Kate Barclay
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.
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.
Alice Brown
Alice Brown is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Purespring Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company. She previously held senior R&D leadership roles at GammaDelta Therapeutics (acquired by Takeda) and PsiOxus Therapeutics. An accomplished R&D leader, company builder and advisor, Alice has a strong track record in securing venture capital funding and advancing therapies from concept through to mid-stage clinical development. She is also passionate about developing people and building high-performing, collaborative teams.
Susan Conroy
Dr Susan Conroy has been involved in Therakind since its inception, Therakind is a specialist UK pharmaceutical company originally focussing on paediatric medicine to increase the availability of authorised speciality medicines and ensure that they are both safe and effective.
Susan was appointed CEO of Therakind in 2008. Under her leadership, Therakind has successfully completed eight clinical trials and gained approval for three medicines in the EU and US. Following a successful MBO in 2024, Therakind has continued its focus on novel delivery.
Prior to Therakind, Susan worked as a consultant specialising in early start up programmes, technology transfer, medical affairs, commercial exploitation of existing products and an independent funding assessor of start-ups. Susan started her career in small and medium-sized pharma company, evaluating and commercialising research programmes, clinical research, market opportunities and novel therapeutic areas.
Susan has a PhD in Molecular Biology from London University and undertook post-doctoral research in oncology at University College London. Susan is a Trustee of Anthony Nolan – a charity that researches into the treatment of blood cancers and disorders, and supports people with blood cancer and blood disorders to find a stem cell donor. She sits on the Audit & Finance committee and the Governance & Risk Committee.
Nara Daubeney
Dr Nara Daubeney (nee Orban) PhD, MBBS MRCS (Eng). MEd (Surg) DIC FRCS (Orl-HNS) DLO is an entrepreneur and consultant ENT surgeon based in London. She obtained her medical degree at Imperial College and Charing Cross Hospital and is a member and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons with a Masters in Education and post graduate surgical diploma in ENT. She has a PhD from Imperial College in immunology and has considerable expertise in autoimmunity. Nara has a number of previous roles within the national healthcare landscape. She previously founded and led medical services companies, and has been instrumental in growing Phaim from a UK start-up to a growth company with trials in type 1 diabetes and a discovery pipeline in multiple autoimmune diseases. A Royal College of Surgeons Tutor and Fellow, Nara also serves as the Honorary Secretary of ENTUK and the Clinical Lead for Innovation at the Royal Society of Medicine. She is a public governor at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust and a mentor for the BioIndustry Association.
Nara is one of Phaim's founding members, an experienced entrepreneur and healthcare innovatior. She is passionate about bringing novel therapies and digital healthcare applications to market as well as nurturing the next generation of leaders and innovators
Livija Deban
Livija Deban is CSO of Prokarium. Dr Deban previously served as Prokarium’s Vice President of Research. Prior to joining Prokarium, she led the immuno-oncology R&D at Oxford BioTherapeutics, where she focused on the target discovery and the development of antibodies for cancer treatment. Previously, Dr Deban conducted her postdoctoral academic research at Cancer Research UK and King’s College London. She received her master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Bologna and holds a PhD in Basic and Applied Immunology from University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Italy.
Ros Deegan
As CEO of OMass Therapeutics, private biotechnology company applying native mass spectrometry to discover novel small molecule medicines, Ros Deegan is passionate about the potential of the life sciences sector in the UK to contribute positively to the UK economy and to change the lives of patients through innovation.
She has over 20 years of experience in biotech, pharma and consulting in Europe and the US. Ros is a strong generalist with senior-level experience in strategy, finance, operations and project leadership at early-stage companies, and a successful track record in business development and financing, including supporting the transition from private to public. At OMass I have led its strategic development into a therapeutics company, raising over £110 million. Ros joined OMass from Bicycle Therapeutics where she served as President, Chief Business Officer and a Director of the US subsidiary of the Company. She established the company’s Boston-based subsidiary and over a three-year period led three major transactions. Prior to that, Ros served as Senior Vice President, Business Development and Operations at Trevena, Inc. During her tenure at Bicycle and Trevena, the companies moved four programmes into the clinic, and raised over $300 million in private and public financings. She has an MBA with distinction (INSEAD) and a first-class degree in Natural Sciences (Cambridge). In addition to her role at OMass, Ros supports emerging business leaders through mentoring and previously served on the advisory group for Harwell Science Park and the 2024 Prime Minister’s Business Council.
Lucy Edwardes Jones
Lucy is a member of BGF's Early Stage investment team in London and the South East. Her main role is to source and execute investments, with a particular focus on earlier stage and life science opportunities. Prior to BGF, Lucy spent five years at CIL Management Consultants where she conducted strategy and commercial due diligence projects in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.
Rebecca Godfrey
Dr Rebecca Godfrey is the COO at ExpressionEdits, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company optimising protein expression using AI and proprietary intronisation 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 organisations, 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.
Anne Horgan
Anne Horgan is a Partner at Cambridge Innovation Capital, specialising in Life Sciences investments. With over 20 years’ experience spanning drug discovery, technology transfer, business development and equity financing, she began her career as a medicinal chemist before moving into senior roles at Cancer Research UK and later venture capital with Sofinnova Partners.
Anne holds a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Bristol, conducted postdoctoral research at Yale, and is an inventor on eight patent families.
Melanie Ivarsson
Mealnie leads the Health Data Research Service – the new organisation backed by the UK government and Wellcome – that seeks to revolutionise how we use the UK's uniquely deep and diverse UK healthcare data. It is going to spearhead efforts to accelerate the understanding of what causes disease and the discovery of life-saving drugs, while protecting the public’s data. She started her career as a neuroscience researcher in universities in the UK, Sweden and the US, and then worked in industry developing new medicines. Most recently Melanie led the creation of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against Covid-19.
