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BIA Start-up Festival
Wednesday 19 May 2021
The BIA are delighted to announce a new event for emerging companies, the BIA Start-up Festival, which will take place in virtual format this May.
This event will bring together the best of rising talent in the sector for a day of networking, 1-1 meetings, and educational sessions designed to build on your existing knowledge and allow you to learn from peers and established industry experts alike.
Attendees will enjoy a mix of informal group networking, as well as the opportunity to arrange 1-1 meetings with key experts in the field, and the event will close with a virtual drinks reception.
The event platform will open for networking on 10 May, to allow you to plan your time at the event and make the most of the networking opportunities available.
Please note: this event is limited to attendees from start-up companies, entrepreneurs in the life sciences, and invited industry experts. If you are interested in supporting this event please contact Jane Wall at [email protected]
09:00 Networking / 1-1 meetings
10:20 BIA introduction
10:30 Session 1 - What to look for in pre-seed funding
Learn about different alternatives for raising pre-seed funding, including grants, angel investment and charity investment.
11:30 Networking / 1-1 meetings
12:15 Session 2 - The investor perspective: what we wish you knew
Hear the perspective from the other side of the table, and get advice on improving your approach from the investors.
13:15 Lunch break and 1-1 meetings
14:00 Session 3 - Building your team for success
You can't do everything yourself - find out how best to build and develop the team you need for your company's success.
15:00 Networking / 1-1 meetings
15:45 Session 4 - Founder stories: wins and lessons
Listen to the stories of established CEOs, and the lessons they've learned since launching their companies.
Virtual networking reception
17:00 Keynote - Mark Kotter (bit.bio) in conversation with John Cumbers (synbiobeta)
How bit.bio managed to create tech that can reprogram human cells with consistency and scale and why that's such a huge deal for biotechs
17:15 Networking around virtual 'tables'
18:30 Event closes
Session 1 - What to look for in pre-seed funding
Barbara Domayne-Hayman
Barbara has worked on the commercial side of life sciences for thirty years, first in a large organisation (ICI/Zeneca/AstraZeneca), before transitioning to the entrepreneurial world of biotech. Barbara joined the Francis Crick Institute in January 2018 as Entrepreneur-in-residence, where amongst other things, she co-founded, led and now is Chair of the KQ Labs accelerator, which is focused on start-ups from all over the UK who are making use of data/AI applied to health. She is also Chief Business Officer of Autifony, where she is responsible for strategic partnering, fundraising and commercial aspects of drug development for CNS disorders. Barbara was also Chair of Puridify, a UCL spin-out with a breakthrough biotherapeutics purification technology, which was acquired by GE (now Cytiva) in November 2017. She is a member of the investment committees of the LifeArc Ventures Fund, and the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund. Previously, Barbara was CEO of Stabilitech, and she was Commercial Director at Arrow Therapeutics until the company was acquired by AstraZeneca. Barbara was also Senior Business Development Manager at Celltech. Barbara has a BA and D Phil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.
Pam Garside
Pam Garside has her own management consultancy, Newhealth, specialising in organisational strategy and development in health care, and is a Fellow of the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge. She advises new entrants to the UK health market including digital and start up companies and is an angel investor. Pam founded and co-chairs The Cambridge Health Network, a membership group of senior players in UK health,both private and public sector. She sits on the Investment Committee of Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer company of the University of Cambridge and is a member of Cambridge Angels.She is a board member of Whizz-Kidz charity, ZPB Ltd and a senior adviser to Smith Square Partners. In 2016 Pam was named one of the 100 most influential leaders in Health Tech by Hot Topics. Pam began her professional life in management in the NHS and subsequently spent many years studying and working internationally based in the USA. She holds a BSc from the University of Durham and a Masters Degree in Hospital and Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota. She is an Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School.
Perry Guess
Perry is the Head of Partnerships for Ixion’s Innovation Division, a not-for-profit, owned by a major charity, that is uniquely positioned to sharing the risk of grant applications. He has over 25 years’ experience in the innovation space and is passionate about helping organisation achieve their innovation ambitions through identifying and accessing funding and finance. As a former government funder (NERC) and Director of an Innovate UK KTN (ESKTN, based out of the University of Oxford), he has extensive knowledge and a deep understanding of funding landscape and what funders look for. Perry enjoys nothing more than talking to ambitious organisations about their great ideas and helping them make a difference.
