Board elections 2026: other candidates
Owen Bain
I am Director and Qualified Person at the Cell and Vector Innovation Centre (CVIC), the UK's longest-running academic GMP cell therapy facility, embedded within Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. I have lead the facility, within the NHS, as an MHRA MIA(IMP)-licensed CDMO with 350+ batches across multiple clinical trials in several jurisdictions. As well as being the Director, I am also the Qualified Person, so I am well versed in regulation and accountability for each batch I certify. This is a governance risk discipline that translates directly onto the fiduciary responsibility of a Board seat.
My candidacy brings a perspective under-represented on most industry boards: the NHS as a manufacturing and translational partner. I have worked very closely with industrial partners that have come through our facility such as Autolus, Achilles Therapeutics and most recently Novo Nordisk on their path through early stage cell and gene therapy clinical trials.
I've responded formally to the MHRA's GTMP consultation as a ‘Trusted Advisor’. I have led CVIC's strategic pivot into lentiviral/retroviral vector manufacturing, and sit on Autolus's Technical Advisory Board. This work that allows to be at the intersection of regulation, operational delivery, and academic translation. I've also established MOUs with the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Exmoor Pharma, building the kind of cross-institutional infrastructure that makes not just CVIC, but the UK CGT ecosystem as a whole, more attractive to sponsors from the UK and EU. I am very passionate about bringing together organisations to make the UK stronger and ultimately improving patient access to transformational medicines. It is important to me that the UK industry is stronger as a whole and that we grow together across all levels.
I want to bring that operational, NHS-embedded, QP-lens voice to the BIA Board, representing healthcare GMP facilities and the wider translational ecosystem. I am also very focused on the challenges that the industry will face in the coming years and decades.
Olivia Cavlan
I would be delighted to have your support to rejoin the BIA Board, having been proud to serve the organisation over the past five years.
I am a biotech investor, company builder and clinician by background. I am currently a Partner at LifeArc Ventures, where I lead Seed to Series B investments. I have also co-founded and helped build biotechnology companies including Alchemab and Sevenless Therapeutics and was previously an investor at SV Health Investors and a Partner at McKinsey.
It has been a privilege to work alongside the BIA during a period of significant opportunity and challenge for UK life sciences. During my time on the Board, I sought to represent perspectives of biotech companies and investors, including through the SVB crisis, advocacy to protect R&D tax incentives, efforts to strengthen the availability of early-stage and growth capital, and highlighting the critical role that strategic pharmaceutical partners play within the UK innovation ecosystem.
If re-elected, I would continue to champion initiatives that help innovative companies start, scale and succeed in the UK, ensuring that the voices of operators and investors are well represented. I would also be pleased to resume my role on the BIA Audit Committee.
Colin Hailey
As a longstanding adviser to biotech companies and the former Chair of the Finance and Tax Committee of the BIA, I know the frustrations and excitement of life in biotech. I am a passionate advocate for the sector and would love the opportunity to join the BIA Board.
As chair of FTAC over 15 years, I ensured that meetings were energised and informative, with all voices across the sector able to be heard to tackle key issues and assist the BIA executive.
I enjoyed providing an informed view to HM Treasury, HMRC, Innovate UK and the House of Lords to maximise benefits and minimise threats in the tax system for the sector, including R&D tax credits, patent box, employee share schemes and EIS/VCT reliefs. I was instrumental in sounding the alarm on the danger of the collapse of Silicon Valley bank, as well as tax changes such as the removal of the original PAYE cap on R&D tax credits, and the exemption to the cap when it was reintroduced, and the concept of enhanced EIS/VCT reliefs for knowledge intensive companies.
My enthusiasm for the biotech sector led to me founding Confluence Tax in 2010, which became the leading tax advisory firm for biotech companies throughout the UK. I now provide tax advice in my new firm, Lumiere Tax.
I have worked on numerous fundraisings, collaborations, M&A transactions and IPOs, almost exclusively in the sector. I have deep knowledge of the issues faced by early-stage spin outs, mature biotechs, investors, management teams and employees. I have also run a Biotech Employee Equity Survey to provide benchmarks for the UK sector.
I know how the industry works and how the BIA works. I would love the opportunity to help make the BIA even more successful, particularly through more member outreach, improved data gathering and greater communication between the Board, executive, committees and members.
Malcolm Joy
Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of advising hundreds of innovative life sciences businesses across the UK. As Head of Life Sciences at BDO, I worked primarily with mid-market companies. For the past seven years, as founder and Managing Partner of Frazier & Deeter UK, I have focused on supporting early-stage and scaling life sciences businesses with fundraising, R&D tax incentives, international expansion and growth strategies.
Frazier & Deeter is a US accounting firm with more than 1,200 employees and the only US firm with a full-service presence in the UK. From our London and Cambridge offices, we support over 100 life sciences clients. In 2025 alone, our UK clients raised more than £800 million in funding.
I am passionate about helping founders transform breakthrough science into successful, sustainable businesses. As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the opportunities and challenges they face and can bring a valuable US perspective to support international growth.
