OBN, a UK-based membership organisation that supports emerging life science companies, corporate partners and investors, has appointed Denise Goode and Sally Waterman to its Board of Directors. Professor Chris Hawes will step down to take up a role on the OBN Advisory Group.
The OBN commercial and BioTrinity teams have also been strengthened with several new staff members.
Goode, Executive Business Development Director, brings extensive financial, commercial and industry dealmaking experience to the role. A chartered accountant and biologist by training, she joined AstraZeneca in 1994. Since then, she has worked in a broad portfolio of strategic and finance roles, and brings more than a decade of business development transaction expertise.
Waterman has held R&D leadership and operational roles in a number of biopharmaceuticals companies, including Protherics, KS Biomedix and Vernalis since 1995, prior to which she had a career in regulatory affairs in Big Pharma and the service sector.
She joined PolyTherics as COO in 2009 and is currently Senior VP Corporate Development.
Carl Mahon and Neil Halliday have joined the Business Development team. A former OBN intern, Mahon recently returned after completing an MSc in Biotech with Business. Halliday brings many years' experience in life science and informatics sales, having held senior sales roles at Informax, Inforsense and GeneData, and more recently as a sales and business development consultant working primarily with start-up businesses. Membership Administrator Jane Humphreys brings marketing and IT expertise from Oracle and Dell to OBN's Membership department where she will be updating databases and systems.
Two key consultants – Rebecca Todd and Val Tate – are contributing to the build up to BioTrinity 2014. Todd, Director of Investor Relations, was most recently Director of Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations.Tate, Director of Communications, has broad PR and IR experience with a number of organisations including Antisoma, Skyepharma, the UK BioIndustry Association and Novartis.
The OBN Events Team now delivers more than 30 networking and partnering events each year, including BioTrinity. Strengthening the team are Abigail Wood, who has several years' experience in the not-for-profit sector, and Emily Highton, who joins from the healthcare provider environment.