Session 2 - The investor perspective: what we wish you knew
Mark Andrews
Mark joined British Patient Capital in May 2022. His previous experience includes academic medical research as well as many years as a Life Science Venture Capital investor at international investment fund managers. Immediately prior to joining Mark was working in Corporate Advisory working with Life Science clients in the areas of M&A. fund raising, strategy and partnering.
Paul Ashley
Paul Ashley is Director, Data Science External Innovation, and is located at the EMEA Innovation Centre in London, UK. In this role, he is responsible for the development and maintenence of Data Science relevant partnerships and business opportunities with biotech companies, venture capital, academic, and governmental institutions in Europe. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation he was Head of Licensing and Ventures at Oxford University Innovation and has previously worked in a business development role at AstraZeneca and as the CEO of a spinout company based on technology developed at the UK’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory. He holds a PhD in behaviour and physiology and a BSc Hons in Zoology.
Elizabeth Klein
Prior to founding her own consultancy, Elizabeth was an award-winning and highly-rated senior research analyst focused on the Life Sciences and IP Commercialisation sectors. Over 15 years at N+1 Singer, Teathers, Bridgewell, R.W. Baird and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson she developed an extensive network of client relationships and worked closely with a number of businesses in these sectors. She was the Starmine Healthcare Stockpicker of the Year in both 2006 and 2013, and was highly rated in the Extel survey over much of her career in investment banking. In 2015, Elizabeth founded Klein-Edmonds Associates, advising organisations in the biotechnology sector on their engagement and interaction with investors. She has consulted with Bioscience Managers since June 2017. Other clients: The BioIndustry Association, Radnor Capital, and Biotech & Money, and small businesses (Angel to pre-IPO) on corporate and investment strategy. Elizabeth is also a Trustee at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (at Stanmore) Charity. Elizabeth has a 1st Class BSc in Applied Biology with Genetics from the University of Liverpool, an MBA from Imperial College Business School and an MA (Merit) in Medicine, Science & Society (History of Medicine) from Birkbeck, University of London.
Oliver Sexton
Oliver invests from UKI2S, an early stage seed/series A fund that backs companies developing complex science and engineering led solutions to global challenges. Specialising in life science investments Oliver joined UKI2S in 2014. He has therapeutic, med tech, agritech and industrial biotech companies in the portfolio. Prior to joining UKI2S Oliver managed commercialisation of bioengineering and medical technologies at Imperial Innovations and worked at Ark Therapeutics as well as managing a team of biotech buy-side analysts. Oliver sits on the board of Ikarovec and Gyreox as well as multiple board observer positions.
Session 3 - Building your team for success
Charlotte Casebourne
Charlotte believes in equitable access to effective therapies. She is the CEO and Co-founder of Theolytics - a pre-clinical biotech company harnessing viruses to fight cancer - and has been a BIA Board Member since January 2019. This has included audit committee responsibilities, and the ongoing role of Vice Chair of the BIA's Skills, People and Talent Working Party. Previously Co-founder and Director of New Medicine Partners, Charlotte has worked with organisations spanning three continents to support the early translation of novel life science technologies. She has taken leadership roles including Curator of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers network, Managing Director of HealthTech Women London, and HelloTomorrow’s London Chair for Healthcare and Medical Technologies. Charlotte graduated as a University of Cambridge Bioscience Enterprise M.Phil Scholar and was a shortlisted finalist for Cambridge Entrepreneur of the Year. She was most recently named one of Forbes 30 Under 30, and In Vivo’s 30 Rising Leaders in Life Sciences.
