Start-up Festival

Lilian Alcaraz

VP, Early Innovation Partnering, Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Lilian leads the Early Innovation Partnering team for EMEA through the identification, incubation, due diligence, negotiations, execution and on-boarding of high-impact partnerships and collaborations for J&J. He has experience in sourcing and transacting across a wide range of collaboration and licensing opportunities from small molecule and antibody asset deals, through to platform technologies. Prior to joining J&J, Lilian gained over 18 years’ experience in Drug Discovery as a medicinal chemist at Charles River, Galapagos (Argenta Discovery) and AstraZeneca. Lilian holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the ULP (Strasbourg, France), and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of York (UK).

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Davide Bommarito

Senior Vice President | Early Stage Banking Life Sciences & Healthcare, HSBC Innovation Banking

Davide heads the Life Sciences & Healthcare early-stage vertical at HSBC Innovation Banking in London. He joined HSBC Innovation Banking as a Senior Vice President to expand the bank's healthcare footprint in the UK and to provide commercial banking services to disruptive Biotech, Biopharma and Tech Bio companies at different growth stages (pre-seed, seed & series A). Prior, Davide was a Vice President in the SVB UK Early-Stage Healthcare division. Davide is a former scientist with advanced degrees (Ph.D. in Immunology & M.Sc. in Medical Biotechnology) and experience in both the financial/banking sector and medical research sector including roles at world-leading research institutions such as King's College London (KCL) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI)/Harvard.

Marco Delise

Entrepreneurship and Business Development Director, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

Before joining Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) in 2022, Marco spent three years at alternative-protein start-up, Better Dairy, having joined the founders as their first hire. As Head of R&D, he led the science team and helped the start-up grow from pre-seed to £22m Series A investment. As Innovation Lead, he organised and managed the building of a new lab and office facility in East London and helped devise new scientific strategies.
Marco holds a BSc and MSc in Biomedical Engineering with a focus on data science. He also holds a PhD in Synthetic Biology with a focus on protein design. Before joining Better Dairy, he was part of the Entrepreneur First programme.

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Sarah Fryer

Board Director, Institute of Clinical Research

Sarah Fryer is a Director on the Board of the ICR, a membership-led, not for profit, independent association for clinical research professionals, in commercial and non-commercial environments.

The ICR has three guiding principles: Developing Professionals; Sharing Knowledge; and Raising Standards.  It promotes good relations with other healthcare related groups, including the BIA, and provides:

• a home for professionals in Clinical Research,

• a source of Clinical Research information including forums for discussion of key issues impacting clinical research
• opportunities for learning and development to enhance professional competence
• a representative voice for Clinical Researchers in consultations especially with Regulators and Government
• promotion of the profile of Clinical Research enhancing public confidence and understanding of clinical research

Sarah has worked in clinical development for more than 30 years, with the last 20 years focusing on clinical QA.  The majority of her career has been spent working in contract research and consultancy roles, supporting early phase biopharma companies as they move from research into clinical development.  She was co-founder of Gregory Fryer Associates and founder of QRC Consultants and is now working as an independent GCP QA consultant as Director of Green End Barns Consulting Ltd. 

She has been a long term member of the ICR and is also a Fellow of the Research Quality Assurance and a member of the Royal Society of Biology.

Her particular interest is the importance of quality and regulatory compliance in clinical research and brings this interest with enthusiasm to her role on the Board of the ICR.

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Rebecca Godfrey

COO , ExpressionEdits

Dr Rebecca Godfrey is the COO at ExpressionEdits, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company optimizing protein expression using AI and proprietary intronization technology. At ExpressionEdits Rebecca provides leadership and strategic direction to all business, financial and operational aspects of the organisation, leading on all commercial partnership activities.

Rebecca’s extensive track record of building highly successful organizations, teams, and systems, covers all stages of the product lifecycle, across a wide variety of therapeutic modalities and in all regions worldwide, including emerging markets. Rebecca has held Director level roles at Eisai and AbbVie and the role of Global Head Regional PV Excellence at Roche. Rebecca’s most recent roles include COO at healthtech start-up, OKKO Health, and Research Chief of Staff for the clinical-stage gene therapy biotech, Freeline Therapeutics (now Spur Therapeutics).

