Role of the Our Future Health Trading Ltd Board 

The Board of Trustees of Our Future Health, who are responsible for the charity’s policies, activities and assets, established a trading subsidiary, Our Future Health Trading Limited, which carries out specific activities in furtherance of the organisation’s objectives – entering into funding agreements, licensing access rights, and entering into translational research projects with external parties. 

New members appointed January 2023

Cristina Ortega Duran

Cristina is the Chief Digital Health Officer, R&D at AstraZeneca, a global role covering all therapeutic areas within the organisation, including Oncology; Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism; Respiratory and Immunology; and Vaccines. Cristina leads a cross-functional team taking a scientific, evidence-based approach – harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, data science, design and digital technology – to accelerate the delivery of new medicines to patients and to improve health outcomes. 

Cristina has led several senior leadership roles across AstraZeneca over the last 13 years, including global commercial, in-country commercial, global finance and transformation roles. 

Before this, Cristina was a senior management consultant at Accenture, leading large transformation programmes, including setting up new joint ventures from scratch, guiding business transformation strategy reviews and implementing global initiatives for large global companies. 

Cristina currently contributes to courses at Cambridge University to prepare the next generation of innovators, clinicians and researchers to embrace digital health.  

She provides keynotes at conferences such as the Digital Health World congress, the Royal Society of Medicine and The Financial Times. Cristina is also a chartered accountant (CIMA) and has completed the MIT leading enterprise transformation programme. 

Dr Andy Richards CBE

Andy is an entrepreneur and investor with an established track record in founding and expanding innovative life science, biotechnology and digital health companies in the UK. He is currently Chairman of Arecor Therapeutics pls, Ieso Digital Health, Congenica, Closed Loop Medicine and Owlstone Medical. 

He is a director of Cancer Research Horizons (CRUK), council member of the UKRI MRC and an advisor to several investment funds, such as Cambridge Innovation Capital, the UCL Technology Fund, StartCodon and the CRUK Seed Fund. 

Andy graduated from Cambridge with a PhD in Chemistry, and his early career spanned positions with ICI (now AstraZeneca) and PA Technology. He was a founder and executive director of Chiroscience plc until 1999, and since then has founded, invested in and helped to scale over 30 innovative ventures including Vectura, Abcodia, Arakis, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd and Geneservice. He is also a founder member of the Cambridge Angels. 

Andy is passionate about the translation of science to benefit society, particularly in the life sciences and healthcare sectors, where science can be translated into technology to help people globally. Andy received his CBE for services to life sciences in 2015. 

Simon Sturge

Simon has over 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and currently chairing four biotechnology companies in the UK, Switzerland, Belgium and the United States. He also runs his family investment fund and consultancy company, as well as being a Trustee of the Weizmann UK. 

Simon joined Kymab, a UK biotechnology company, as CEO in 2019, before selling it to Sanofi two years later for one of the highest prices for the sale of a private UK biotechnology company. Before Kymab, Simon spent six years at Merck Group, based at their corporate headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, as COO of the healthcare division. 

As COO, he was responsible for the global commercial organisation, global manufacturing, supply chain as well as allergy and biosimilars businesses. During this time at Merck, Simon was also a member of the healthcare executive committee. 

Simon received his BSc in Biology from the University of Sussex before embarking on his career in the pharmaceutical industry and founding various successful biotechnology companies. He has experience in multiple financial jurisdictions and a strong reputation in the investment community across Europe and the United States. 

Simon is well-known for his excellent communication skills and inclusive management style. He has a strong conviction that a vibrant biotechnology industry plays a vital part in the translation of cutting-edge science to saving people’s lives. 

Our Future Health Trading Board Directors

The new members join our existing Directors, so that the Board will now comprise: 

• Gillian Cannon
• Peter Chambre (also a Trustee of the Charity) 
• Harpal Kumar (also a Trustee of the Charity) 
• Cristina Ortega Duran 
• Andy Richards 
• Andy Roddam (also the CEO of Our Future Health) 
• Simon Sturge 

Our governance

The Charity’s Board of Trustees and Executive Team are supported by a range of advisory boards that provide expert guidance on important aspects of our programme, including ethics, science, diversity and technology.  

More details about these groups and our wider governance structure can be read here.