Kevin Pojasek
Kevin Pojasek is a Venture Partner at SV and President and CEO of Enara Bio, an SV portfolio company. He joined the SV Venture Partner Program in September 2018 and co-founded Catamaran, an SV portfolio company, where he still serves as Executive Chairman. Prior to joining SV, Kevin was Chief Strategy and Business Officer and a member of the executive leadership team at Immunocore Ltd. In this role, he was responsible for shaping the company’s corporate, R&D and growth strategies, as well as for overseeing business development. Kevin was also co-head of the company’s Infectious Disease Unit and helped lead the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation investment of up to $40 million. Prior to joining Immunocore, Kevin was President, Chief Executive Officer of Quartet Medicine, a company he co-founded in late 2013 while working as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Ventures. Kevin was also the Chief Operating Officer of Annovation Biopharma, another Atlas Ventures-funded company, which was sold to the Medicines Company in January 2015. He has also held senior executive R&D and corporate development roles at several venture capital-backed companies, including Vice President of Corporate Development at Kala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KALA) and, earlier in his career, spent time as an investment associate at PureTech Health (LSE: PRTC) an early stage venture capital firm.
Nathalie Rowell
Nathalie brings over 18 years of experience and credibility in hiring international talent for the life science industry. She continues to advise senior executives in many different cultures on how to shape their careers and their organizations. A solid track record of international success has given Nathalie a deep understanding of the life-sciences and a strong empathy with our clients. Her extensive industry knowledge and specialist insight is valued highly, enabling Virdis clients to benchmark realistically, evaluate carefully, and find exactly the right individuals to lead and develop their organisations. Nathalie created Virdis in 2007 and, since then, has built both a strong team and a broad network of skilled people around the world. Her understanding of life science organisations and her extensive experience make her a credible and well-recognized recruitment partner. Nathalie read Law at Paris Assas University and worked as lawyer in the field of intellectual property before becoming an entrepreneur and moving to international executive search.
Session 4 - Founder stories: wins and lessons
Antoine Espinet
Antoine is the founder of MicrofluidX, developing a break-through bioreactor for large-scale cell culture based on the microfluidic technology. He has experience in cell and gene therapy manufacturing and system development. Prior to this, he worked as a engagement manager at McKinsey, in Brussels and Sydney. He graduated in 2012 with PhD in Engineering from Cornell University, USA, as well as from Ecole Centrale Paris in 2009 with a Master in Engineering.
Caroline Godfrey
Caroline Godfrey is Senior Vice President of Discovery. having She is a co-founder of PepGen and led the company as CEO from spinout, successfully raising seed funding of $4.5M and a Series A of $45M. Caroline has deep experience with PepGen’s enhanced delivery oligonucleotide therapeutics, having worked as a post-doctoral researcher developing this proprietary technology at the University of Oxford. Prior to this, Dr Godfrey worked in genetics in a the private and NHS settings, and received her PhD from University College London following research in the field of neuromuscular diseases.
Jolyon Martin
Jolyon is co-founder and Head of Business Development at PetMedix, a Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company developing antibody-based therapeutics for companion animals. PetMedix is based on Jolyon's PhD work in the laboratory of Prof Allan Bradley FRS, who is CSO and co-founder of both PetMedix and Kymab Ltd. At PetMedix, Jolyon is responsible for external partnerships and licensing, and led the work to secure their recent partnership deal with Boehringer Ingelheim. He also works alongside the CEO and executive team to shape commercial strategy and the company’s future direction. Balancing his studies at the University of Cambridge with an interest in start-ups and entrepreneurship, Jolyon worked with the founding team of Simprints for a year and also for Horizon Discovery in both Boston, MA and Cambridge, UK. He was part of the first BIA PULSE Cohort, was named Cambridge Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017, and was a finalist in Onestart 2014. Jolyon is passionate about diversity and representation, and volunteers with the Beyond Equality Initiative - running workshops on tackling toxic masculinity in university sports teams.
Networking keynote
John Cumbers
John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta. John is passionate about education and on the use and adoption of biological technologies. He has received multiple awards and grants from NASA and the National Academy of Sciences for his work in the field. John has been involved in multiple startups such as those producing food for space, microbes to extract lunar and martian resources, and hoverboards! John is an active investor through the DCVC SynBioBeta Fund and his synthetic biology syndicate on AngelList. John received a PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University, a MSc in Bioinformatics from Edinburgh University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Hull in Computer Science with Information Engineering.