Rebecca also serves as Chair of the Board of Teens Unite fighting cancer and is author of the best-selling book ‘The Leadership Vaccine: Drive innovation, increase efficiency and build resilience in highly regulated industries’.

 

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Elizabeth Klein

Investment Director, Calculus Capital

No bio provided

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Phil Masterson

Associate Director, Ventures, Cancer Research Horizons

Phil has a BSc in Cell Biology from the University of Essex, and a PhD in Virology from the University of Cambridge. After a post-doc position at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in London, Phil spent a number of years managing R&D programmes in the biotech industry. 

He moved into technology transfer in 2003 when he joined Cancer Research Horizons (formerly called Cancer Research Technology). Since that time, he has built up extensive experience of managing and commercialising healthcare technologies from academic origins, focusing in recent years on the creation of innovative and transformative oncology ventures, from ideation to launch.  

He has served as a Board Director or Observer for a range of start-up companies including Artios Pharma, Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Infinitopes, MyT BIO, Elaitra and Oncodrug.

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Santiago Matheus

Managing Partner, LQD

Santiago directs the day-to-day activities at LQD, drawing on his experience as an executive, angel investor and founder, as well as a product and strategy consultant. He works with entrepreneurs to understand their ambitions and provides support across the various stages of venture-building.

Prior to founding LQD, Santiago held a range of operational and consultative roles in companies including IBM, IDEO, Method Design, AVG Technologies. He is happiest at the intersection of technology, business, and design, and is passionate about deep tech’s promise to improve the world.

Santiago has held or holds various NED and board seats at early-stage companies in the UK and in charities based in his native country, Ecuador.

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Jonathan Nash

Investment Principle, LifeArc Ventures

Jonathan joined LifeArc as an Investment Principal at LifeArc Ventures in 2024. He is responsible for new investments and managing existing portfolio companies.

Prior to joining LifeArc, Jon was an Associate with the Biotechnology team at M Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, where he was responsible for new investments and existing portfolio companies with a focus on therapeutics and life sciences. Prior to this, he was an Associate at UBS in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group in London, as well as a Life Science Specialist at L.E.K. Consulting.

Jon started his career as a doctor in London and holds Degrees in Medicine and Neuroscience from Imperial College London.

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Pahini Pandya

CEO and Founder, Panakeia

Dr Pahini Pandya is the CEO and Founder of Panakeia, a pioneering AI-driven molecular profiling company. Panakeia’s AI-driven software provides comprehensive multi-omic information (DNA, RNA, protein, metabolite changes) directly from routinely used images of tissues and cells in minutes instead of days or weeks. The software enables same-day treatment decision-making in the clinic and fast-tracks drug development for biopharma without the need for time and resource intensive laboratory tests.

Trained as a cancer researcher. Pahini spent the last decade furthering translational research in the field. She pursued a PhD in cancer biophysics at King’s College London, a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and has several publications in top journals.

Educated at the Stanford and Cambridge business schools, Pahini has also held several leadership positions across entrepreneurial organisations and helped numerous start-ups commercialise research. She has been recognised as Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, and received multiple awards for entrepreneurship.

Carolyn Porter

Chief Executive Officer, Outrun Therapeutics

Carolyn has over 25 years’ experience in career spanning roles in biotech and pharmaceutical companies, technology transfer and academia, and is currently CEO of Outrun Therapeutics, a spin out of the University of Dundee.  She has held Board roles including CEO and NED roles in 7 biotech companies developing novel therapies across multiple indications including in oncology and neurology.  She is also currently a NED representing Innovate UK on the Board of the Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult.  Organisations she has previously worked for include Novartis, Chiron, Oxford University and Ernst & Young.  Carolyn has a PhD in Immunology, BSC in Pharmacology and an MBA.

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Roland Sinker

Chief Executive , Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Roland has served as Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) since 2015.

