The Speakers for BioWales 2012

Amongst the presentations, Sir Chris Evans unveiled exciting plans for the future of life sciences in Wales, and the Futurewatch session highlights new technologies and commercial ventures to look out for. Sir Chris said: "We have really upped the ante for BioWales 2012 with a 10^th event in this magnificent Welsh landmark building that will capture the dynamism and vitality in the life sciences in today's Wales. It's an exciting prospect and not to be missed!"

Professor Sir Christopher Evans, OBE

Sir Sir Chris Evans Christopher's considerable contributions to the biotechnology industry have been honoured with a Knighthood in the 2001 New Year's Honours List and an OBE in the 1995 New Year's Honours List. In 1987-1994, he created Cambridge's first biomedical companies, starting the now famous Cambridge Cluster which has grown from Sir Chris' earlier start ups to some 350 companies worth over $7 billion. In 1996, Sir Christopher founded Merlin Biosciences, which currently manages over €500 million and is one of Europe's foremost venture capital firms specialising in medical sciences. Sir Chris has established 45 successful, high-quality science companies, 20 of which have been taken public on 5 stock markets.

Sir Richard Sykes

Sir Richard is Chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chairman of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Chairman of the UK Stem Cell Foundation, Chairman of CRAC, the Careers and Research Advisory Council, Chairman of Toumaz, Circassia, Omnicyte, NetScientific and the investment board of Deepridge Capital. He is Vice Chairman of the Swiss Life Sciences Company, Lonza Group and he sits on the advisory boards of Siemens Holdings plc and the Virgin Group. Prior to that, he was Senior Independent Director and non executive Chairman of ENRC from 2007 to June 2011, Chairman of NHS London from December 2008 to July 2010, Rector of Imperial College London from 2000 to 2008. He was a non executive director of Rio Tinto plc from 1997 to 2007, and senior independent director from 2004 to 2007. He has over 30 years' experience within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries field, serving as Chief Executive and Chairman of GlaxoWellcome from 1995 to 2000 and then as Chairman of GlaxoSmithkline until 2002. Internationally he is Chairman of the International Advisory Board, A*Star Biomedical Research Council, Singapore and a Board member of EDBI. He was awarded Honorary Citizenship of Singapore in 2004 for his contribution to the development of the country's biomedical sciences industry. Sir Richard holds a number of degrees and awards from Institutions both in the UK and overseas. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Physicians. He is also President of the R and D Society, a position he has held since 2002. He is president of the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and President of the Medical and Dental Students' Association. He is a Fellow of Imperial College London and the Imperial College School of Medicine, King's College London and Honorary Fellow of the Universities of Wales and Central Lancashire. Sir Richard received a Knighthood in the 1994 New Year's Honours list for services to the pharmaceutical industry.

Professor Trevor Jones, CBE

Professor Jones is former Director General of The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and now serves on the Boards of companies in the USA; Allergan Inc ,SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc , and Europe; Sigma Tau (Italy),ReNeuron plc ,Synexus Ltd ,VeronaPharma plc (UK). He is a visiting professor at King's College, London and holds honorary degrees and Gold Medals from 6 universities.

From 1987-94, he was a main board Director of The Wellcome Foundation, where he was responsible for Research & Development. He is a founder member of the Geneva-based, Public: Private Partnership, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and has served on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (C.I.P.I.H). For 12 years Prof Jones was a member of the UK Government Regulatory Agency-The Medicines Commission. Also an advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome project ;a member of the Prime Minister's Task force on the Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Industry (PICTF) and Chair of the Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research. He is a member of the Scientific Board of EU Commission Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)

In 2005 he was the winner of the SCRIP Life Time Achievement award for his contribution to the pharmaceutical sciences and industry.

Professor Jonathan Bisson, Clinical Director, NISCHR AHSC

Professor Jonathan Bisson is Clinical Director of the all Wales National Institute for Social Care and Health Research Academic Health Science Collaboration. He is also Director of Research and Development for Cardiff University School of Medicine and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and a consultant psychiatrist who developed an interest in traumatic stress during his time in the British Army. He has conducted various studies including two widely cited randomised controlled trials of early psychological interventions following traumatic events and three Cochrane systematic reviews in the traumatic stress field. He was co-chair of the UK's PTSD NICE Guideline Development Group and is Director of the all Wales Veterans' Health and Wellbeing Service.