I have also contributed to policy discussions on innovation and investment, including recommendations to HMRC on EIS and SEIS reforms. As a BIA Board member, I would champion access to capital, international opportunities and practical support that helps UK life sciences companies scale and succeed globally.
Nick Meyers
I am seeking nomination as a Board member because I believe my experience will enable me to make a valuable contribution to the BIA. Based on my career within the UK biopharmaceutical sector and after completing the IoD’s Non-Executive Director course, I am keen to apply my experience, insight and judgment to support the BIA’s continued success.
Working with senior leaders and organisations operating in complex and evolving environments, has given me an understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing members, alongside an appreciation of the importance of collaboration, innovation and effective leadership.
I am motivated to be able to contribute to the vital role the BIA plays in championing UK life sciences, and as a Board member, I would bring:
- Strategic insight and support in shaping the BIA’s long-term strategy.
- Independent scrutiny and constructive challenge to support effective governance and decision-making.
- Practical perspectives drawn from extensive experience.
- A commitment to high standards of governance, transparency, accountability and organisational responsibility.
My approach would be collaborative, thoughtful and member-focused, while contributing positively and constructively. Above all I would be committed to helping the BIA strengthen its impact, support members and advance the UK life sciences sector’s success.
David Montgomery
UK Life Sciences is at a crucial juncture. It’s a focus of Government as a key engine for growth. The ambitions for the sector; first in Europe, third in the world, are the right ones. But industry is changing rapidly; the work of the BIA will be crucial in providing direction to Government to ensure our members can navigate these challenging times
I bring experience of building and commercialising innovation as a senior leadership across pharmaceutical, charity, healthtech and membership organisations. I have influenced Government policy repeatedly, notably helping build the Cancer Drugs Fund. As an executive board member at a national charity and as chair of voluntary organisations and trade body committees I have shaped strategy and ensured successful implementation.
Since setting up PM Life Sciences, I have worked with biotech leaders to help them navigate these challenges. I have donated considerable time to writing policy documents, meeting government figures and talking both here and internationally on what more we can do to make Britain a successful place for companies to invest and thrive.
As a Scot living in Surrey, I would be delighted to join the BIA board in delivering for our sector across all four nations.
Dr David Montgomery is co-founder of PM Life Sciences Consulting and a pharmaceutical physician with senior leadership experience across biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthtech, charity and policy. David spent the bulk of his industry career at Pfizer with increasingly senior medical roles including 6 years as UK medical director and 18 months as VP head of scientific exchange, responsible for global oncology medical communications. He has also served as UK Medical Director at Ipsen, Menarini Stemline and Daiichi Sankyo, and as Executive Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK. He advises and invests in healthtech, has served as a Non-Executive Director, and has held industry and public-interest roles including representing industry during the setting up of the Cancer Drugs Fund, on which he also served as a voting panellist and as a full voting member on the Scottish Medicines Consortium Committee. He is Responsible Officer for Revalidation at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and represents the Faculty on the BMA Medical Academic Staff Committee.
Kate Moss
Innovation only creates value when it reaches patients, and that belief has shaped my professional journey across the life sciences ecosystem. I began my career in industry using evidence to influence prescribing decisions and quickly became fascinated by what made a product truly differentiated and impactful. This curiosity led me into clinical trials and portfolio strategy and management, developing a deep understanding of how scientific innovation is translated into value for patients, healthcare systems and businesses.
Having worked across pharmaceutical companies, CROs, biotech organisations and as a management consultant dedicated to the industry, I bring a broad perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing our sector. My experience has taught me that whether translating research into development, evidence into value, or strategy into organisational change, the core skills remain the same: curiosity, listening, persistence, collaboration and the ability to activate people together around a common goal.
I have been privileged to support founders through to CEOs and am actively involved in life sciences networks across Cambridge and London. Having also lived and worked in the UK, US and Switzerland, I bring an international perspective and a practical understanding of different healthcare, regulatory and business environments.
As investment models, healthcare systems and emerging technologies continue to reshape our industry, I would be proud to bring my experience, networks and passion for innovation to the BIA Board and support an association that plays such a vital role in the success of the UK life sciences sector.
Nandy Thaver
As Founder and CEO of Thaver Consulting, I work with early-stage life sciences and biotech companies to build commercial capability. This is the stage at which UK biotech most often stalls between promising science and durable revenue, and it is the perspective I would bring to the BIA Board: the operational reality of pre-seed to Series A founders and the services ecosystem that supports them.
My career spans senior commercial roles at Bio-Rad, Clarivate, Excelra, Mettler-Toledo and Corning across EMEA and JAPAC. This gives me direct experience of how UK biotech competes globally against better-funded US and Asian ecosystems. I have built go-to-market functions from scratch and negotiated international partnerships, including our current Japan framework.
I would support BIA's work on access to finance, talent development and international market access, three areas where my client base tells me about the gap between UK ambition and delivery is widest. I am particularly interested in strengthening the pipeline of Series A-ready UK companies through improved commercial readiness, and in ensuring the voice of founder-led biotech and its supporting services ecosystem is represented alongside larger corporate members.
I am a BIA member and regular attendee at BIA roundtables, based in London and serving clients across all four nations.