Mark Kotter
Mark is a doctor, scientist, and entrepreneur dedicated to transitioning biology to engineering for the benefit of patients. Born in Canada, he studied medicine in Graz, earned his PhD in Cambridge, and trained as a neurosurgeon in Vienna, Toronto, and Cambridge, where he currently practises, treating patients with spinal cord injury. He is CEO & founder of bit.bio, co-founder of Meatable, a cultured meat startup that uses bit.bio's opti-ox technology and co-founder and trustee of myelopathy.org, the first charity dedicated to a common yet often overseen condition causing a 'slow motion spinal cord injury'. Mark is best known for discovering the importance of macrophages for brain regeneration, which led to the first regenerative medicine trial for degenerative cervical myelopathy, and for developing opti-ox, a gene targeting approach that enables faithful execution of genetic information in cells. Applied to cellular reprogramming, opti-ox demonstrated that robust activation of a new cell type program (encoded in transcription factors) is necessary and sufficient to deterministically induce a new cellular identity. These findings challenge the theory that cell reprogramming depends on stochastically determined permissive states and enable the production of any human cell within days at purities approaching 100%.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with key experts in the field, held as 1-1 meetings on the event platform, with dedicated time in the agenda for these to take place.
This is an absolutely fantastic opportunity to meet with experts in a wide variety of topics, such as IP, legal, tax/finance, regulatory, HR and recruitment, insurance, funding, accelerators, and more, as well as mentors who can guide you more generally through the industry
Experts include:
Mark Andrews
Mark joined British Patient Capital in May 2022. His previous experience includes academic medical research as well as many years as a Life Science Venture Capital investor at international investment fund managers. Immediately prior to joining Mark was working in Corporate Advisory working with Life Science clients in the areas of M&A. fund raising, strategy and partnering.
Ursula Arndt
"Ursula Arndt, Ph.D., is the Staff Scientist at Illumina Accelerator Cambridge. She was previously responsible for the Illumina Solutions Labs at the EMEA HQ (Cambridge), the ISO 13485 accredited laboratory supporting internal and customer facing activities. Ursula earned a M.A. in Palaeogenetics from the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany and a Ph.D in molecular Archaeology from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada."
Paul Ashley
Paul Ashley is Director, Data Science External Innovation, and is located at the EMEA Innovation Centre in London, UK. In this role, he is responsible for the development and maintenence of Data Science relevant partnerships and business opportunities with biotech companies, venture capital, academic, and governmental institutions in Europe. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation he was Head of Licensing and Ventures at Oxford University Innovation and has previously worked in a business development role at AstraZeneca and as the CEO of a spinout company based on technology developed at the UK’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory. He holds a PhD in behaviour and physiology and a BSc Hons in Zoology.
Steve Bates OBE
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.
Linda Bradley
Linda is Head of Business Development a LifeArc, following a >25 year career in business development at GlaxoSmithKline. She has experience leading deal teams in licensing, divesting, spinning out and establishing discovery, development and commercialization alliances in the pharma R&D environment dealing with platform technologies and R&D assets. At LifeArc she now leads a team sourcing, partnering and licensing innovation aiming to ultimately benefit patients. Her historic scientific background is in genetics.
Vanessa Carle
Vanessa joins PharmaVentures as an Associate, bringing experience from drug discovery R&D, technology commercialisation, and the start-up ecosystem. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Vanessa worked at EPFL as a co-PI on a translational project, aiming to develop and commercialise a novel and safer anticoagulant therapy. At the same time, she was in charge of identifying out-licensing partners for two additional drug development projects from the academic group. Vanessa also has experience in mentoring early-stage healthcare spin-off projects, acquired while collaborating with accelerators like MassChallenge Switzerland and Bench2biz. Vanessa holds a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Pavia (Italy), an MSc in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) and a PhD in Chemical Biology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland).
George Caterer
What does your role at BIA involve? George works to grow the BIA as an organisation, engaging with new innovative companies, supporting new sectors and expanding our reach throughout the UK. George is also responsible for working with the current members to ensure they are fully engaged and making the most of BIA membership! This includes working closely with our start-up community, helping them to utilise the BIA network on their commercialisation journey. Previous experience & achievements His previous experience has been a slightly meandering path. After completing an MSci in Zoology at University College London, George started work for a small biotech in Hertfordshire before becoming an editor for a portfolio of journals within the Springer Nature Group, eventually moving on to become an Ecology Consultant. Now back in the biotechnology sector, he enjoys working on the commercial side of the sector and supporting all of the scientific work he can just about understand! If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why? It would have to be Doc. Brown… just imagine what else he has seen.
