...]

Edward Hodgkin BioLeaders Interview - Edward Hodgkin (March 2020) Partner at Syncona, age 56, 2 daughters, lives in North London; MA & DPhil in Chemistry from Oxford; Hobbies: Golf, skiing, running, creative writing, bridge. An entrepreneur with 30 years’ experience in big pharma, biotech and healthcare investing. Strong operating background, including general management, board-level participation, broad global deal-making experience, and drug development across multiple therapy areas. Strong scientific background & extensive industry experience in drug and cell therapy discovery & development. Key milestones in your career journey to date? After 10 years in research jobs, I made the jump to [...]

Eva-Lotta Allan BioLeaders Interview - Eva-Lotta Allan (March 2020) Following my departure from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, I have spent most of my career in the biotech world (over 30 years). I have lived and worked in Sweden, USA, Spain and Belgium and I have lived in England for the last 30 years. My career includes companies such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ablynx and Immunocore, where I believe I made a difference, before transforming myself, in 2018, into a serial biotech board director (Chair and NED). I am currently on the Board of Targovax, Crescendo Biologics, C4X Discovery and Aleta [...]