COVID-19 update: reinvention for social distancing

Sharon Lamb

Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

Sharon Lamb focuses her practice on health care transactions, investments and projects, as well as comprehensive health care regulatory advice. She has advised private and public health care clients for more than 17 years. Sharon advises on global transactional mandates, including mergers and acquisitions, complex digital health and data privacy issues, accountable care systems, health care payment systems, hospital developments and contractual and joint venture arrangements. Sharon also provides strategic and commercial support to UK and international clients on UK health transactions and investments, contracting with the NHS and on health regulatory matters including digital health, medtech and life sciences. Sharon is widely recognized for her expertise on NHS regulatory and contracting matters. Sharon is also well-versed in health care governance and regulatory matters, NHS projects, procurements, joint ventures and shared working arrangements, mergers, acquisitions, franchise arrangements and competition clearances. She has acted as a lead on a full range of public private partnerships, including PFI and LIFT. Sharon has a wealth of experience with National Health Service law and policy, having completed a 4-year part time secondment with the NHS and national health bodies in London. Sharon is also an associate fellow of the Nuffield Trust.

Nick Stephens

Executive Chairman, The RSA Group

Nick Stephens is Executive Chair of The RSA Group, a global leader in Life Sciences Executive Search and Executive Interims. Serving biotech, pharma, medical devices, diagnostic, and academic medical research markets. The RSA Group specialises in C-suite, senior executive and board level searches. His company has developed unique “Data Driven Due Diligence” methodologies that minimise risk and maximise upside in building and developing leadership teams and Boards. For almost four decades he and his company have helped to build hundreds of companies which have brought new therapies to patients everywhere. His daily conversations with industry leaders across the world have brought him unique insights into what works where and, perhaps more importantly what will add risk. He believes that with the right people in place patients will have quicker access to better medicines. Nick is a law graduate with broad commercial experience in various roles spanning metals trading, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and the British National Health Service. He has been a Director of The RSA Group since 1986, joined the business full-time in 1995 and took it over in 2000.

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.

Michael Warren

Strategic Policy Advisor, BIA

Michael joined the BIA in September to lead our policy and public affairs work on Brexit. He has extensive experience spanning a wide range of senior government and communications roles, most recently as a member of the executive team at Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.