Ross Cummings
Ross' core practice is in drafting and prosecuting UK and European patent applications. Ross is known for his clear and accessible explanations of complex matters and has a strong track record of getting difficult cases granted at the European Patent Office. Ross also has a very high success rate with European oppositions and appeals, both defending and opposing.
Adrian Dawkes
Adrian is a Managing Director at PharmaVentures and has been with the company since 2007. Adrian led multiple consultancy, licensing and M&A mandates. Notable deals include licensing transactions between MedGenesis and Pfizer, Esteve and Mundipharma, and M&A for a UK diagnostics business with Bruker and the sale of NanoSight to Spectris plc. During his professional career, Adrian has significant multi-discipline expertise spanning research and development through to sales, marketing and business development. He has held senior positions with Johnson & Johnson, drug discovery platform company Acumen Bioscience and the Healthcare Consultancy company Execute Technologies. Adrian has over 30 years in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and in vitro diagnostics sectors. Adrian holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Immunochemistry.
Barbara Domayne-Hayman
Barbara has worked on the commercial side of life sciences for thirty years, first in a large organisation (ICI/Zeneca/AstraZeneca), before transitioning to the entrepreneurial world of biotech. Barbara joined the Francis Crick Institute in January 2018 as Entrepreneur-in-residence, where amongst other things, she co-founded, led and now is Chair of the KQ Labs accelerator, which is focused on start-ups from all over the UK who are making use of data/AI applied to health. She is also Chief Business Officer of Autifony, where she is responsible for strategic partnering, fundraising and commercial aspects of drug development for CNS disorders. Barbara was also Chair of Puridify, a UCL spin-out with a breakthrough biotherapeutics purification technology, which was acquired by GE (now Cytiva) in November 2017. She is a member of the investment committees of the LifeArc Ventures Fund, and the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Fund. Previously, Barbara was CEO of Stabilitech, and she was Commercial Director at Arrow Therapeutics until the company was acquired by AstraZeneca. Barbara was also Senior Business Development Manager at Celltech. Barbara has a BA and D Phil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.
Christian Hill
"Christian is a seasoned Market Access professional with over 20 years of experience in the International Biotech and Pharmaceutical industry. He has been involved in over 50 HTAs across Europe and has built up a strong network of key influencers including EU and national agencies. Prior to co-founding MAP in 2012, he led market access teams and submissions at InterMune, Gilead, Pfizer and Genzyme on a very broad range of products and disease areas from chronic disease to ultra-orphan indications. Christian is a member of the Board of EUCOPE (European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs); he is also a member of the Steering Group of EMIG (Ethical Medicines Industry Group) in the UK and Ireland."
Brenna Howley
Brenna is part of the Chemistry and Life Sciences group at Gill Jennings & Every and her work involves patent prosecution, drafting, and providing advice on patent portfolio strategy. She has a particular interest in contentious matters, especially oppositions before the European Patent Office.
John Jappy
John has huge experience advising biotechnology and pharma companies on how to protect their innovations.
Grace Jennings
"Grace joined MAP BioPharma as the Head of MAP Online after working at NICE for nine years, most recently as a Senior Scientific Adviser in NICE Scientific Advice. She is passionate about making sure that MAP Online is as useful a resource as possible for members, in order to support the development of and improving patient access to exciting new technologies. Grace has significant experience of helping both pharma companies and medtech companies, as she was the co-developer of the award-winning META (Medtech Early Technical Assessment) tool. She led on the educational programme in NICE Scientific Advice, including the LSE-NICE joint Executive Master’s degree. She also contributed to the Models for the evaluation and purchase of antimicrobials project in collaboration with NHSE. Grace graduated in Biomedical Sciences (King’s College, London and Berkeley, University of California) before undertaking post-graduate studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She obtained an MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases, before completing a PhD entitled ‘A policy analysis of biological warfare defence and emerging infectious diseases in an international context'."