Dr David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes, Technology Strategy Board

David Bott Pic David was appointed as Director of Innovation Platforms in the Technology Strategy Board in July 2007. He was then made Director of Innovation Programmes in July 2008.

David graduated from the University of Sussex with a BSc in Polymer Science. He stayed on to do a PhD sponsored by ICI Plastics, spending the summers working in their laboratories at Welwyn Garden City. As a result of this experience, he joined the British Petroleum Research Centre at Sunbury-on-Thames where he led a team working on electrically conductive polymers, polymer batteries and non-linear optics.

8 years later he joined Courtaulds to set up and run their Strategic Research Group. In addition he spent separate years responsible for Carbon Fibre Research (1989) and Performance Films (1992)(in America). After another 8 years he left to join ICI Acrylics as Research Director.　He then joined National Starch, where he was responsible for research in their Specialty Synthetic Resins Division for 2 years and then became a Director of Group Technology for ICI.

Throughout this time, he has sat on the UK Governments Technology Foresight Panel for Materials, was President of the Industrial Affairs Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2002-2004) and the Co-Chairman of the Strategy and Implementation Board of the Crystal Faraday Partnership on Green Chemistry (2001 - 2007). He is Chairman of Oxford Biomaterials and a Non-Executive Director of Oxford Advanced Surfaces Group, Apaclara and Spineless Design. From 2006 until 2008 he was part time CEO of Materials UK, an organisation set up to implement and develop the work of the Materials Innovation and Growth team.

Gabriele Cerrone, Chairman and Founder, BioVitas Capital

Gabriele Cerrone is the Chairman and Founder of BioVitas Capital, an international biotech incubator operating primarily in the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom. BioVitas is perhaps the most active investor in early stage biotech intellectual property in Italy and has founded six biotech companies since its inception. Of the six companies, five have been listed and three of the five have hit peak values exceeding $900M. Mr. Cerrone co-founded FermaVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in July of 2005 and served as its Chairman until September of 2007, when it was acquired by Inhibitex. Mr. Cerrone has served on the Board of directors of Inhibitex from September 2007 up until the sale of the company to Bristol Meyers Squibb in January 2012. Mr. Cerrone is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of Synergy Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Nasdaq listed pharmaceutical company focusing on GI disorders. Mr. Cerrone has been a co-founder and director of three other listed companies TrovaGene, Inc, Callisto Pharmaceuticals, and Siga Technologies, Inc. Siga Technologies has the only drug in the world contracted by the U.S. government to treat the potential threat of a smallpox virus attack. Mr. Cerrone is currently investing actively in diagnostic biomarkers for cancer detection and prevention. Mr. Cerrone is the Chairman and Founder of GenSignia, Inc. a privately held diagnostic microRNA company which is developing a breakthrough test for the detection of early stage lung cancer from a simple plasma based test. GenSignia now controls one of the largest microRNA patent portfolios for cancer testing in the world. Mr. Cerrone and BioVitas Capital are vigorously working on improving biotech entrepreneurship in Europe with a particular focus on Italy and the United Kingdom.

Dr Berwyn Clarke, Board Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Lab21

Dr Berwyn Clarke was founder and CEO of Oneida TheraDiagnostics Ltd and has been involved in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 28 years. Dr Clarke was Head of the hepatitis C virus therapeutic area at GlaxoWellcome between 1990 and 2000 and was previously with Wellcome Biotechnology and the Wellcome Foundation. In 2000 he moved into the molecular diagnostic industry with Virco UK and, following a series of M&A activities, became Vice President for Research at Visible Genetics Inc. (VGI) a pioneering company in the use of molecular diagnostics for viral and cancer disease management. In 2002 VGI was acquired by Bayer Diagnostics and he decided to launch his own company, Oneida, in May 2003. Following a successful seed funding round through Merlin Biosciences he co-founded Lab21 in April 2005 where he is currently a Board Director and Chief Scientific Officer. Lab21 is one of the leading providers of companion diagnostic services in Europe and is also a major global manufacturer of immunodiagnostic and molecular assays including tests for syphilis and malaria.

