BIA regional focus: London

Steve Bates OBE

Chief Executive Officer

What does your role at BIA involve?

Steve Bates is the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association, the UK’s Trade Association for innovative life science companies with over 550 members. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He serves on the UK Government’s Life Sciences Council and the UK Biosecurity Leadership Council. Steve was a founder member of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce in the Covid crisis, sitting on its steering Board alongside Kate Bingham. He is active member and former chair the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a board member of EuropaBio since 2015.

Previous experience & achievements

Steve has championed, with government, effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Catalyst, which have crowded in private sector investment into UK SMEs. He is a driving force behind the scale up agenda, spearheading policy agenda to unlock UK pension fund capital into productive UK growth in life sciences. He has forged several links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA, Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before joining the BIA in 2012, Steve worked for Genzyme and was advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair working on NHS reform and the Northern Ireland peace process. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017 and became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2020.

Stephen Hansen

Associate Editor, BioCentury

Stephen is BioCentury’s Associate Editor in the U.K., where he serves as one of the company’s primary points of contact with European companies and investors. Stephen has covered clinical development, corporate strategy and finance in Europe, the U.S. and China for BioCentury for over a decade and is a frequent contributor to BioCentury’s quarterly Financial Markets Preview and annual Buyside View and European Finance reports. He holds B.A.s in Biology and History from Bethel University and an M.Phil. in History from Oxford University.

Alice Hu Wagner

Chief Investment Officer, Saturn Investors

Alice is the Chief Investment Officer for Saturn Investors, an early-stage investor in healthtech and sustainability. She was previously at the British Business Bank, where she led strategy, economic analysis, product and business development from just after its founding in 2015 to 2021. She was involved there in supporting the UK life sciences, fintech, and creative sectors, as well as broader diversity and inclusion work. The BBB is the UK Government’s delivery arm for SME finance and the largest domestic institutional investor in U.K. venture capital. Alice also spent 5 years at Barclays plc and Barclaycard, in corporate and data-driven strategy roles. Prior to that, she worked for Lloyds Banking Group in Cards and Prophet, a strategic marketing and brand consultancy. She began her career at McKinsey, latterly specialising in corporate finance and strategy. Alice earned her undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and her MBA from INSEAD in France. She is a dual U.S. and U.K. citizen and a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker.

Tej Panesar

Partner, Prism Ventures

Tej Panesar is a Partner at Prism Ventures, a specialist life sciences asset allocator focused on the venture asset class. Tej was previously the Life Sciences Investment Director at British Patient Capital (BPC), the largest investor in venture capital in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. During his time at BPC he led transactions totalling £427m and spearheaded their life sciences investment strategy, building out a specialist team to support their ambitions in the sector. In 2021 Tej led the launch of the prestigious £200m UK Life Sciences Investment Programme (LSIP). He began his career in investment banking with Citigroup, before holding leadership positions in private equity and fintech. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Birkbeck, University of London (Biomedicine).

Mike Romanos

CEO and Co-Founder, Microbiotica

Mike Romanos is co-founder and CEO of Microbiotica, a spin out from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a global leader in microbiome translation. He has 35 years’ experience in the biotech and pharma industry, having built and led several international groups in GSK over 10 years, across multiple therapeutic areas and modalities, and co-founded three platform biotech companies. Mike is highly experienced in biotech strategy, translation, commercialisation and IP, currently serving as non-exec director for the major life-sciences charity LifeArc, and of the UK's BioIndustry Association. Previously he was Translator in Residence in Biomedicine at Imperial College, and Venture Partner for the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund. Mike holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, a PhD in Molecular Virology from Imperial College, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.