Bobby Kaura
Bobby helped co-launch Illumina Cambridge Accelerator, the second location for Illumina Accelerator, a genomics breakthrough and VC backable company creation engine. In his current role, he looks to grow the life sciences and genomics ecosystem by partnering with entrepreneurs, investors and individuals within the innovation/entrepreneurial ecosystem. His current focus is looking at new models that can support entrepreneurs and start-ups in different geographies. Previously, he was responsible for heading commercial market and business development for Illumina EMEA with a focus on how genomics can enable precision health through the application of next-generation sequencing technologies. He advocates for building ecosystems that support better population and patient outcomes. Before joining Illumina, he worked in the NHS to deliver sustainable transformation programs and spent several years working in the pharma industry across early research & development, group planning & strategic projects (executive) office and leading the UK value-based medicine and pricing innovation stream. He is a member of the advisory board at Praesens Foundation (set-up to provide access to health programs, to communities in hard-to-reach regions and resource-limited settings), Expert in Residence at Cambridge Judge Business School & Oxford University Translational Research Office and member of NHS Innovation Accelerator panel. In addition, he advises health, tech and blockchain startups.
Jakub Majcher
Jakub has worked in talent acquisition since 2014. He has significant experience across the whole lifecycle of the recruitment process – from marketing and business development, through qualifying roles, resourcing, advertising, interviewing, referencing and offer negotiation. Jakub has lived in Poland, France, Spain and the UK, and this international experience combined with a strategic approach, eagerness for understanding of client requirements and focus on due diligence, has allowed him to establish a track record of placing the right people in the right roles. Since joining Virdis in 2018, Jakub has focused on engaging and building strong partnerships with new and existing clients, helping them build and grow their companies. ‘Kuba’ is fluent in four languages and has a BA in Modern Languages & International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.
Colin McCall
Colin advises clients throughout their lifecycle (all the way from start-up/spin-out to multinational listed companies) on the commercialisation of their intellectual property rights. In particular, advising on licensing deals, collaborations and R&D projects, distribution and manufacturing and the IP, commercial and regulatory aspects of M&A, VC investments and IPOs. Having a 1st class degree in Cell Biology his practice has naturally become focused on the life sciences, healthcare and technology (with a particular focus on med-tech and clean-tech) sectors.
Michael McGivern
What does your role at BIA involve?
Michael heads up the membership and business development team at the BIA, responsible for the growth and development of the membership and member lifetime value. He oversees the BIA Business Solutions Programme, delivering savings for members, and manages opportunities for member organisations overseas.
Previous experience & achievements
Michael has extensive business development and sales experience across the life science, personal care, and higher education sectors. Following University, he worked for a multi-national raw material distributor in the north-west, supplying API’s and excipients to pharmaceutical manufacturers and then moved on to the University of London. In this role, he managed the tender process for their SaaS products as well as various account management duties for their Not-For-Profit, HE institution and Charity customers.
Ross McNaughton
Ross is a partner in the Corporate Technology & Life Sciences team and a lead partner within the firm's Tier 1-ranked Biotechnology practice in Cambridge. His practice involves helping life sciences and technology companies as they progress through their life cycle in all aspects of their growth, capital raising and international expansion. As a sector specialist, Ross focuses on biotech, medical devices and diagnostics within Life Sciences, and with the Tech sector supports companies operating in the capital intensive deep tech space, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, as well as web3. Ross has extensive experience of a variety of venture and growth financing, public capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate advice. Ross was based out of San Francisco, CA in 2018 – 19 and as a result, he has a particular expertise in transactions with a transatlantic component. He is an English qualified solicitor and registered foreign legal consultant in California.
Simon Pannett
Simon has over 25 years’ experience in market access from a range of pharmaceutical companies including Servier and Janssen (J&J), Medtech (Coloplast), Digital HealthTech (Patients Know Best) and consulting companies (Intraquad). Simon has experience working across a broad range of products and disease areas from chronic disease such as diabetes through to HIV, Vaccines, Oncology and also Medical devices and health technology products. Throughout his career he has developed and implemented market access projects at global, national and local levels, including developing market access strategies, innovative approaches and evidence for global product launches, developing value propositions, HTA strategy and submissions, payer engagement and patient support programmes. Simon has a real passion for helping companies understand the context into which they are launching medicines so that they tailor their value propositions and messaging in ways that resonates with NHS decision makers.
