BIA Webinar - Diversity and Inclusion in UK Biotech: BIA's first of its kind sector report

Kate Barclay

Skills Strategy Consultant

What does your role at BIA involve?
As an experienced Biochemical Engineer, Kate leads skills and talent programme development across STEM industries using over 30 years of experience within large pharma and small company networks. Working with BIA, she represents the sector ensuring access to the incredible talent and addressing skills gaps to start, grow and scale innovative life sciences and biotech organisations.
Previous experience & achievements
In addition to her role at BIA, Kate works as an independent consultant supporting organisations to develop their skills and talent strategies. She has oversight for quality governance of technical and professional education as IfATE Non-Executive Director and is a Board member of North Hertfordshire College. Kate holds MBA from Open University and a PhD in Bio-Chemical Engineering from UCL. As a Chartered Engineer (CEng FIChemE), she held previous senior leadership roles across diverse pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D portfolios including Solid Dose, Parenteral & Inhaled Devices.
If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
Rosalind Franklin, as she made contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA and RNA. She studied science at a time when few women attended university and led pioneering work on multiple viruses. Kate would love to know what she thinks about what we know now!

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.

Reeta Daswani

Research and Development Scientist, Sixfold Bioscience

Reeta is a research scientist at Sixfold Bioscience. She holds a PhD in Neurobiology from the institute ETH of Zurich for working on the role of microRNAs in short term memory regulation. She also completed a MSc degree in Neurobiology and a BSc in Biotechnologies from the university of Rome, La Sapienza. At Sixfold she is co-leading a project to develop novel RNA based delivery strategies.

Tom Donovan

US Secretary and UK Trustee, OUTbio

Tom is a senior biotech communications consultant, with both in-house and agency experience assisting a wide variety of global clients. Tom is the Secretary of OUTbio (U.S.) and a member of the OUTbio UK trustee team. Tom was formerly a Vice President at premier biotech consultancy Ten Bridge Communications, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Tom holds a master's degree in biotech business (first class honours), and a bachelor's degree in biomedical science.

Sascha Grimm

Partner, Cooley

Sascha Grimm is a partner in Cooley’s Commercial Litigation department and co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative. Sascha’s experience spans civil litigation, regulatory investigations, and disputes arising out of product liability issues, across a range of industries, with a focus on life sciences and technology. She also has particular experience in working on large-scale projects for clients in crisis management matters where there is a significant threat to the fundamental enterprise or reputation of the client. In 2018, Sascha was listed by The Lawyer Magazine as one of the “Hot 100” lawyers in the UK. She is recommended by the Legal 500 and in 2019 and 2020 was ranked as a “Next Generation Partner”.

Kirsty Hewitson

Chief Executive Officer, IUK KTN

Kirsty is currently interim Chief Executive Officer at Innovate UK KTN and also Exec Director Capability where she is responsible for leading teams across a wide range of sectors including materials, manufacturing, robotics, space, and security. Innovate UK KTN’s mission is to connect ideas, people, and communities to respond to challenges and drive positive change through innovation. Innovate UK KTN’s diverse connections span business, government, funders, research and the third sector. Kirsty is also currently a Director and Executive Committee member of Women in Nuclear which is driving gender equality across the nuclear sector. Kirsty previously held the position of VP Strategy and Innovation at the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) where she was responsible for identifying, translating, and commercialising early-stage technology opportunities together with embedding a culture of innovation across the organisation. In addition, Kirsty led the development of NNL’s strategy across diverse target areas from clean energy to nuclear medicine. Before NNL, Kirsty was VP Life Sciences at Ploughshare Innovations, converting defence and security innovations, from across the Ministry of Defence, into civilian applications. Before Ploughshare, Kirsty was Director of Life Sciences at Helsinki Innovation Services and held responsibility for all innovation matters, across the life sciences, at the University of Helsinki. Previously, Kirsty worked within the field of pre-clinical drug discovery including a spin-out company from the University of Oxford. Kirsty holds an MChem and a PhD in bio-organic chemistry, both from the University of Oxford.

Sunil Jindal

Head of Strategic Accounts, Diversio

Sunil is Diversio’s Head of Strategic Accounts, partnering with the worlds most admired companies and investors advance DEI. Prior to this role Sunil was UK Country Head spearheading the establishment of Diversio in the UK. Clients included Unilever, BiA and investors such as Oxford Science Enterprises. Sunil’s DEI expertise extends to an advisory role supporting The Sports Recreation Alliance embed DEI across 100+ sporting bodies including The FA and LTA. Sunil has also spoken on numerous DEI panels including The Bank of England’s Diversity in Fintech to improve representation and inclusion in the fintech sector.

Luke Mckelvey

Development Manager, In2scienceUK

Luke McKelvey, Development Manager at In2scienceUK, is committed to extending high quality educational programmes that make a positive difference in the lives of young people with few opportunities. Since 2019, Luke has secured over one million pounds of funding to enable In2scienceUK to expand across the United Kingdom and receive industry recognition as a leading STEM engagement charity. Luke's proudest achievement was securing a Queen's Award for Promoting Opportunity through Social Mobility for In2scienceUK in 2021.

Jason Mellad

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Start Codon

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 venture builder, he aims to identify the most disruptive healthcare founders and innovations worldwide, seed fund them and leverage the exceptional resources of the Cambridge cluster to de-risk and drive the success of their start-ups. 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.

Rosie Rodriguez

Senior Vice President of Growth, Head of People, Place & Projects, Relation Therapeutics

Rosie Rodriguez, Relation Therapeutics SVP of Growth, Head of People, Place & Projects, has over 20 years of successful Research and Development experience in Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences. She is a senior executive accomplished in Clinical Development, Alliance/ Portfolio Management, Organisational Development and Business Strategy. Rosie is passionate about building a purpose driven culture within biotech and is leading these efforts at Relation, a seed stage startup transforming drug discovery . Rosie holds a PhD from The Institute of Cancer Research (CRUK).

Rhoda Steel

Head of Social and Community Impact, Johnson & Johnson

Rhoda Steel is a pioneer in Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Impact leadership who believes that business should be a force for good. She is guided and driven by authenticity and transparency, using the platforms and systems of business, her voice and influence to help transform the lives of those who are under-represented; and empower those who are experiencing barriers to success, to thrive. As the Country Leader of Social and Community Impact at J&J she originally pioneered the UK Company’s Corporate CSR and Employee Engagement programme embedding it into core business strategy and creating regionally developed social innovations that have been adopted globally and used as models for other markets around the world. The external impact of her collaborative work over the years has resulted in outcomes including but not limited to improved health access in communities; healthcare system change and the transformation of lives in vulnerable populations. Rhoda is committed to seeing people’s lives transformed through business - not only by what it gives, but also through how it operates, driving impact at the intersection of a company’s wheelhouse to society’s need. Prior to this, she’s worked in multiple commercial environments in increasing positions of responsibility in Engineering, Marketing and National Sales Management; working in diverse, multi-cultural environments and establishing effective working relationships and cross-functional collaboration. Rhoda has also served as advisor to multiple Social Enterprises and NGO organisations in the UK and internationally over the years; most recently to Social Enterprises focussed on job creation for those furthest from the job market due to physical or mental disability. She holds a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University where she was also an Officer in the Royal Engineers’ Wing of the University’s TA.