Rowan Gardner, Biolauncher Ltd

Rowan Gardner graduated from Oxford University in Biochemistry. After graduation, Rowan joined one of The University's spinouts Oxford Molecular Group which gave her a taste for high growth, high tech businesses - opening up the US operations; participating in LSE main board listing and leading the IR strategy as the company became the second best performing share on the London Stock Exchange and grew via numerous acquisitions. Following a short period in Sweden, Rowan returned to the UK and co-founded Synomics with recognised experts from the CERN computing lab and the European Bioinformatics Institute.

She has worked with over 20 university start ups, several international companies and the NHS to find mechanisms to create value and find investment. In 2007, Rowan received a telephone call from the Astia foundation to help launch their investor readiness program in the UK. She helped raise £5.3M of capital to develop a service level architecture for life science data integration. Synomics and Oxford Molecular were bought by Accelrys. Rowan went on to co-found Biolauncher to advise biotechnology and medical device businesses grow and attract capital.

She chairs the life science advisory board in Europe and is a member of the global life science cabinet which shares information to understand current investment trends in US, Europe and India.

Dr Melanie Goward, Senior Investment Executive, Finance Wales

Melanie is an investment executive working on early stage investments at fund management company Finance Wales. Finance Wales makes commercial investments into small and medium-sized businesses throughout Wales and specialises in early-stage/technology, development capital and succession deals.

Melanie joined the early stage investment team in 2010 having previously worked as an Investment Director with the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), an early stage technology seed fund.

Her successful investment career has included roles at Lloyds TSB Corporate working with technology companies at all growth stages and the internationally acclaimed Human Genome Project. Melanie holds a Ph.D. and B.A. (Hons) from the University of Cambridge.

Dr Trevor Howe, Johnson and Johnson, Head of Structural Biology and Biophysics, Janssen Research & Development

Trevor and his group (in Beerse, Belgium; Val de Reuil, France; and Toledo, Spain) are focused on using structural, biophysical and computational methods for drug discovery and optimisation. Increasingly the focus encompasses pathway/target identification and validation in translational systems which require the use, interpretation and understanding of highly heterogeneous data types.

Trevor joined Janssen in 2003. Prior to this, he headed the Computational Chemistry Council for Novartis from 1997 - 2003. Trevor established Lilly's computational chemistry department in the UK (1990) and was simultaneously a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford with Prof Graham Richards. He obtained his PhD at the University of East Anglia and undertook a postdoc at State University of New York, USA. He is currently a visiting Fellow at the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff and also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the EPSRC.

Michael Hunt BSc ACA, CEO, ReNeuron Group plc

Michael Hunt was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ReNeuron Group plc in July 2005. Prior to ReNeuron, he spent six years at Biocompatibles International plc (sold to BTG plc) where he held a number of senior financial and general management positions. His early industrial career was spent at Bunzl plc. He sits on the BioIndustry Association's Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Advisory Committee and its Finance and Tax Advisory Committee. He is a Senior Industry Group member of the UK Government's Office for Life Sciences and a member of the UK Technology Strategy Board's RegenMed Advisory Group. He read economics at University College London and qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young in London.

Ian James, Director, A4P Consulting

Ian T. James, PhD is a cofounder of A4P Consulting Ltd, established with colleagues from Pfizer's EU Clinical Assay Group, to provide integrated solutions in outsourcing oversight, sample logistics and consulting services in clinical bioanalysis and diagnostic programs to Pharma and SME's. After receiving a BSc (Biochemistry) and MSc (Pharmacology) he obtained a PhD from St Bartholomew's Hospital, University of London, for studies focusing on novel bone biomarkers.

In 1998 he joined Pfizer Global Research and Development, Sandwich as a Pharmacodynamic Assay Advisor and was responsible for biomarker selection, technology / assay development and outsourcing in support of a broad range of early and late phase clinical programmes.

In 2007 he transitioned to a newly formed global companion diagnostics role continuing his prior work in HIV tropism diagnostic development for Maraviroc (CCR5 antagonist) and supporting additional HIV/HCV, oncology and anti fungal programmes alongside various technology and near patient platform development programmes.

John Jeans, Chairman, Cardiff University Council, MRC Technology and Imanova Ltd

John is currently Chairman of Cardiff University's Council, MRC Technology and Imanova Ltd. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the Alliance Medical Group and a Trustee of the Francis Crick Institute. Until July 2011 he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of the MRC, the UK's largest funding agency for Medical Research, with an annual budget of more than £720M and 4000 employees. He continues to contribute to the MRC's finance and audit committee. Prior to joining the pubic sector John enjoyed a broad career in the International Healthcare industry working with Smith & Nephew, BMS, Johnson & Johnson and Amersham plc (now GE Healthcare), spanning more than 37 years. John led the commercial function of GE's Life Science business and was the Chairman of its UK Healthcare operations. An active participant in industry associations, John has held executive posts in BIVDA (British In Vitro Diagnostic Association), EDMA (European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association) and is a past President of AIPES (Association of Imaging Producers and Equipment Suppliers).

An advisor to several public sector organizations, he currently Chairs the Technology Strategy Board's Rapid Diagnostics' initiative, the University of Cardiff's PET Imaging scientific committee; is a Steering Board member of the HealthTech and Medicines KTN and an advisor to the University of Manchester's venture fund. He has also contributed to various Governmental bodies, including the Co-Chairmanship of a Ministerial Committee on Medical Technologies and is a member of the Science Advisory Council for Wales.

Professor Chris McGuigan, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research, Cardiff University

Chris McGuigan is Professor of medicinal chemistry and Deputy pro-vice chancellor of research at Cardiff University. He has published over 200 scientific papers and is inventor on over 30 patents. He has received research funding of >£8M since 1999 and is actively funded by industry, charities and EU. Three compounds discovered in his lab have now reached clinical trials. FV100 for shingles, licensed to Fermavir (acquired by Inhibitex) has successfully phase 2 clinical trial. INX-189, licensed to Inhibitex is mid-way through phase 2 trials for hepatitis C virus, a major and emerging disease. INX-189 is the primary asset in Inhibitex, subject to takeover for $2.5Bn by BMS (Jan 2012). Prof McGuigan served on the Boards of Synergy and Inhibitex until takeover in both cases. He also serves on the board of Synergy Pharmaceuticals, a public company in the GI space, and is on the SAB of NuCana Biomed, a UK company in targeted cancer chemotherapy. NuCana will enter first in man trials with NUC-1031, a new agent for pancreatic cancer discovered in Cardiff, in Q1 2012. Chris McGuigan is inventor of ProTides, a novel drug discovery method for viruses and cancer, and recently extended to the OA space. Prof McGuigan is a member of the Life Science sector panel of the Welsh Government and sits on the government appointed REF panel assessing UK HEI research in health sciences.

Kenneth Powell, Executive Chairman, Q-Chip

Executive Chairman of Q-Chip a Cardiff based life science company developing novel delayed release formulations of drugs. His past roles include: Founder and CEO of Arrow Therapeutics Ltd (a specialised antiviral drug discovery company acquired by Astra-Zeneca PLC for $150 million in February 2007). Professor of Cell Biology and Virology and Deputy Director of the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research UCL. Head of Biology for the Wellcome Foundation Limited. Over the last 15 years Ken has been involved in setting up and developing UK biotechnology companies across multiple therapeutic areas and utilising different business models. His companies have been involved in significant licensing deals with Pfizer, Novartis, Astra-Zeneca and GSK. In his role in Wellcome he pioneered in-licensing of assets from biotech companies to the pharmaceutical industry. Ken has been involved in many drug-discovery & development projects and has been around long enough to see some of them come to the market and help patients. With more than 25 years experience of the pharmaceutical industry he has a keen insight to the issues, indeed the crisis the UK industry is facing.

Liz Roquemore, Technology Manager for Cell Applications, GE Healthcare

Liz Roquemore is the Technology Manager for Cell Applications within the Cell Technologies division of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. With a Ph.D. in molecular cell biology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Liz specialized in elucidation of protein trafficking and regulatory mechanisms before joining Amersham (now GE Healthcare) in 1998. She has played a leading role in development and validation of cell lines, reagents, assays and imaging tools for research and drug discovery, and has most recently been involved in the application of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for early toxicity testing. Liz is an articulate and passionate advocate for the adoption of high content cell analysis technologies, and has delivered floor presentations at numerous academic and trade conferences over the past 20 years.

Mike Thompson, Managing Director, Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd

Mike Thompson in currently Managing Director of Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd. Biomet is a global supplier of orthopaedic devices and has a manufacturing and commercial site based in Bridgend, Wales. He has been working for Biomet for 2 years. Mike has more than 20 years experience of sales and marketing in the global orthopaedic industry. He has worked for DePuy and Johnson & Johnson in a number of commercial roles, including Vice President of International Marketing, Worldwide Vice President of Marketing & Product Development and President of Europe for DePuy International Ltd. With Biomet Mike is looking at ways to expand the product and service offering to meet the needs of changing and increasingly challenging environment.

Brenig Preest, Investment Director, Excalibur

Brenig is an Investment Director at Excalibur in London and Cardiff, specialising in life science investments. For over 10 years Brenig has invested in a wide range of successful growth and venture businesses. Prior to this, he worked at GE Healthcare, before becoming a corporate finance advisor. As an investor and advisor, Brenig has been involved in £0.5bn of transactions. Brenig studied pharmacology at Cardiff University and financial strategy at Oxford University, where he achieved a distinction. He is also a qualified chartered accountant.

Dominic Griffiths, Senior Life Science Director, Fusion IP

Dominic is responsible for identifying and establishing new businesses arising from the Life Sciences portfolio of Fusion IP. Fusion IP is a university IP commercialisation company that turns world class research into business. It has exclusive agreements with Cardiff University and Sheffield University, two leading Russell Group universities. It provides both hands-on support and leadership to projects emerging from academic research and invests in new spinouts alongside its partners Finance Wales and IP Group plc.

Since joining in 2007 he has established four spinouts that to date have secured over £5m in early stage funding since incorporation. He currently holds directorships of Fusion IP Cardiff, Abcellute, Asalus Medical Instruments and Progenteq. He is also Managing Director of Asalus. Before joining Fusion IP, Dominic was responsible for business development activities of an AIM-listed drug delivery company, Phoqus Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this he was a management consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, where he specialised in strategy and business transformation projects working with blue chip clients. Dominic holds a PhD in biochemistry.

David Ford, Director, ehi²

David Ford is Director of the eHealth Industries Innovation (ehi²) Centre based at Swansea University's Institute of Life Science, developing links between academia, the NHS, and business within the UK and internationally. He is also University Director of Health Informatics Research Laboratories, created through a collaboration between the College of Medicine, Swansea University and NHS Wales Informatics Service, the national programme for NHS IT for Wales. The Labs provide state-of-the-art facilities to design, prototype, test and evaluate innovative new information technologies for use in improving health and healthcare. David is also joint lead of the Health Information Research Unit for Wales (HIRU), which develops new ways of harnessing the potential of routinely collected information collected in health and other settings.

David's research interests for the Institute of Life Science are in the field of Health Services Research and he specialises in the secondary use of routinely collected data to support and conduct research. He has been involved in a wide range of large-scale, multi-centre studies of complex interventions and evaluations of policy and service initiatives.

David is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA) and past Chairman and a current Director of MediWales, a membership organisation representing the medical technology sector of Wales. He is a member of numerous committees and national bodies relating to health informatics and health-related research. He has received research grants and consultancy contracts valuing over £20m over recent years.

Pete Corish, British Biocell International

Dr Pete Corish is Head of Business Development for BBI Group and leads the internal technology acquisition group, BBInnovations. Based in Cardiff, Pete is responsible for the sourcing, development and commercialisation of new technologies to maintain BBI's position as the leading lateral flow assay developer and the acquisition of reagent-based products that underpin future IVD markets. This includes the extension of BBI's core gold nanoparticle reagents into Life Science and novel Biosensing applications.

As part of Alere (formerly Inverness Medical Innovations) he also maintains a watching brief on the rapid developments in molecular and immunoassay Point-of Care and the increasing role of personalised medicine and companion diagnostics in 21^st century healthcare provision.

In previous roles, he has been involved with the identification, development and commercialisation of a variety of early stage, transformational micro and nanotechnologies for genome and transcriptome and protein analysis with several UK technology companies in both the pharma and in vitro diagnostic sectors.

Dr Steve Conlan, Head of the Reproductive Biology Group, Institute of Life Science

Dr Steve Conlan is Head of the Reproductive Biology Group and Reader in Cell and Molecular Biology at the Institute of Life Science, Swansea University. His research in reproductive biology uses cell, molecular, and nanobiology approaches to investigate the underlying causes of Endometrial cancer, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), Endometriosis, and Unexplained Infertility (where the cause appears to be endometrial dysfunction). Research aims are to develop biomarkers and points of intervention for clinical use

Steve is also Director of the Centre for NanoHealth (CNH), a £22million R&D facility dedicated to the advancement of healthcare through the application of nanotechnology. A joint initiative between the Colleges of Medicine, Engineering and Science at Swansea University, CNH offers a fully integrated nanotechnology and biomedical R&D environment within a purpose built, open access, facility providing a unique technology and innovation base.

A graduate of Swansea, Steve completed his PhD in 1994 at the University of London before undertaking postdoctoral research at the John Innes Centre in Norwich and then IMBB-FORTH in Crete, Greece. In 2000, he returned to Swansea University to take up a lectureship in the Department of Genetics and, in 2005, moved into the College of Medicine. Steve works closely with colleagues in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board as well as with businesses in the life science in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US. He is also Senior Affiliate Member at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, Texas.

Professor John E Harries

Professor Harries, originally from Aberavon, took up post as the Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales on 1^st May 2010. He is the University of London Professor of Earth Observation at the Blackett Laboratory of Imperial College London and a member of the Grantham Institute for Climate Research at the College. He is a past President of the Royal Meteorological Society, and of the International Radiation Commission. He was the first Director of the Space Science Department at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and has been a senior adviser to the UK Government in several roles. He is also the Principal Investigator of a climate monitoring instrument, which is currently operating on the European Meteosat satellite series in geostationary orbit. More recently, he has been awarded the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) most prestigious civilian honour in recognition of his distinguished public service in advancing knowledge of the Earth's atmosphere and climate change. The Distinguished Public Service Medal is the highest honour NASA awards to anyone who was not a U.S. government employee when the service was performed. The contribution must be so extraordinary that the other forms of recognition by NASA would be inadequate.

Professor Gareth Morgan, MC

Professor Gareth Morgan is Professor of Paediatrics and Immunology and Dean and Head of Swansea University’s College of Medicine, which is home to Wales’s premier research facility – the £100 million Institute of Life Science.

Gareth began his career at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where his main work involved the treatment of otherwise fatal genetic immunodeficiency disorders by stem cell transplantation. This work culminated in him leading the clinical team that performed the first gene therapy in the United Kingdom and the setting up of the UK regulatory body for gene therapy. Gareth was seconded as a Wellcome Trust Lecturer in Tropical Diseases for two years at the Medical Research Council (MRC) unit in The Gambia, West Africa. There he developed a separate but related interest in the effect of starvation on immunity and since then his main research work has been on the effects of nutrition on immunity.

Gareth is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Pathologists and Paediatrics and Child Health. He is a member of the European Society for Immunodeficiency (ESID), the Allergy, Infectious Diseases and Immunology Group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the British Society of Immunology, the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and the Association of Clinical Pathologists. He is also Vice-Chair of the Welsh Government’s Life Science Sector Panel.

Sue Heatherington, MC

Breakthroughs in thinking and sustainable delivery of new ideas rarely happens through the leadership of a single person. It takes combined passion and experience, seeing the bigger picture, and learning to work across boundaries to really make a difference.
Sue Heatherington's passion for improving health outcomes through collaboration stems from her many years of experience as an NHS CEO in both England and Wales. Seeing the insight and drive for improvement and breakthrough expressed in so many highly motivated and talented professionals, she sought to create the environment where collaborative leadership could flourish and real whole system change could occur, even against a backdrop of financial challenge. This included wider partnership work with universities, social care and others.
She has recently launched Heatherington & Co based in a beautiful location north of Swansea and together with a talented group of colleagues who thrive on synergy, works with individuals, teams and partnerships who want to make a difference. Sue's clients range across healthcare, life sciences and academia, including SMEs, where she creates space for conversations that matter.

Anne Avidon, UKTI Workshop Host

Anne Avidon is the USA Sector Lead for Healthcare and Medical Devices for UK Trade & Investment, based at the British Consulate-General in Boston. In this role, Anne guides UK businesses on how to commercialize their medical devices and technologies in the US market, and also helps US companies understand the strengths of the Life Sciences industry in the UK in order to promote cross-border collaborations and foreign direct investment. Anne has a Masters Degree (with Distinction) from the University of Westminster, and is an active member of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Association (MassMEDIC), the Medical Development Group (MDG), the New England Health Information Management Systems Society (NEHIMSS) and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MTLC).