Oliver Pumfrey
Oliver Pumfrey manages the Life Sciences Tax team and has over 17 years of experience. Latterly Oliver worked in industry where he was responsible for all taxes across the EMEA region for a multinational US listed group. Prior to that, Oliver spent 10 years with PwC, working across a number of tax areas including corporate tax, employment taxes and the tax technical knowledge team. Oliver supports Life Sciences clients across a range of tax matters including R&D incentive claims for large enterprises and SMEs and related transactional advice and planning. He also advises on the Enterprise Investment Scheme, licensing of intellectual property rights and Patent Box elections in regards to optimal timing and the potential benefits.
Nathalie Rowell
Nathalie brings over 18 years of experience and credibility in hiring international talent for the life science industry. She continues to advise senior executives in many different cultures on how to shape their careers and their organizations. A solid track record of international success has given Nathalie a deep understanding of the life-sciences and a strong empathy with our clients. Her extensive industry knowledge and specialist insight is valued highly, enabling Virdis clients to benchmark realistically, evaluate carefully, and find exactly the right individuals to lead and develop their organisations. Nathalie created Virdis in 2007 and, since then, has built both a strong team and a broad network of skilled people around the world. Her understanding of life science organisations and her extensive experience make her a credible and well-recognized recruitment partner. Nathalie read Law at Paris Assas University and worked as lawyer in the field of intellectual property before becoming an entrepreneur and moving to international executive search.
Anya Roy
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.
Diana Sternfeld
Until she joined LifeArc in 2019, Diana was a patent litigator with particular expertise in biotechnology patents. Her patent career began with the landmark case of Biogen against Medeva, the first biotechnology case to be heard in the House of Lords. She is now Head of Intellectual Property at the medical research charity, LifeArc. She has been an active participant in the BIA for many years and was a member of the Board from 2011 until she resigned in 2021. During that time she was member of the Executive Committee of the Board assisting in the operational oversight of the Association. As well as a qualified solicitor, she is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and an accredited mediator.
Laure Storck
Laure is a seasoned executive search consultant, with a solid track record in search strategy and execution of senior level assignments in the life sciences. She has led and trained the research team to high standard of delivery, building long-term, trusted relationships with clients and candidates. Laure joined Virdis in 2010 and is now responsible for many of the client relationships developed over the last decade; and takes overall leadership for business development planning. Laure has a Master’s Degree in Human Resources from IGS Paris, a Postgraduate Diploma in German from the University of Strasbourg and is qualified as an Accountant (DECF). Prior to joining the Virdis Group Laure worked in human resources and training within Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline in France. Laure moved to the UK in 2008 and has helped to build the successful team at Virdis Group.
Adrian Toutoungi
Adrian is a seasoned IP lawyer who relishes immersing himself in his client’s technology, product roadmap and patent/IP strategy. He is regularly involved in the negotiation and drafting of technology licence agreements and other contracts with a heavy IP element, such as R&D collaborations, joint ventures, grant funding agreements and other commercial arrangements. He also advises on the EC and UK competition law aspects of these agreements, and issues relating to technical standardisation, essential IPR and patent pooling. Adrian has a wealth of experience in handling the IP aspects of University spin outs, IPOs and other major corporate transactions and disputes, including for FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 corporations. He is also a valued patent litigator, having recently advised on disputes involving pharmaceuticals, somatic cell therapy, semiconductor chip design, inkjet printing technology, digital compression algorithms, LCD flat panel technology, telecoms and pharmaceuticals. He also frequently helps clients with disputes involving confidential information, database rights, trade marks, copyright and designs. Adrian publishes and speaks regularly on a variety of intellectual property issues.
Richard Turner
Richard Turner is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in London. Mr. Turner is a member of the UK Tax practice within the Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment. With more than 20 years of experience and being widely recognized as one of the leading UK tax specialists in life sciences, Mr. Turner has helped FTI Consulting establish itself as one of the leading tax advisory firms in life sciences. Richard leads the firm’s tax and innovation services, including intellectual property planning, research and development incentives and the UK Patent Box. Richard has had a wide range of professional experience, including working on research and development incentive claims for large, medium and small-sized enterprises and providing related transactional advice. He has also worked on and planning, licensing, advice, acquiring and divesting of intellectual property rights, and advising companies on cross-border supply chain and transfer pricing. Additionally, Mr. Turner has worked on developing insights into the clinical supply chain to allow life sciences companies to enhance their research and development tax incentives, preparing and presenting tax strategies for clients, long-term effective tax rate modelling and advising government and trade bodies on the design and implications for the UK Patent Box regime. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Turner was a Partner at Deloitte and part of the UK Healthcare & Life Sciences leadership team.