The trust is a high performing centre for clinical care and patient experience, running the UK's most digitally developed hospitals and making award-winning use of digital systems to improve patient care.  From 2018 to 2021, he was the accountable officer for the integrated care system in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The integrated care system and the hospital trust are focused on innovation and improvement, working alongside universities and industry to deliver this.

Aligned with these roles, Roland chaired the Shelford Group of ten teaching hospitals from 2020–2023; and in March 2023 was appointed as the NHS England National Director for Life Sciences. This position works alongside the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences (IRLS) team in NHSE to engage national innovation partners, local systems, industry, and research charities to develop a clear blueprint for how the NHS can best support, and benefit from, a strong life sciences ecosystem. During March 2023 Roland became a Governor of The Health Foundation, focussed on innovation and life sciences.

Before joining CUH, Roland was Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer and Strategy Director at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He began his career in the field of corporate law at Linklaters, based in London and Hong Kong, and later moved to McKinsey to work in strategy consultancy.

 

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Lennart Spindler

Senior Analyst, SV Health Investors

Lennart joined SV in 2024 as a Senior Analyst in the DDF team. Prior to joining SV, Lennart was as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, alongside project work at Syncona Partners, Start Codon, and Cambridge Enterprise.

During his Postdoc, Lennart was a research lead in the lab of Dr Caroline Williams-Gray & Prof Roger Barker, where he investigated peripheral versus central inflammation and neurotransmitter system dysregulation as drivers of proteinopathy and disease progression in Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. He received his PhD in Clinical Neurosciences and has published in high impact journals (PNAS, Brain, Neurocritical Care, Neuroimage). During his studies at Cambridge he co-founded the Queens’ College Entrepreneurship Centre.

In his free time, Lennart enjoys playing the bagpipes, hiking off-grid, taking (bad) film photographs, and reviving classic cars.

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Rebecca Todd

Investment Director, Longwall Ventures

Rebecca began venture investing in 2006 while at Oxford Capital, where she took responsibility for the Oxford Gateway Funds’ investments into healthcare and life science companies, and went on to become Director, Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations (now part of IP Group). Her earlier career was as a marketing consultant to pharmaceutical and life science technology companies. Rebecca has a PhD in Genetics from Nottingham University and an MBA from Oxford University. She joined Longwall Ventures after a couple of years sabbatical break spent exploring South America in a VW camper van and focuses predominantly on medical technology opportunities. 

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Özgür Tuncer

CEO & Executive Director, Stablepharma Ltd

Özgür has over two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with deep expertise in executive leadership, strategy, M&A and investments. In addition to being the CEO & Executive Director of Stablepharma, Özgür is an investment partner with Ascension Ventures and co-founder of the Ascension Life Fund. In that capacity, he is involved at board-level in early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies in the UK.

Özgür in a Non-Executive Director at Cambridge-based precision cancer company TailorBio and fertility company ExSeed Health, as well as being a Board Advisor to Pangaea Data. Most recently, he was Global Vice President in IQVIA, leading company’s Financial Investors practice. In that role, Özgür was involved in more than 300 industry-shaping transactions with valuations of $100m-10bn+, working with world’s leading Private Equity & Venture Capital investors.

Özgür spent over 6 years in USA working for Pfizer in New York and Pharmacia in New Jersey before moving into management consultancy. In Pfizer, he was in charge of portfolio strategy and investments in infectious diseases globally. During that time, he was deeply involved in developing anti-viral and anti-bacterial products. Furthermore, Özgür was part of a small strategy task force who led Pfizer’s entry into vaccine space, acquiring PowderMed in 2006, a UK vaccine company.

Prior to joining IMS Health (IQVIA), Özgür was the founding Managing Partner of SARGA Associates with offices in New Jersey, USA and London, UK. He has also worked with several NGOs including Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in Geneva, UNITAID, Clinton Foundation/Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Gates Foundation.

Özgür has lived and worked in the UK, USA, France and Turkey. He holds an MSc in Management Sciences from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Business Administration from the Middle East Technical University (Turkey).

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