Peter Chambré
Chairman
Mr Michael Pragnell, MA(Oxon) MBA(INSEAD)
Appointed Director of CRT in November 2010, replacing Mr David Newbigging.
He is a non-executive director of VINCI SA, Europe’s largest construction company and a member of the board of INSEAD. He was the founder Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta AG based in Switzerland from its public listing in 2000 until his retirement at the end of 2007; he was Chairman of the Executive Committee and member of the Board. He led the creation of Syngenta to become world leader in crop protection following the merger of the agrochemicals and plant bio-science businesses of AstraZeneca and Novartis. He was previously an Executive Director of AstraZeneca plc as CEO Crop Protection having joined Zeneca plc in 1995. He was a member of the supervisory board of the Anglo-Dutch joint-venture Advanta BV and a non-executive Director of David S Smith plc from 1996 to 2000. From1975 to 1995 he worked for Courtaulds plc and was appointed to the Board as CEO Courtaulds Coatings in 1990; he became Chief Financial Officer in 1992.
Dr Andy Richards
Dr Andy Richards is a biotechnology entrepreneur and investor. His current business activity focuses on growing successful biotechnology and healthcare technology companies. He is currently a director of Vectura , Biowisdom, VASTox, Theradeas, Babraham Bioscience Technology, Aitua and is Chairman of Altacor and Pharmakodex. He was a founder of Chiroscience, one of Europe’s most successful biotech companies, and an executive director through to the merger with Celltech in 1999. In addition, he is a director of the Bioindustry Association (BIA) a founder member of the Cambridge Angels, and an advisor to Toscana Life Sciences. He joined the Board of CRT in August 2003.
Dr J. Barrie Ward
Dr J Barrie Ward was Chief Executive Officer of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Limited from 1999 until January 2006 when the company was acquired by AstraZeneca. KuDOS was focussed on the discovery and development of inhibitors of DNA repair as new treatments for cancer. Prior to this appointment he was Chairman and CEO of Virus Research Institute Inc., which in 1998 merged with T-Cell Sciences Inc. to form AVANT Immunotherapeutics Inc. Dr Ward is currently Chairman of the AVANT Board of Directors. He is also Chairman of the Boards of Directors of Onyvax Limited and CellCentric Limited and a director of Biotica Technology Limited. From 1984-94 Dr Ward served as Director of the Microbiology Division of Glaxo Research and Development, with responsibility for infectious disease research. Dr Ward holds a BSc and a PhD in microbial biochemistry from the University of Bath.
Harpal S Kumar MA, MEng, MBA
Harpal Kumar is the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, and former Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Research Technology. He gained a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School. After a brief period working as a research scientist with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Harpal worked for four years in the London office of McKinsey and Co, specialising in advising pharmaceutical clients on strategic issues. He then became CEO of The Papworth Trust, which focuses on pioneering rehabilitation and housing services for people with acquired and congenital disabilities.
Harpal left Papworth in 1997 to become founding CEO of Nexan Group, a venture capital-backed medical device company, creating and marketing novel cardio-respiratory monitoring technologies to reduce premature mortality in patients with congestive heart failure. Harpal joined CRT in October 2002 to effect the merger of the former technology transfer companies of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research Campaign and to create a new strategy and vision for the combined company. He became Chief Operating Officer of Cancer Research UK in July 2004 and subsequently Chief Executive Officer in April 2007. Harpal is a Board Member of the National Cancer Research Institute and Chairman of the Gray Cancer Research Trust.
Keith Blundy PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Keith joined CRT in 1998, became COO in 2004 and was appointed CEO in 2007. Since then he has overseen the expansion of the CRT Discovery Labs to 85 staff and subsequent initiation of risk sharing discovery alliances with AstraZeneca and Cephalon, the establishment of CRT Inc in Boston (USA) as a business development arm of CRT and the further globalisation of CRT’s cancer IP development and commercialisation through becoming a partner of Cancer Therapeutics Pty in Melbourne, Australia.
After completing a PhD at the John Innes Institute and a post doctoral Fulbright scholarship in the US on the regulation of plant gene expression, he spent 10 years managing and commercialising agricultural biotechnology programmes before transitioning to healthcare through business development.
Keith has a BSc and PhD in genetics and an MBA from the London Business School. He was formerly a director of KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Chroma Therapeutics Ltd and currently is on the board of Cytosystems Ltd and Cancer Therapeutics Pty.
Clive Stanway, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
As CSO, Clive is responsible for the external scientific profile of CRT as well as the strategic analysis and development of the CRT project portfolio. Before moving to this role, he led the drug discovery and biotherapeutic discovery activity of CRT.
Prior to the formation of CRT in 2002, he was Director of Project Development for Imperial Cancer Research Technology, a role which focused on the identification and development of projects with therapeutic potential. From his time in the private sector, he has 5 years' experience in drug discovery gained whilst working for Xenova and Prolifix where he held the positions of Head of Assay Development and Head of Biology, respectively.
In the academic part of Clive's career he held several postdoctoral positions at Oxford University. He has a PhD from Imperial College and a BSc from Nottingham University.
Phil L'Huillier, PhD MBA
Director of Business Management
Phil has 15 years experience in the biotech/pharma industry, in R&D, IP management, licensing & partnering and corporate development. Prior to joining CRT, Phil headed up licensing at BioFocus Discovery Ltd, an AIM-listed integrated early stage drug discovery company. Prior to BioFocus, Phil was CSO and more recently CEO of ProBio Inc, a US specialty IP commercialisation company involved in international licensing and partnering in the Life Sciences sectors, prior to its sale to Pharming Group NV. He has also been a consultant to industry advising clients on R&D and commercialisation strategies, and has worked across several continents, including North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Phil holds an MBA, and a PhD in cellular and molecular biology and is a Director of Hybrid Systems Ltd.
Hamish Ryder, PhD
Director of Drug Discovery
Hamish obtained his first degree in natural sciences and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge. He then spent 10 years working in the pharma/biotech industry in the UK, in positions of increasing responsibility at Ferring and Xenova, where he was Head of Medicinal Chemistry. He moved to Spain in 1996 as Director of Drug Discovery at Laboratories Almirall, Spain's largest pharmaceutical company. In January 2008 he returned to the UK, joining CRT as Director of Drug Discovery. Hamish has worked in a number of therapeutic areas, including autoimmunity and inflammation, respiratory, GI, CNS and cancer. He has lead teams and overseen organisations that have worked with various target classes, including proteases, GPCRs, phophodiesterases, integrins, and kinases. These efforts produced over 25 candidate drugs for regulatory development, more than 15 of which have advanced to clinical trials.
© Cancer Research Technology 2012