Kyriakos Tzafestas
Kyriakos joined PharmaVentures as an Associate. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Kyriakos was a life sciences consultant working with biotech companies and early-stage technologies on projects encompassing market analysis, competitive intelligence, opportunity assessment, commercialisation roadmaps, patent landscaping, valuations, and business development for research collaborations and licensing opportunities. Kyriakos has also served as the Industry Programme Manager for the Royal Society, overseeing their research translation programme and advising public policy on Research & Innovation. Before commencing his professional career, Kyriakos completed a Master of Biotechnology (Distinction) at the University of Glasgow and obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of York.
Helen Wass
Helen Wass works exclusively with Life Sciences companies in the Tax team at FTI Consulting. She has over 20 years experience working in finance and tax in - house roles in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Helen worked at GSK, then latterly at Vernalis plc, a pharmaceutical company with operations in the UK and the US, where she was responsible for all taxes. She has a broad range of in-house experience in UK tax compliance and R&D incentives, as well as VAT, employment tax and share options, transfer pricing and US compliance. She joined FTI Consulting in 2019, and since joining has worked with a number of clients in the life science sector, providing ongoing assistance with R&D claims and UK tax compliance, as well as specific advice on licensing deals, and other transactions. She focuses on providing pragmatic advice drawing on her experiences in-house. Helen trained with KPMG and holds a BSc in Biochemistry & Biological Chemistry from the University of Nottingham.
Karolina Zapadka
Karolina joined Parkwalk Advisors' investment team in 2021. She has over a decade of experience building life sciences and healthcare companies within the Cambridge Cluster. Karolina played a pivotal role in securing pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments from a stellar syndicate of investors. In 2018 she co-founded and successfully delivered the first life sciences startup accelerator in Cambridge with a portfolio value of over £90m. She started her career as a scientist at a leading biopharmaceutical company delivering a portfolio of products to clinics. Karolina completed a PhD in protein folding/metabolic science from the University of Cambridge and carried out a drug development postdoc work at MedImmune/AstraZeneca. Parkwalk Advisors is one of the UK’s leading growth fund managers, backing world-changing technologies emerging from UK universities and research institutions. Our unique asset class backs high-potential, hard science technology companies from a range of sectors, including life sciences, AI, big data, materials, medtech and much more.
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Non-members: £50 +VAT
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Please note: this event is limited to attendees from start-up companies, entrepreneurs in the life sciences, and invited industry experts.
If you are interested in supporting this event please contact Jane Wall at [email protected]
If you have any questions or problems registering, please contact [email protected] or to find our more about BIA membership for emerging companies, please click here.
Joining instructions will be sent out to event attendees on 10 May 2021.
The event platform will open on 10 May for networking and attendees will be sent joining instructions on this date.
We are planning to run this event using an event platform called Swapcard, with sessions hosted on zoom for greater engagement between attendees and speakers.
Please note that:
- Swapcard can be accessed on a laptop, desktop, mobile or tablet
- Swapcard works on all browsers except Internet Explorer
- It is recommended you attend using a device with a webcam and microphone so that you can video chat with other attendees via the one to one meeting tool
- The web app is available on smartphone and computer using the following link: https://app.swapcard.com/
- The mobile app is available on iPhone and Android. To download it, use the following link: https://www.swapcard.com/app/swapcard
- You will need to download the Zoom application on either your laptop, desktop, mobile, or tablet to particpate in the sessions.
- Recordings of the sessions will be available on-demand for two weeks after the event.
Virtual networking reception
The evening networking will take place on a separate platform that offers an engaging virtual venue space that will encourage networking around "tables", which mimics as closely as possible the experience at an in-person event.
What are the technical requirements to attend the virtual networking reception?
- 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 to have the best user experience: Chrome, Safari, or Firefox.
- If you want to check the technical requirements in more detail, you can view their checklist here.
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.
Thank you to our event partners, who are also offering their expertise to attendees through 1-1 meetings.
Thank you to our Event Supporters
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