Lawrence Young (Chair)
Head of College of Medical and Dental Sciences and Professor of Cancer Biology
Director of Alta Innovations Ltd
Non-Executive Director of Birmingham Children’s Hospital
President of the International Association for Research on Epstein-Barr virus and associated diseases
Previous Director of a gene therapy company (Cobra Therapeutics) that subsequently merged with ML Laboratories
Consultant for both pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology companies mainly on biological therapies for cancer
Nigel Barnes
Founding partner of Sudbrook Associates LLP; an FSA regulated healthcare corporate advisory business that bridges the gap between early stage Life Science companies and the capital markets
Co-founder and Director, SabrePharm Ltd
Founder and Director, Consensus Forecasts Ltd, a provider of collated sell-side broker forecasts
Former First Vice President, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Senior member of the European Pharmaceutical equity research team, which was consistently top-ranked in the various leading investor opinion polls
Former Director, Hoare Govett & Co
Former member of Glaxo Sales & Marketing Division
Geoffrey Beanland
Company director with over thirty years experience in the healthcare and biotechnology markets, with a focus on the commercialisation of leading edge science.
Much of Geoffrey’s work has been in the life sciences, however it has also included work in advanced materials, electronics and in economic development policy.
He has managed funds for early stage investment, has advised a wide client base on technology exploitation and has been a Non Executive Director and Chairman of several companies leading to a number of successful exits.
Previously worked for a number of major companies including Baxter International, Bristol Myers Squibb and for leading specialist organisations PA Consulting (Head of Technology Strategy) and as Head of the Healthcare and Biotechnology Division of the Scottish Development Agency.
Alan Boyd
Founder and Director, Alan Boyd Consultants Ltd
Board member of Genable Technologies Ltd, Celentyx Ltd, BioEden Ltd
Acknowledged pharmaceutical physician and expert in all phases of drug development across a number of therapeutic areas
Former R&D Director, Ark Therapeutics (pre- and post-IPO)
Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine; Royal College of Physicians in recognition of his expertise in medicine development. Board Member of the Faculty and he also acts as Chairman of the Higher Medical Training Sub-Committee for the Faculty, which oversees all the activities across the UK relating to the training of doctors working within the Pharmaceutical Industry
Former Director, Clinical & Medical Affairs, ICI Pharma, Canada
Simon Campbell
Fellow of the Royal Society
CBE for "Services to Science”
Senior Vice President, World-wide discovery, Pfizer
Medicinal chemist (co-authored over 110 publications and patents). Career highlights include being a major part of the teams that discovered the drugs Cardura (to treat prostate enlargement and high blood pressure), Norvasc (to treat high blood pressure and angina) and Viagra (to treat erectile dysfunction). By the time of his retirement from Pfizer in 1998, Dr Campbell was the company's senior vice president for world-wide discovery and medicinal research and development in Europe
Royal Society of Chemistry Award for Medicinal Chemistry (1989), the Herschberg Award from the American Chemical Society (1997), and the Industry Research Institute (US) Achievement Award (1997)
Mark Clement
A Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the Securities Institute. Corporate finance experience with Coopers and Lybrand, Price Waterhouse, Hoare Govett, and Panmure Gordon
Co-founder and former Finance Director, Celsis International plc
Co-founder of Merlin and former CEO, Merlin Biosciences Ltd, one of Europe's leading biomedical venture-capital firms (excess of €450 million of equity capital)
Former non-executive director of investee companies of the Merlin Biosciences Fund and of the Merlin General Partner II Ltd
Clive Dix
Chairman of the Board, Bioindustry Association; www.bioindustry.org
Chairman of the Board, Auralis Ltd
Chairman of the Board, Modern Biosciences plc
Previously the Chief Executive Officer of PowderMed Ltd, the Oxford-based vaccines company. In 2004, led the spin-out of PowderMed from Chiron Vaccines, a business unit of Chiron Corporation, backed by £20 million in venture capital from a syndicate of leading life science investors. Oversaw the sale of PowderMed to Pfizer Inc in October 2006
Former Senior Vice President, Research and Development and a Board member of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, the world-leading independent vaccines company that was acquired by Chiron for £550 million in 2003
Former Research Director, Glaxo Wellcome UK where co-chaired the management group that oversaw all of the company’s research projects worldwide
Tim Harris
B.Sc. with honors in Biochemistry and a Ph.D in Virology from the University of Birmingham in 1974.
