About Us: Directors and Management
- Dr Catherine Beech, Chief Executive
- Alan Goodman, Non-Executive Director
- Dr Andy Muir, Non-Executive Director
- Sir Brian Richards CBE, Non-Executive Chairman
- Dr Andy Richards, Non-Executive Director
- Professor Michael Wakelam, Non-Executive Director
Dr Catherine Beech, Chief Executive
Catherine is a specialist investor in early stage life science companies and a founder of the Cambridge Gateway Fund. She has considerable experience in the commercialisation of life science technologies. Over the past eight years she has held positions on the boards of university spin out companies e.g. Cambridge Biotechnology Limited and DanioLabs Limited, and taken them through to profitable exits. Currently Catherine is Aitua's representative on the boards of Innova BioSciences Limited, Chameleon BioSurfaces Limited, Discerna Limited and Translocus Limited.
In November 2004 Catherine was appointed to the DTI's Technology Strategy Board, a business-led government board commissioned to identify and back key technologies. This appointment provides her with extensive knowledge and insight as well as involvement in the government’s long term strategic technology planning. The Technology Strategy Board’s vision is for the UK to be seen as a global leader in innovation and effectively create wealth. The board oversees the Technology Programme, currently worth £178m which supports Research and Development and Knowledge Transfer Networks.
Catherine’s expertise has also been utilised as a judge in several of the UK’s most eminent business plan competitions, on the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept panel of judges and as a mentor for Cambridge Enterprise. She also chairs the Bio Industry Association's Fledgling Club Advisory Committee. Prior to becoming involved in venture capital Catherine spent 13 years in multinational pharmaceutical companies, both in Europe and the USA. She has a broad range of expertise in drug discovery, drug development and clinical programmes.
Alan Goodman, Non-Executive Director
Alan is a chartered management accountant with over 20 years’ experience in the biotechnology and healthcare industries. He joined Medeva in 1989 to create a new independent pharmaceutical group by acquisition. More recently he has been a founder of a number of listed biopharmaceutical companies including Acambis, Oxford BioMedica and CeNeS. Alan also runs Avlar BioVentures, a venture capital fund that invests in early stage life science companies.
Dr Andrew Muir, Non-Executive Director
Andrew started his career with ICI and Zeneca, including a secondment to the University of Southern Mississippi in the USA. He was a research manager at Biocompatibles, with responsibility for their ophthalmic patent portfolio and Vice President of Global Technology at the US medical device start up Sterilox Technologies, before joining the National Endowment of Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) as investment manager for life sciences.
He is currently Investment Director for the Rainbow Seed Fund, an early stage fund dedicated to the commercialisation of over £1bn of publicly funded research in the UK. Andrew has a D.Phil and MA in Chemistry from Oxford University. He is a non-executive director of Warwick Effect Polymers and non-executive Chairman of Chameleon Biosurfaces Ltd.
Sir Brian Richards CBE, Non-Executive Chairman
After 13 years of basic research at the Medical Research Council’s Biophysics Research Unit at Kings College London, and 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Sir Brian co-founded British Bio-technology Ltd in 1986 and served as executive chairman until 1994. He subsequently held non-executive chairmanships or directorships in several biopharmaceutical companies including Peptide Therapeutics (later Acambis plc), Oxford Biomedica plc, CeNeS Ltd, Cozart plc and Summit plc.
Currently Sir Brian chairs the Boards of Alizyme plc and Lipoxen plc. Throughout his industrial career he served on a series of government committees aiming to facilitate and encourage the practical applications of generic modification for the development of biopharmaceuticals. Sir Brian was awarded a CBE in 1990 and a knighthood in 1997 for services to the biotechnology industry.
Dr Andy Richards, Non-Executive Director
Andy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur and business angel, having been a founder of several high growth Cambridge biotechnology companies including Chiroscience, Arakis, Cambridge BioTechnology and DanioLabs. He holds a number of non-executive directorships including Vectura Group plc, Summit plc, Biowisdom, Babraham Bioscience Technologies and Cancer Research Technology (the commercial arm of CR-UK).
He is a director of the UK Bioindustry Association and a Member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and has been voted Cambridge Evening News Businessman of the Year as well as one of the Top 100 Living Contributors to Biotechnology.
Professor Michael Wakelam, Non-Executive Director
Michael Wakelam has been the Director and Chief Executive of the Babraham Institute since January 2007 and a Director of Babraham Biosciences Technologies. He was previously the Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the CRUK Institute for Cancer Studies, Birmingham University where he now holds an honorary Chair. His research focuses upon cell signalling, in particular the roles and regulation of lipid signalling pathways in normal and diseased cells, much of the work is focussed upon identifying novel therapeutic targets and disease biomarkers. In addition to core BBSRC funding his work is supported by programme grants from the MRC and CR-UK.
Professor Wakelam is a member of the BBSRC Strategy Board and the Wellcome Trust Expert Review Group for Translation Awards. He was previously Chair of the Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board of the MRC and a member of MRC Council. He was also Chair of the Signal Transduction Theme Panel and a member of the Council of the Biochemical Society.