Annalisa Jenkins
Annalisa Jenkins, MBBS, FRCP, is a biopharma thought leader with more than 25 years’ industry experience. She has extensive experience in building and financing biotech companies pursuing cures for challenging rare diseases. She has built and led teams advancing programmes from scientific research through clinical development, regulatory approval, and into health care systems globally. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly for women in science. Annalisa has served as President and Chief Executive of Dimension Therapeutics and other leadership roles have included senior positions at Merck Serono and at Bristol Myers-Squibb. Earlier in her career, Annalisa was a medical officer in the British Royal Navy. She is a board member of several growing companies, including Oncimmune, AVROBIO, COMPASS Pathways, AOBiome, AgeX; a medical trustee for the British Heart Foundation; a committee member of the Science Board to the US Food and Drug Administration; advisory board member at FasterCures; and Chair of Court at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Natalia Misciattelli
Dr Misciattelli has been Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors at AAVantgarde since 2022. She brings over 25 years of executive experience in the life sciences industry, with deep expertise in cell and gene therapy. Prior to joining AAVantgarde, she held senior leadership roles as Chief Business Officer at NovalGen and Senior Vice President of Strategy & Operations at Freeline. Her business career began in finance with Arthur Andersen in London, followed by strategy and corporate development roles at General Electric Healthcare business unit. She later broadened her international life sciences experience as a Global Management Consulting Partner at PA Consulting, advising global organisations on Strategy, Growth and Operational Transformation. Dr Misciattelli holds a B.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Bangor University, University of Wales, UK
Lisa Patel
Lisa is CEO and co-founder of Istesso. Prior to joining the company in 2007, she spent 10 years at GlaxoSmithKline as a team leader in the Cardiovascular Centre of Excellence and latterly as a group leader in Clinical Pharmacology and Discovery Medicine. Lisa has a PhD in molecular genetics, a degree in biochemistry and an MBA.
Emily Pilkington
Emily Pilkington is Head of Life Sciences, Healthcare and Planetary Health within NatWest's Venture Banking team. Emily works across the UK, helping businesses from seed stage through to exit access the full breadth of NatWest’s support. She joined from HSBC Innovation Banking, where she led the Life Sciences and Healthcare Debt Finance team. Emily has 13 years’ experience in lending and coverage roles at SVB, DNB and Barclays, working with technology and life sciences companies throughout the growth lifecycle.
Hannah Sore
A medicinal chemist by training, Hannah is recognised for championing innovative methods for discovering much needed new drugs. Hannah is passionate about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with small molecule therapeutics and breaking down the barriers of inaccessibility; for the patient, the target and the drug.
Claire Thompson
Claire firmly believes that the life science industry is key to ensuring the UK economy revives and thrives. She is committed to continuing to support BIA activities including working with key stakeholders to promote and enable innovation and investment in the UK, and the Women in Biotech Advisory Board.
Claire is a multi-award winning entrepreneur with more than 20 years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning large multi-nationals (GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer), virtual biotech and CDMOs. She is Founder and CEO of Agility Life Sciences, an award-winning formulation development CDMO which helps biotechs to turn their badly-behaved molecules into products which have the best chance of success in preclinical studies, and enable them to be accelerated to clinic. Claire is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge where she helps academics translate their research into healthcare products and platforms. She holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Nottingham.
Claire was the winner of the Bionow Outstanding Achievement award in 2023, named in the Medicine Maker Power List in 2022, and the inaugural recipient of the One Nucleus “Life Science Inspiration of the Year” award in 2021. She is passionate not just about the process of getting medicines to patients, but the people involved in the development. One of her mantras is “people and purpose over products and profits”.
She has made appearances for the BBC (Health: Truth or Scare), ITV News and Channel 4 (Food Unwrapped) to illustrate the science behind medicines in a way which engages the public, and demonstrates to girls where science can take them. As a former international footballer, Claire founded the Girls In Football Teams (GIFT) Grant Foundation, which has supported more than 30 girls’ and women’s teams across the UK.
Anna Williamson
Anna Williamson is a member of Roche/Genentech Partnering. Before joining Roche, she worked in technology transfer at the University of California. She has a BA and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge.
With over 20 years of partnering experience, Anna has established and managed many collaborations, ranging from academia to early-stage start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies.
Anna's experience extends beyond deal-making to building and nurturing collaborative ecosystems. She played a key role in negotiating Roche’s founding membership in Our Future Health, a flagship UK Government/private partnership, and now represents Roche on its Founders Board. She is Roche’s business lead for the UK Biobank PPP consortium. She was previously on the Board at Start Codon, a life sciences accelerator, and holds office hours, and provide mentorship, for other accelerators in the UK.
Karolina Zapadka, PhD MBA
Karolina has spent the past 15 years building a strong network across the UK and European life sciences ecosystem. She is an experienced biotech investor and entrepreneur with over a decade in life sciences innovation, spanning drug discovery, technology transfer, venture building, and equity financing.
As Founding Partner at BII Catalyst, Karolina leads investment strategy and portfolio support for early-stage life sciences ventures focused on human and planetary health. Previously, she was an investor at the UK's largest EIS fund, where she led multiple deals, sat on the Investment Committee, and supported portfolio companies across life sciences, platform technologies, single-asset biotechs, tools, and digital health.
Karolina co-founded Accelerate@Babraham, Cambridge's first life sciences accelerator, and founded the Innovation Forum, a global non-profit supporting life sciences entrepreneurship across the UK, Europe, US, and Asia.
She holds a PhD in Protein Folding and Drug Discovery from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris.