Meet the Team

Sophie is an experienced marketer with a background in managing all aspects of digital marketing, from websites to social media and paid advertising. Sophie has managed a large number of website redevelopment projects as well as the GDPR project for all marketing and company data when the new laws were first put in place. She recently joined OBN and supports the events team and the wider business in a range of marketing activities.

Adriana joined OBN in June 2022. Originally from Uruguay, she moved to the UK in 2004 and has had several roles in the accounting field for over 10 years, with consistent productive performances and the ability to collaborate with others. At OBN Adriana is responsible for the finance function including management accounts, financial strategic planning and forecasting.

Adriana is passionate about hockey, having represented Uruguay’s national team at major international tournaments for 8 years, and currently coaching young players to develop their skills and love for the sport.

Rachel joined the OBN team in February 2024. Rachel has a background in digital marketing, including experience in social media and website content marketing gained while working at membership and scientific organisations. Over the past 5 years Rachel has discovered a love of kickboxing, achieving her 1st Dan blackbelt in January 2023.

Hannah is the newest addition to the events team here at OBN after joining the team in June 2024 as Events Coordinator. Hannah has great knowledge and experience in organising and delivering high-quality events, ranging from a variety of charity events, conferences to networking dinner and breakfasts . She also has a wealth of experience in client communication and ensuring the best customer experience and looks forward to putting her experience into practice within the OBN events team.

Emma has been an integral part of the OBN Events Team since 2015, with her role evolving from Event Administrator to her current position of Business Development Manager. Emma has achieved success in identifying new opportunities for OBN Members and establishing and forging long term relationships with the wider life sciences network.

Susan has over 30 years of administrative experience, the latter 20 of which have been at Senior PA / Executive Assistant level, supporting c-level directors. Originally from Sheffield, she was serially promoted and achieved success in a senior role supporting the MD of a global engineering company. After moving to the Oxfordshire area, Susan continued to work as a senior PA and eventually settled in the life sciences sector where her extensive experience included providing Executive Assistant support to the Directors of Oxford GlycoSciences, ResMed and, immediately prior to joining OBN in 2014, the Senior Vice President of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe).

Nick joined the events team here at OBN in May 2023. Having worked for many years in the premium corporate event industry he brings a wealth of knowledge on the organisation and operation of high-quality events. A lover of team spirit, Nick will play a key role within the OBN team but also provide great client engagement at OBN events.

Jane’s early career was agency side focusing on PR & Events for a range of sports and entertainment clients. After moving in-house to an event management role at Alliance Healthcare, she progressed to the global head office of Walgreens Alliance Boots where she ran events and developed a new cross business strategy for Alliance Healthcare regional businesses throughout Europe, Boots UK and globally for Alliance Boots.

Jane then ran her own events consultancy for several years, working on events and comms for a range of corporate healthcare clients. After running several projects for OBN she was offered the Head of Events role where, alongside a talented team, has developed and delivered a new events strategy. In October 2021 Jane was appointed Executive Director of the OBN Board.

Liz is an experienced and creative project manager, with a background in managing live events for a creative agency. She has experience of delivering a broad range of creative events from conferences and launch events to parties and training for clients including Daiichi Sankyo, 3M, Jaguar Land Rover, Vodafone and Huawei. Liz joined OBN in 2019 and uses her knowledge and experience to support all the OBN flagship events.

Lee joined OBN in August 2013 as Purchasing Consortium Development Manager. He has over 20 years of experience in purchasing, including 8 years most recently with Prosidion and UCB Pharma. Lee has extensive experience of leading buying in the SME environment, as well as pharma – from tender to negotiation. His experience of negotiating good one-off discounts can be brought to bear on member capital purchases, as well as increasing the geographic coverage of our buying deals. Lee brings extensive expertise and capabilities to bear for the plethora of emerging and more established companies that form the collective buying power behind the OBN Membership as a whole, to help drive more and better economies of scale for our Members, adding considerable value to the Membership proposition.

In October 2021 Lee was appointed Executive Director of the OBN Board.

