This June our Women in Biotech series will take a special focus to become a Diversity in Biotech event. We look forward to catching up with the existing Women in Biotech community and welcoming new attendees!
Driving diversity in Biotech: practical steps to building and retaining diverse teams
With a strong understanding in the sector that diversity of all kinds - including gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic background - is the key to building more robust and successful companies and societies, this event will focus on practical steps to achieving a more diverse workforce and mindset in your organisation.
This event will therefore focus less on the well-worn discussion around the nature of the problem, and will instead feature case studies from those who have successfully taken steps to diversify their organisations, followed by an audience discussion.
Using an interactive virtual platform, everyone will be able to move from virtual table to table similar to at an in-person event. Bring your favourite drink and join us for this fantastic early evening event to engage in the discussion and share experiences.
15.30 Event platform opens
15.45 Welcome
15.50 Case studies and panel discussion 16:55 Closing remarks
17:00 Networking at virtual tables
18:30 Close of event
You will be able to join us online to network and, similar to an in-person event, move from virtual table to table to mingle with other attendees. The platform we will be using also includes useful features which will allow you to message directly with other attendees and share LinkedIn details to connect. There is also a general chat for all attendees.
During the panel discussion you will be able to submit and vote on audience questions and we will try our best to cover everything in the time allocated.
What are the technical requirements to attend the virtual event?
There is no software installation or download required.
Please attend using a laptop or desktop computer with audio and video capabilities (webcam and microphone).
You will need to use one of the supported browsers: Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.
If you want to check the technical requirements in more detail, you can view them here.
Please note that if you attend using a phone or tablet instead of a laptop/desktop as recommended, or your browser and operating system are not supported, you may not be able to fully participate in the event.
If your company has firewalls or browsing restrictions in place, please test your connection and liaise with your IT team in advance to ensure you are able to fully participate in the event.
If you have any questions or problems registering, please contact [email protected]
Please note: if you cannot find your organisation in the drop down list when trying to register, please contact [email protected] to complete your booking.
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!
Head of Cambridge Accelerator, Illumina Accelerator
Anya Roy
Head of Cambridge Accelerator, Illumina Accelerator
Anya joined Illumina in January 2020 to lead Illumina Accelerator Cambridge. She has experience as an Entrepreneur, venture capital Investor and as a Banker.
She was previously the founder and CEO of Syrona, a digital health start-up that develops low-cost, non-invasive screening kits for women’s health issues pioneering combination of digital and biological markers. She worked at Goldman Sachs and in life science venture capital at IP Group prior to founding her own company.
She earned a MPhil with a focus in Bioscience from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England and currently completing her Executive MBA from Said business school at Oxford University having been conferred the prestigious 30% club scholarship.
Heather is a post graduate who has worked as an HR practitioner for over 25 years in industries ranging from North Sea Oil, through Technology, Space and Imaging before landing in Pharma and Biotech with key roles in Roche/Genentech and GSK, over eight years, as a global HR business partner, supporting leadership teams in Research and Development divisions. She relocated to both San Francisco and Switzerland to give her a better understanding of diverse cultures and best working practices throughout her Pharma years. Her journey in Biotech started in 2015 when she joined Horizon Discovery, and learnt to move faster, work more creatively and with a focus on cost. She was able to evolve the people strategy to create imaginative and diverse solutions that fit the uniqueness of Horizon; avoided creating an internal HR industry; and ensure that Horizon’s culture continued to focus on its diversity to deliver the same exciting future for its people, that its science creates for its customers.
She moved in 2019 to another innovative, founder lead organisation, LightsourceBP to deliver their global growth agenda with a mission to tackle another of the big challenges facing our environment - how to create an economic alternate to carbon that will offer continual power to all communities and industries around the world.
Dr Kate Rowley is an independent consultant for Symmetrist and a General Partner at Global Bio Fund, a investment fund targeting support to women led businesses in Bio. With over 25 years of life science experience working in both the public and private healthcare sector she advises companies developing innovative science and technology with the potential to transform healthcare.
Kate has a deep history of commercialisation of Life Sciences with experience in investor, founder and non-executive director roles across a variety of businesses in med tech, digital health and drug discovery/development.
Interim CEO, Deputy CEO, CFO and COO of Horizon Discovery Group plc since 2012, building the global leader in gene editing, including 4 acquisitions and one of the most successful ever Life Science IPOs on AIM. Richard was previously Vice President, Finance at the FTSE250 dual listed semiconductor business CSR plc.
Thank you to our Women in Biotech series supporter