Derek Ellison

Vice President, Biologics Services Europe, Pharmaron

Derek is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with over 25 years of leadership, technical, and commercial experience across biologics development and manufacturing. He currently serves as Vice President of Biologics Services in Europe for Pharmaron, where he also leads the Liverpool site. Derek has held senior roles at Allergan, Actavis, and Watson, and has led major strategic business and global R&D programs. In addition to large pharma, Derek has been a co-founder of a successful biotech venture, Eden Biodesign, which grew to operate the UK National Biomanufacturing Centre. He combines technical expertise with strategic and operational acumen. Derek holds a PhD in Protein Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Warwick. 

John Clarke

Global Head of Government Affairs and Policy, Cytiva

John Clarke is the Global Head of Government Affairs and Policy at Cytiva, where he leads strategic engagement with governments and stakeholders across the healthcare and life sciences sectors. With deep expertise in public affairs, strategic communications, and market access, John advises global organizations on navigating complex policy environments and shaping effective advocacy strategies. His career spans advising health and social care providers, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and investment firms at UK, regional, and global levels. John has a proven track record of delivering impactful campaigns in collaboration with patient organizations, policymakers, industry leaders, health systems, and academia. His work is grounded in a nuanced understanding of the evolving healthcare landscape and a commitment to advancing innovation and access in life sciences. 

Stuart Carroll

Director Market Access and Policy Affairs, Moderna

Stuart Carroll is a senior health economist and epidemiologist with over 22 years of experience, specialising in infectious diseases and vaccines, market access, health technology appraisal, public health, and government policy.  He currently serves as Director of Market Access and Policy Affairs for Moderna UK and Ireland. Prior to this, he held a senior role within Her Majesty’s Government, acting as Senior Expert Policy and Strategy Adviser for the Prime Minister’s UK Vaccines Taskforce and the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce. In these roles, he was responsible for policy coordination, deployment and implementation strategy, and provided expert advice to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). He also led on key issues relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol. 

Stuart has extensive expertise in health policy and market access across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including rare diseases, neurology, and mental health. He has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed academic and scientific papers. Earlier in his career, Stuart worked in consultancy, served as a Health Policy Adviser to the Conservative Party, and held senior roles in the pharmaceutical industry, including Head of Market Access and Public Affairs at Sanofi Pasteur UK and Ireland, Head of Market Access at Biogen, and Head of Health Economics and Epidemiology at Sanofi Pasteur MSD 

He has also contributed to national healthcare decision-making bodies, serving as a voting member of the New Drugs Committee for the NHS Scottish Medicines Consortium, and as a member of the Appeals Panel at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.  Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and the Royal Society of Arts and serves as a Senior Fellow at both the Office of Health Economics and the think tank Policy Exchange. He is also Co-Chair of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Vaccines Group.  In the 2019 General Election, he served as Chief of Staff to former Prime Minister Theresa May. 

Stuart has also held public office, serving as an elected councillor for Boyn Hill in the Royal Borough of Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead from 2015 to 2023. During this time, he was Deputy Chair of Cabinet, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Health, Mental Health and Children’s Services, and Chairman of the local Health and Wellbeing Board.  He is currently completing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Health at the University of Nottingham, under the supervision of Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, with a core research focus on the COVID-19 vaccination programme and pandemic response. 

Claire Skentelbery

Director General, EuropaBio

Claire holds a degree in agriculture and a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in the leadership of scientific associations for 20 years. She started her career within the UK Cambridge biotech cluster and was a co-founder and Manager of the Council of European BioRegions, a network of biotechnology clusters across Europe in Brussels, she also took on the role of SG for the European Biotechnology Network (EBN) in 2012, working across sectors, organisations and countries as part of the EBN mission to facilitate collaboration.  

In 2017, Claire became Director General of the globally-focussed Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) which she successfully led until November 2020 when she joined EuropaBio as Director General. In addition to her current role at EuropaBio, she is also the Chair of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA) and Governing Board Member for the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI). 

She has a driving interest in collaboration across the value chain to develop the business of science, and the role of internationally networked policies, programmes, skills, finance and infrastructures to create a strong landscape.