Stuart joined the OBN Board in May 2022 with over 35 years’ experience in the life science arena. After graduating in biological sciences he started his career in pharmaceutical sales before moving into international marketing in consumer healthcare and prescription medicines.

His career spans global pharma companies, a university spin-out, mid-cap biopharma, privately-owned SMEs, strategic consulting, advising PE & VC investors and leadership of a not-for-profit organisation. Prior to joining OBN he was Managing Director for Merz Pharma UK, building the business up to be one of the top 3 performing affiliates worldwide.

Stuart has also supported life sciences through roles including a Steering Group member for the Ethical Medicines Industry Group, the ABPI Small Companies Forum and a decade serving on the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Appeal Board. He is passionate about mentoring new talent and enjoys DIY, high-handicap golf and wine.

Philip is a research scientist by training with over two decades of experience in fundamental academic and industrial biotech research within diverse fields including oncology, infectious diseases, immunology and immunotherapy. Latterly, he led high-performing teams and high-profile projects in a leading biopharmaceutical firm for biologics drug discovery and development, and he has set up and managed technology platforms in continual pursuit of cutting-edge innovation.

Prior to industry, Philip carried out extensive postdoctoral research in the UK (University of Oxford) and France (CNRS) publishing works in molecular medicine and protein science, employing wide-ranging techniques in biophysics and structural, cellular and molecular biology. Philip also has much experience as a scientific editor and presenter, and he has translated two scientific textbooks from the original French. Philip holds an MSc in Toxicology and a PhD in Biochemistry.

Nicola joined OBN in June 2010. She has a strong background in administration having previously worked in many senior roles including Executive PA for the Director of Training at the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). She was also part of the transition team directing the change from Training and Enterprise Councils to LSC.

David joined OBN as a non-executive director in December 2018, becoming Chairman in September 2020. David applies more than 40 years experience of innovation translation experience across Life Sciences, most recently as CEO of Fixed Phage (where he continues as a business advisor), with a focus on addressing the rapidly increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance.

He has advised numerous successful businesses across health, life-sciences and nanotechnology with an ambition to improve standards of care and health economic outcomes. Previous roles include CEO of Oxford Cancer Biomarkers, Senior Vice President, Development and Innovation of the BioCity Group and Managing Director of MediCity, supporting new life science business creation and accelerating growth.

David was CEO of disruptive innovation ventures within Philips, incorporating companion diagnostics into the Philips Digital Pathology business. He has successfully driven innovation within Amersham International, Johnson & Johnson, IGEN International and Oxonica Healthcare, an Oxford University spin-out. David commenced his career as a Biomedical Scientist within the NHS, gaining his MSc in Biochemical Immunology. David is actively involved in sport, representing Great Britain as an age-group athlete in Cross Triathlon and is engaged with coaching and inspiring young people to improve their wellbeing through positive lifestyle choices.

Paul has over 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and life science arena. A graduate chemist, he initially worked for Beecham Pharmaceuticals and Genzyme Corporation, where he headed the UK operations for the company.

In 2000, he joined the UK based biosimilars’ organisation, GeneMedix plc as Chief Executive Officer, and successfully led a major funding round taking the company to a dual listing on the London and Singapore Stock Exchanges. More recently, Paul has acted as a NED to Goldshield Group plc and BioProducts Laboratories and oversaw the sale of both organisations to Private Equity Groups.

He acted as interim CEO to NanoMab Technology Ltd as well as serving as Managing Partner and board member of the global Executive Search Group, Horton International. Paul is a familiar face in the UK biotech arena, having been the Chairman of the UK BioIndustry Association’s Manufacturing Advisory Committee and was the recipient of the Donald Medal for services to Biochemical Engineering (1999). In 1997 he received an MBE for services to biotechnology.

Paul joined the OBN Board in March 2021.

Brian Hargreaves is an independent advisor to Private Equity.

His career in Healthcare spans academia, Pharma, Venture Capital and Private Equity. Following his early career as a Lecturer in Pharmacy at Manchester University, he had a series of commercial and international marketing roles with Smith Kline and French, Mundipharma, Wellcome, Glaxo Wellcome and with Astra Hässle where he led the commercialisation of the blockbuster product, Nexium. In 1997, he moved to 3i plc in the innovative growth period of biotech Venture Capital. More lately he originated several significant Growth Capital and Buyouts deals.

He currently advises selected Private Equity firms and spends a proportion of his time in the charity sector. He joined the Board of OBN in August 2016.

Angela Hobbs joined the OBN Board in March 2020. Angela is CEO of Wilkinson Hall Ltd, a business consultancy working with entrepreneurs in their transition from start-up to scale-up. She is a member of the Design Council’s investment panel for Tech Spark and a mentor for Aspire for Equality Foundation.

She founded her first company in the 1990’s working with media owners, advertising agencies and global brands. After a period of consulting with product design consultants Triteq, she became MD in 2017 working with MedTech clients and funding organisations developing safety critical medical devices and digital health solutions.

In 2010 she completed her MSc in Sustainable Business at University of Bath

Susan has over 30 years of administrative experience, the latter 20 of which have been at Senior PA / Executive Assistant level, supporting c-level directors. Originally from Sheffield, she was serially promoted and achieved success in a senior role supporting the MD of a global engineering company. After moving to the Oxfordshire area, Susan continued to work as a senior PA and eventually settled in the life sciences sector where her extensive experience included providing Executive Assistant support to the Directors of Oxford GlycoSciences, ResMed and, immediately prior to joining OBN in 2014, the Senior Vice President of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe).

Huw joined the OBN Board in April 2022. He has been CEO of Evgen Pharma PLC, a clinical stage cancer and inflammation company, since late 2020. In early 2021 Huw led the raise of £11m in a placing and open offer in a transformative deal for Evgen. In late 2022 He led a major out licensing deal between Evgen and Stalicla SA in neurodevelopmental disorders worth a potential $160.5m in milestone payments and a double-digit royalty. Most recently he was a non-executive director of Ixaka Ltd a cell and gene therapy company and Non-executive Chairman of Chronos Therapeutics Ltd in Oxford.

During his time at Chronos, Huw extracted the company from Oxford University, raised tens of millions in grant and equity finance and led Chronos’ acquisition of three early research programmes in brain disease from Shire PLC. He was surprised and pleased to have been awarded European CEO of the year 2016/17 for drug discovery by European CEO Magazine, alongside leaders in their sectors from Adidas, Unilever and Spotify.

Huw’s previous posts include: Non-Executive Director, then rescue CEO, Ardana PLC; non–executive chairman of Ashbourne Pharmaceuticals; president Europe for NASDAQ listed CV Therapeutics Inc; SVP Europe, Elan Pharmaceuticals and various roles of increasing responsibility at SmithKline Beecham (GSK).

A native of south west Wales, Huw has a degree in pharmacology from Cardiff University and a PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of Birmingham. In addition to speaking at industry events as a speaker or panel member, he is occasionally called upon to comment on healthcare matters in Welsh on both S4C and Radio Cymru.

Huw is a passionate rugby union supporter, enjoys SCUBA diving, cycling and wine appreciation.

Jenny Laird, Ph.D., D.Sc. is based at Lilly’s European Headquarters near London, UK. She leads the global Search & Evaluation team in-licensing or acquiring assets and technologies and advancing molecules through discovery and development in collaboration with external partners including venture firms to complement Lilly’s internal R&D efforts in Neuroscience.

Prior to joining Lilly in 2012, Dr. Laird held leadership roles of increasing responsibility in drug discovery and development including precision medicine at AstraZeneca and Merck, and as an academic Principal Investigator. Dr. Laird received doctorates from the University of Bristol, UK and the University of Alicante, Spain. She has served on editorial boards of journals in the field of neuropharmacology, and as an honorary Professor of Pharmacology at McGill University, Canada.

Jane’s early career was agency side focusing on PR & Events for a range of sports and entertainment clients. After moving in-house to an event management role at Alliance Healthcare, she progressed to the global head office of Walgreens Alliance Boots where she ran events and developed a new cross business strategy for Alliance Healthcare regional businesses throughout Europe, Boots UK and globally for Alliance Boots.

Jane then ran her own events consultancy for several years, working on events and comms for a range of corporate healthcare clients. After running several projects for OBN she was offered the Head of Events role where, alongside a talented team, has developed and delivered a new events strategy. In October 2021 Jane was appointed Executive Director of the OBN Board.

Lee joined OBN in August 2013 as Purchasing Consortium Development Manager. He has over 20 years of experience in purchasing, including 8 years most recently with Prosidion and UCB Pharma. Lee has extensive experience of leading buying in the SME environment, as well as pharma – from tender to negotiation. His experience of negotiating good one-off discounts can be brought to bear on member capital purchases, as well as increasing the geographic coverage of our buying deals. Lee brings extensive expertise and capabilities to bear for the plethora of emerging and more established companies that form the collective buying power behind the OBN Membership as a whole, to help drive more and better economies of scale for our Members, adding considerable value to the Membership proposition.

In October 2021 Lee was appointed Executive Director of the OBN Board.

Stuart joined the OBN Board in May 2022 with over 35 years’ experience in the life science arena. After graduating in biological sciences he started his career in pharmaceutical sales before moving into international marketing in consumer healthcare and prescription medicines.

His career spans global pharma companies, a university spin-out, mid-cap biopharma, privately-owned SMEs, strategic consulting, advising PE & VC investors and leadership of a not-for-profit organisation. Prior to joining OBN he was Managing Director for Merz Pharma UK, building the business up to be one of the top 3 performing affiliates worldwide.

Stuart has also supported life sciences through roles including a Steering Group member for the Ethical Medicines Industry Group, the ABPI Small Companies Forum and a decade serving on the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Appeal Board. He is passionate about mentoring new talent and enjoys DIY, high-handicap golf and wine.

Anaid is a Translation Scholar at The Francis Crick Institute in London, focusing on novel diagnostic tests that improves DNA repair efficiency analysis for cancer patients. Fuelled by a passion for oncological advancement, Anaid has garnered essential funding and support through the MedTech SuperConnector, Cancer Tech Accelerator, Cancer Research Horizons, and the Crick, becoming the first postdoc to lead a successful innovation-2-development grant application from the Chris Banton Foundation. As the inaugural Translation Scholar, Anaid is forging new paths for academic entrepreneurship and establishing a precedent for translational research.

Her leadership extends to co-founding and co-chairing the Crick Science Entrepreneur Network (CSEN), fostering a culture of innovation among researchers and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in London. Her contributions have earned her the distinguished 2023 Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation, celebrating her significant impact on cancer diagnostics and her guiding role in CSEN. Anaid’s pioneering spirit and commitment to personalised medicine shine in her latest feature in Cancer Research UK’s historic “More Research, Less Cancer” campaign, aiming to raise £400 million to redefine cancer care and fuel research that saves lives.

Anaid’s vision is to create a world where everyone is examined, diagnosed, and treated according to their unique composition, a world where personalised medicine is the benchmark by which all clinical practice revolves, and a future where research seamlessly translates into real-world solutions.

Chung Looi PhD is the CEO of Ablatus Therapeutics, a women-led MedTech company in Cambridge, UK. Ablatus developed a patented enhanced ablation technology that can treat cancerous and non-cancerous tumours like fibroids, a condition that affects millions of women worldwide.

She is a scientist turned entrepreneur by training, where she completed her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford and spent the last decade in commercial roles bringing medical devices to global markets. Previously, Looi led strategic partnerships with life sciences, commercial insurers, research organisations, and health systems in the US, Asia, and EMEA to bring cutting-edge medical devices from the UK and Denmark to global markets. At Ablatus, Looi leads the vision, strategy, and fundraising to bring Luna, a minimally invasive, fertility-preserving, and inclusive treatment to patients worldwide. Driven by a passion for leveraging technology to improve healthcare outcomes, Looi is dedicated to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusivity within the life sciences.