7 years working on picornaviruses at The Institute of Animal Health (Pirbright) and the State University of New York.
Formally Senior Molecular Biologist at Celltech (now UCB Pharma) from 1981.
Formally Group Research as Director of Biotechnology at Glaxo.
Formally SVP, R&D and CSO at Sequana Therapeutics in San Diego which became Axys Pharmaceuticals.
Founder of SGX Pharmaceuticals (formerly Structural Genomix) where he built the company to 130 employees, raised $85M, and generated $20M per year in revenue over a 6-year tenure as CEO.
Currently Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Advanced Technology program at SAIC Frederick, a government contractor running the FFRDC for the National Cancer Institute.
Board of Directors of several small Biotechnology companies including BG Medicine, Origen Pharmaceuticals, Gryasol technologies and Novation Pharma
Chairman of the SAB for Bionomics.
Martin Murphy
MVM Life Sciences Partners LLP
MVM was founded in 1997 and manages three funds totalling more than US$500million
MVM has invested in biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, drug delivery, gene therapy, healthcare services, medical devices, OTC medicines, research tools and vaccines. Current portfolio companies are based across Europe and in the US. MVM makes at least half its investments in start-up companies
Martin joined MVM in 2002. He was previously a member of the healthcare investment team at 3i. Prior to that, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company based in London and Mumbai
Martin is a member of the boards of Argenta Discovery Ltd., Healthcare Brands International Ltd., Heptares Therapeutics Ltd., PregLem SA, Serentis Ltd., and Vantia Therapeutics Ltd
Stephen Reese
Partner in the Intellectual Property Group and Head of Life Sciences, Olswang LLP
Expert in both contentious and non-contentious IP matters including patents, trade marks, trade secrets and copyright and has extensively advised on the protection, enforcement, exploitation and monetisation of IP rights
Honorary Teaching Fellow at the University of Manchester
Malcolm Skingle
Director, European Academic Liaison, Global External Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) responsible for research interactions and collaborations with universities and small biotechs
Member of the BBSRC Strategy Board, EEDA Science and Industry Council, the CBI academic liaison group and several UK University Department advisory groups
Chairs several groups including the BBSRC Bioscience for Industry Panel, the Diamond (Synchotron) Industrial Advisory Board, the Inner Core Lambert working group on boilerplate agreements and the ABPI group working on academic liaison
Awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list in June 2009 for services to the pharmaceutical industry.
University of Birmingham Representatives
Nick Barnes
Professor of Neuropharmacology and College Lead for Commercialisation, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham
Director of the Cellular and Molecular Neuropharmacology Research Group, which investigates the actions of the neurotransmitter and local hormone 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin)
Chair, International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Nomenclature Committee for Serotonin Receptors
Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for Frontiers in Neuropharmacology and Neuropharmacology, respectively
Co-founder and CEO, Celentyx Ltd. A VC funded company focussed on discovering novel treatments for diseases of the immune system
Founder and CSO, Epileptyx Ltd. A single product company developing a novel treatment for temporal lobe epilepsy
Kate Bishop
Head of Research and Knowledge Transfer, College of Medical and Dental Sciences Kate is a UoB alumnus and was previously the College's Research Business Development Manager. The primary remit of the Head of Research and Knowledge Transfer is to establish, implement and manage research strategy, including maximising translational aspects of research across the College, managing the existing research portfolio and facilitating an increase in research in future years.
Paul Stewart
Professor of Medicine and Director of Research & Knowledge Transfer, College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Honorary Consultant Physician, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
Chairman, The Wellcome Trust Molecular and Physiological Sciences Strategy Committee
Member, Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Science and Research Policy Committee
General Secretary, Society for Endocrinology
NIHR Senior Investigator, National Institute for Health Research