The Board of Trustees

Sir John is the Chair of our Board of Trustees and President of the Ellison Institute of Technology, Oxford. Prior to this, he was Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. Sir John served as President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and chaired the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research. His research focuses on autoimmune disease and immunology. He founded the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and chaired the Gates Foundation Global Health Advisory Board from 2012-2024. He was appointed UK Life Sciences Champion in 2011.

Mary has had a distinguished career in national security, public policy, and risk management across public and private sectors. She has spent 25 years in UK government, holding senior roles in agencies including the Serious Organised Crime Agency and leading the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, finishing as Director General for Crime and Policing at the Home Office. In 2016, she joined McKinsey’s public sector practice. Mary now works as an independent consultant, board adviser, non-executive director, and trustee of the Police Foundation and the Cyber Helpline.

Peter Chambré is a Trustee of Cancer Research UK and Chair of Cancer Research Horizons, the commercialisation arm of Cancer Research UK. He is also Chair of Immatics N.V., a biopharmaceutical company developing new cancer immunotherapy treatments. He has been a director of a number of public and private healthcare and life science companies, and was Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Antibody Technology plc prior to its acquisition by AstraZeneca in July 2006.

John is a Professor of Cardiology at University College London and a global leader in cardiovascular health and preventative medicine. His work has been pivotal in shifting the focus from treating established disease to preventing its onset. As the UK government’s first ever Champion for Personalised Prevention, he has played a role in shaping national health strategies, advocating for a more proactive and individualized approach to healthcare. His work in this capacity has influenced policy decisions and helped set the stage for a new era of preventive medicine in the UK.

Adrian currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Unilever, J Sainsbury and Oxford Nanopore Technologies and is a member of Council at Imperial College, London. Previously, he spent 18 years in CFO roles at three FTSE 100 companies, Reckitt Benckiser, Smith & Nephew and Invensys. Prior to this, he spent 18 years at GSK working in finance and operations roles, including five years on the R&D leadership team of GlaxoWellcome/GSK. He was also previously a Non-Executive Director at RELX, Indivior, Bioventus, Affymetrix, Maxygen, Gray Cancer Research, Watford and Mount Vernon NHS Trust.

Sir Harpal is the President of International Business and BioPharma at GRAIL. Prior to GRAIL, Sir Harpal was Senior Vice President and Head of Innovation EMEA at Johnson & Johnson. He spent over 15 years at Cancer Research UK, including 11 years as CEO, and was knighted in 2016. Earlier roles include CEO of The Papworth Trust and Nexan Group, and consultant at McKinsey & Co. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal College of Radiologists, Association of Cancer Physicians (UK) and St John’s College, University of Cambridge. He was also a previous non-exec director/trustee of UKRI and the Francis Crick Institute.

Kemal is a physician with 30 years of global pharmaceutical R&D experience. He served on the executive Board of Management at Bayer, leading innovation, and was previously Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Development at Bayer. Kemal began his career at Bristol Myers Squibb in clinical development. He is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians and currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Syncona plc and Cartesian Therapeutics, and advises biotech firms including Atomwise.

Professor Ciaran Martin, CB is Professor of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. From 2013 to 2020 he headed the UK Government’s cyber security operations, founding and then leading the National Cyber Security Centre, part of the intelligence and security agency GCHQ, on whose board he sat. A graduate of Hertford College, Oxford, he held senior positions in the UK Civil Service for fifteen years.

Sally is former Communications Director for Her Majesty The Queen and the BBC. She led communications for SONY Europe, Sky and channel 5, all during periods of change, innovation and crisis, often under intense reputational and political pressures and public/media scrutiny. Now a Senior Advisor at global consultancy Teneo and business coach, Sally is a board member of the Courtauld Institute of Art and the English National Opera.

Tim Peakman is Chief Clinical Operations Officer at Protas and is responsible for the efficient establishment and operation of trials. Before joining Protas he worked at University of Leeds as Chief Operating Officer and for 14 years at UK Biobank as Deputy Chief Executive helping to establish and run this study involving 500,000 participants

Richard is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and was a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) from 1992 until 2018, where he was lead partner on a diverse range of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients. He also held a number of senior management roles in PwC including Vice Chairman, Global Assurance from 2013 to 2018. He is on the board and chair of the audit committee of Northumbrian Water Limited and co-chair of the Value Reporting Foundation. 

Fiona is internationally recognised for her research on stem cells. She trained as a cell biologist at the University of Oxford and MIT and runs a research laboratory at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. She was Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council from 2018 to 2022 and is currently Director of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.

Dr Glenn Wells is the Deputy Executive Chair at the Medical Research Council (MRC). Glenn oversees MRC strategic partnerships and initiatives, business intelligence, strategic evaluation, and insight. The role of deputy executive chair will act as an ambassador for MRC’s mission: to enable revolutionary discoveries and biomedical advancements to boost the economy and make a real difference to lives right across the UK and around the world. Glenn has previous held roles in the senior civil service, NHS and private sector supporting research and innovation across the UK.