BIA regional focus: Newcastle and the North East

Steve Bates OBE

Chief Executive Officer

What does your role at BIA involve?

Steve Bates is the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association, the UK’s Trade Association for innovative life science companies with over 550 members. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He serves on the UK Government’s Life Sciences Council and the UK Biosecurity Leadership Council. Steve was a founder member of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce in the Covid crisis, sitting on its steering Board alongside Kate Bingham. He is active member and former chair the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a board member of EuropaBio since 2015.

Previous experience & achievements

Steve has championed, with government, effective industrial incentives like the Biomedical Catalyst, which have crowded in private sector investment into UK SMEs. He is a driving force behind the scale up agenda, spearheading policy agenda to unlock UK pension fund capital into productive UK growth in life sciences. He has forged several links for the sector across the USA, Europe and in China. In his time at the BIA, Steve has developed new member groups focused on cell and gene therapy, genomics and engineered biology. A strong advocate of partnership working, Steve champions sector collaboration with research charities and academia. Proud to lead an organisation with a diverse Board with over 40% female representation, Steve is committed to next generation talent and developing the skills needed for the sector to flourish. Before joining the BIA in 2012, Steve worked for Genzyme and was advisor to the UK Government of Tony Blair working on NHS reform and the Northern Ireland peace process. He was made OBE for services to innovation in 2017 and became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2020.

Paul Found

Chief Operating Officer, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies

Paul is responsible for all delivery operations at the Billingham site. He is a chartered chemical engineer and a lean six sigma Black Belt with over 15 years’ experience in chemical, pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing. Since joining Avecia Biologics in 2003 as senior process engineer, he has held various positions in engineering, business planning and project management until taking on his current role. Prior to joining the company he held various engineering positions with Monsanto Chemicals and GlaxoSmithKline.

Arun Harish

Strategy Director, CPI

Arun leads strategies for CPI’s sustainable growth and impact generation. Since joining CPI in 2008, Arun has held diverse roles spanning technology commercialisation, innovation consulting, fund-raising from private and public sources and business development. He has also shaped the development of CPI’s National Healthcare Photonics Centre and the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre. Prior to joining CPI, Arun worked with venture capital funded technology start-ups in the UK (Farfield Group) and India (Tejas Networks), where he held business development and R&D roles. Arun is passionate about the role of innovation centres in enabling economic and societal impact and supporting cluster formation. He is a thought leader on investment readiness for high-growth SMEs, and has acted as Co-Chair for the European Commission’s Independent Steering group on investment readiness linked with SME actions. Arun holds a PhD in medical nanotechnologies from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University and an MBA from Warwick Business School, where he specialised in entrepreneurial finance and venture capital. Arun is the Founding Chair of a UK based charity UTSAAH (Uniting to Sustain and Assist Himalayan communities) which supports rural Himalayan communities in the areas of enterprise, conservation and healthcare.

Jen Vanderhoven

Director, National Horizon Centre

Jen is the Director of the National Horizon Centre, where she is responsible for leading its establishment and development as a centre of excellence for the biosciences sector, representing the NHC nationally and regionally. She works with industry to ensure that provision is driven by current and planned needs for skills, research, innovation and talent and to ensure the commercial success of the NHC. Previously to this, Jen has been a senior leader at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), a Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation, sitting on their global Leadership Team (GLT), where she was responsible for the execution of the FDB growth strategy and business change portfolio, ensuring the company meets its global vision, mission and our challenging business objectives. Before joining FDB Jen spent four years as Network Manager of a UK Government (BBSRC) funded industrial biotechnology network made up of academia and industrialists. Prior to this Jen has worked in the bioscience industry in business development, sales and marketing, and lab management roles after gaining her doctorate from Sheffield University in metabolomics in 2007.

Sam Whitehouse

CEO, Lightox

Dr Whitehouse is an experienced board member with executive experience in both innovation and service based companies. Overseeing the development and commercialisation of world leading products for healthcare products and working with some of the world’s leading institutes, he has brought some of the very best innovations to market. As CEO and board member, he oversees the governance and strategy of the company, giving guidance and structure for the team. With a background in chemistry and molecular biology, and experienced in bringing research to commercial realisation Dr Whitehouse will oversee product portfolio expansion, regulation and accreditation in our specified target markets, as well as securing the required funding and commercial deals.