Non-Executive Chairman
Professor Sir John Bell, Non-Executive Chairman, was appointed to the Immunocore Board in March 2015. Professor Bell is the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and Chairman of the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is regarded as one of the world’s most distinguished scientists in the fields of genomic and genetic research and immunology, also has significant experience in the Healthcare industry, having been a founding director at three biotechnology companies; Avidex Ltd (a precursor to Immunocore which was acquired by MediGene in 2006), Oxagen and PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc (acquired by Chiron Corporation in 2003). He currently also serves on the boards of Roche and Genentech and had a previous role on the scientific advisory board at AstraZeneca. Professor Bell was involved in the founding of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, now chairs the scientific committee of UK Biobank and the Global Health Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is one of three Life Science Champions for the UK, reporting to the UK Prime Minister. His research has contributed significantly to the understanding of immune activation in a number of auto-immune diseases.
Non-Executive
Mr Nicholas Cross was a co-founder of Immunocore in 2008 and served as Chairman for the first five years. He was previously a significant investor in and non-executive director of Avidex from 2000 - 2006. Mr Cross is a serial entrepreneur and hands-on investor. His previous ventures have included Adaptimmune where he was a co-founder and Chairman for the first five years, Oxford Asymmetry Ltd (now part of Evotec), Oxford Semiconductor Ltd (now part of Toshiba) in both of which he was also a co-founder and first Chairman, Doctors.net (now part of M3 Corporation), Oxxon (now part of Oxford Biomedica), Lansdown Estates Group Ltd (now MEPC Milton Park Ltd.), and Oxagen Ltd. Mr Cross holds a BA degree from the University of Oxford and an MBA from London Business School.
Non-Executive
Adrian Howd has held both sell-side and buy-side roles, at Berenberg, Nomura and ABN Amro where he was Global Head of Healthcare Research. Dr Howd served as Executive Vice President, Head of Neuroscience and Corporate Development at Evotec AG and has a Ph.D in molecular neuroscience from the University of London. Adrian is the Chief Investment Officer at Malin Corporation plc and on the Immunocore board as a representative for Woodford Investment Management.
Non-Executive
Abbas Hussain was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in May 2017. Mr Hussain was most recently President of Global Pharmaceuticals at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he had overall responsibility for the company’s sales business and led operations supporting commercial infrastructure including medical, finance, Human Resources, IT, legal and communications. He chaired GSK’s Pharmaceutical Operations Committee, driving key decisions on commercial strategy, and was on the Board of ViiV Healthcare Ltd., GSK’s HIV-specialised business unit. Mr Hussain previously served as GSK’s President of Emerging Markets where he was responsible for building the world’s leading emerging markets pharmaceuticals business by volume, and for driving the implementation of a new commercial operating model across more than 100 countries, helping to improve the transparency of GSK’s work with healthcare professionals. Prior to joining GSK, Mr Hussain served in a number of roles at Eli Lilly & Company, ultimately as Head of European Operations. Born in Madras, India, Abbas has a degree in Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacology from Loughborough University in the UK.
Non-Executive
Dr Jonathan Knowles has been a Non-Executive Director of Immunocore since 2010. He was formerly President of Group Research and a Member of the Executive Committee at F. Hoffman-LaRoche Ltd, Basel, Switzerland for 12 years. Dr Knowles also served as a Board Member at Genentech Inc. for over 10 years and was a Member of the Board of Chugai Pharmaceuticals, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining Roche in 1997, he was Research Director at Glaxo Wellcome Europe. Dr Knowles has also served as Chairman of the Hever Group and the EFPIA Research Directors Group. He was instrumental in creating the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and was the first Chairman of the Board of IMI (a Joint Undertaking with the EU Commission). He is a Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) at the University of Helsinki, Finland, holds a visiting chair at the University of Oxford, and is a visiting scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 2017, Dr Knowles was recognised for his contribution to medical science with an election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Non-Executive
Mr Ian Laing has served as a Non-Executive Director of Immunocore since 2008 and is a founder shareholder of the company. Having started his career in commercial property, Mr Laing has been an active investor in life science and technology businesses for 25 years. He was previously a founder shareholder and Non-Executive Director of Oxford Asymmetry International plc (subsequently Evotec) from 1992 to 2000, Doctors.net.uk, Oxagen and Oxford Semiconductor Ltd. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of several private companies including Aegate Ltd, Phosphonics Ltd and SQW Group Ltd. Mr Laing is a Trustee of the Nuffield Medical Trust and was formerly Deputy Chairman of London Business School and a Non-Executive Director of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. He is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a Barclay Fellow of Green Templeton College and an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall in the University of Oxford. Mr Laing holds a MA degree from the University of Oxford and an MBA from London Business School.
