Innovate UK

Leadership, management and strategy role in national innovation agency.

Director - Health & Life Sciences

Interim Deputy Director - Health & Life Sciences

Leading and managing a team of Senior Innovation Leads and Innovation Leads in Precision Medicine, Digital Health, Healthy Ageing, Biomedical Enabling Technologies and Medicines Discovery.

Head of Health & Medicine

Leading a team of Innovation Leads covering precision medicine, medicines discovery and underpinning biomedical enabling technologies.

Senior Innovation Lead - Precision and Discovery Medicine

A new role which also incorporates the Innovation Lead - Medicines Discovery role.

Senior Innovation Lead (Interim) - Health Technologies

Innovation Lead in the Health and Life Sciences Sector and my role involved the following activities:

- leadership of the Biosciences & Biotechnology Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund challenge area for Innovate UK

- technical leadership in Biosciences programme areas including the Bioeconomy

- development of Biosciences funding strategy 

- portfolio management of biosciences projects across multiple industry sectors including agri-food, healthcare and industrial biotechnology

- Investor Relations Champion for the Health & Life Sciences Sector

- technical leadership of "The Management and Use of Biofilms" programme

- support to the Department of Health - Innovate UK SBRI Vaccines for Emerging Epidemics programme

Innovation Lead - Biomedical Enabling Technologies

An Innovation Lead in the Health and Life Sciences Sector and my role involved the following activities:

- technical leadership in Biosciences programme areas including the Bioeconomy

- development of Biosciences funding strategy 

- portfolio management of biosciences projects across multiple industry sectors including agri-food, healthcare and industrial biotechnology

- Investor Relations Champion for the Health & Life Sciences Sector

- technical leadership of "The Management and Use of Biofilms" joint programme with the BBSRC consisting of 22 projects across multiple industry sectors with a total value of £2 million

Innovation Lead - Biosciences

Ploughshare Innovations

Management of technology commercialisation, including identification of technology and IP opportunities within the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), investment analysis, creation of value propositions, external funding bids and licensing agreements.

My main areas of focus were healthcare and CBRN technologies.

Commercialisation Manager

BBSRC

Strategy and management role in the BBSRC Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Unit (KCU), Innovation and Skills Group.

Senior Innovation Manager

Reckitt Benckiser

R&D project management of £1.5M OTC analgesics New and Existing Product Development projects portfolio.

R&D Project Manager (Nurofen)

Technology sourcing and early stage R&D scoping project management (cross-category). Consulting in life science technologies and microbiology for consumer goods New Product Development.

Senior Associate, New Technologies Group

Syntopix Group Plc

R&D, operational and project management in university spin-out company from start up (2004), initial expansion, relocation (2005) and IPO (LSE-AiM, 2006) to Phase I GCP clinical trials (2007) of topical antimicrobial gels for acne and staphylococcal skin infections.

R&D Team Leader, Projects Manager, Operations Manager

Vernalis

Laboratory-based R&D role as drug discovery biologist in oncology/anti-infectives.

Biologist (Oncology/Anti-Infectives)

Various Organisations

Laboratory-based microbiological research and technical roles in the fields of vaccine R&D, microbial metabolism, infectious diseases and industrial microbial strain improvement. Employers included: Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), Xenova Group plc and the former Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS).

Various Scientific Roles (Microbiological)

I am the Director of Health & Life Sciences at Innovate UK. I lead and manage the Innovate UK Health & Life Sciences team which has a health and biosciences innovation focus and total portfolio investment of £419m over the period 2022-25. My team comprises 18 people and includes industry and technology sector specialists, programme, portfolio management expertise, global and EU specialist (NCP) expertise.

Prior to joining Innovate UK, I worked in technology transfer, R&D management and research and innovation roles in industry (including SME's and a start up) and the public sector. This included working in pharmaceutical and vaccine discovery and FMCG product innovation. My original technical background is in microbiology.

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