Tech and life sciences entrepreneur

I started my first company in 1984, when I was 26 years old, in networking and communications. It grew to over $500 million in revenues, operating in 9 countries and with over 1,200 staff. It achieved a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. Since 2005, my passion has been life sciences, it is the perfect combination of innovation, growth and giving something back to humanity. I chair three leading companies in their segments:

• Cells4Life – the UK’s largest cord blood stem cell bank and the only bank in Europe to store amnion and placental tissues.
• iosBio – the inventor of thermally stable, orally administered vaccines. iosBio aims to do to big pharma what Amazon has done to retail. Putting vaccines in a capsule that can be taken orally allows mass vaccination by mail, faster than needles and doesn’t require a healthcare professional, and provides better immunity than any other technology.
• CyteTech – we have developed a red cell removal reagent, TotiCyte, that removes 99.3% of the red cells in blood. TotiCyte is the highest yielding CD34+ stem cell volume reduction technology for cord blood processing with post-thaw cell recover of more than 3X other technologies.

I am also on the Board of Heart Cells Company which has treated over 600 patients who have suffered heart disease (dilated cardiomyopathy) with amazing results, over 60% get their lives back.

Dressage – following my dream

I’ve been riding since I was 10 years old with a long break for education and career. I got back in the saddle when I was 32 and decided to take up dressage. Soon, my dream was to ride for Team GB. With two outstanding horses, Lorenzo and Kasjmir, I competed for GB many times and realised my ambitions of riding in the World Equestrian Games, the World Cup Final and the European Championships.

Education

1st Class Honours in mathematical physics, Imperial College, 1980.