Non-Executive
Kristine Peterson was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in January 2018. Ms Peterson has more than 30 years’ experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Her most recent role was as Chief Executive Officer for Valeritas, Inc., where she led the company’s development from early stage R&D through to commercialisation, achieving approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the company’s Type 2 diabetes drug-device. In addition, Kristine raised more than $200 million in equity financing and prepared the company for its public listing on NASDAQ. Prior to Valeritas, Kristine was Company Group Chair at Johnson & Johnson for their worldwide biotech and oncology groups, growing those businesses to more than $6 billion in sales, launching several new products, and re-establishing the foundation for oncology R&D. She was also President and Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Biovail Corporation with responsibility for the US and Canadian business units. Earlier in her career, Kristine spent 20 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of senior roles, including running their cardiovascular and metabolics business unit.
Kristine continues to play a role on several other Boards of Directors at pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Amarin Corporation, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceutics, pSivida, and ImmunoGen. She is also a senior advisor to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and a former Member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization Board.
Non-Executive
Mr George Robinson has served as a Non-Executive Director of Immunocore since 2008. Mr Robinson is a partner of Sloane Robinson LLP, an investment management business specialising in global equities which he co-founded in 1993. Prior to that, he worked in Asia for 15 years, initially for Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong, Korea and the Philippines, and then for Asia-based stockbroker WI Carr in Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong where he was Director of Regional Research. Mr Robinson graduated with a BA in Engineering Science from Keble College, Oxford in 1979, and is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford as well as a member of the Oxford University Endowment Investment Committee.
Non-Executive
Laura Wade-Gery was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in January 2018. Ms Wade-Gery has more than 20 years’ executive experience within major publicly-listed companies. She most recently served as an Executive Director at Marks & Spencer Group plc (M&S) as Executive Director of Multi-Channel, with responsibility for both stores and online. During her five years at M&S, she successfully doubled online sales through the development and implementation of digital technology to transform its traditional business. Prior to M&S, Laura served at Tesco plc in several senior positions, most notably for seven years as Chief Executive Officer of the group’s online business Tesco.com, taking it from early stage development to a profitable business of over £2 billion sales, making it the global leader in online grocery.
Laura has also served on the Board of Trinity Mirror plc. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the John Lewis Partnership and British Land plc and is a member of the Government Digital Strategy Advisory Board.
Chief Executive Officer/Chief Commercial Officer
Andrew joined Immunocore as Chief Commercial Officer in October 2017. He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector and has held numerous cross-functional roles spanning sales, marketing, corporate strategy, commercial strategy, country management, business development and regional leadership. Andrew joined Immunocore from Eli Lilly & Co, where he served in a number of global leadership positions across multiple therapeutic areas and geographies including as Vice President International Business Unit Leader Oncology, President Biomedicines Business Unit, Australia, Canada and Europe and Snr VP Digital Ventures.
Andrew has also served as Chairman of the European Markets Committee at EFPIA. He received his degree in Biochemistry from Cardiff University.
Chief Scientific Officer
Bent co-founded Immunocore in 2008 and has served as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Board Member since that time. He is also scientific co-founder of Adaptimmune Ltd, where he provides strategic and advisory input as well as oversight of research programmes. He was previously Chief Scientific Officer of Avidex, a company he founded in 1999 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford to develop novel T cell receptor-based drugs. Bent was head of the Immune Receptor Group at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) in Oxford from 1993 to July 2000. Prior to this, he was a Senior Research Fellow of the Danish Natural Research Council, Aarhus, Denmark, and undertook post-doctoral research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. Bent has authored numerous scientific papers and is considered a world expert in the field of T cell receptor immunology. In 2015, he was recognised for his contribution to medical science with an election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
