Women in Biotech - London

Susanne Coles

Deputy Director for the Innovation Finance Ecosystem, Innovate UK

Dr. Susanne Coles is a senior leader at Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency, where she serves as Deputy Director for the Innovation Finance Ecosystem and Director of Innovate UK Loans Ltd. Susanne leads the development of funding solutions designed to help innovative businesses thrive, from concept and start-up to commercialisation, scale, and growth.

With over 15 years of experience spanning academia, the private sector, and public service, Susanne brings a versatile skill set and a passion for supporting transformative innovation. Her team oversees key financial products, including the Innovate UK Investor Partnerships Programme and Innovation Loans, while also enhancing connections between public and private finance to accelerate investment into UK innovation. Their work aims to create clear pathways for scaling businesses, enabling greater access to finance and support to unlock high-growth potential.

Previously, Susanne led investment strategies as Head of Investment at Innovate UK Business Connect and contributed her expertise as a Non-Executive Director on Innovate UK’s Credit Committee. Her career also includes academic achievements, such as earning a PhD in Chemical Crystallography from the University of Southampton and working with the UK National Crystallography Service and the Dial-a-Molecule network.

An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Susanne is committed to empowering underrepresented innovators and fostering equitable access to opportunities. Approachable and solutions-focused, she applies a thoughtful yet practical approach to addressing complex challenges, helping businesses access the support they need to succeed.

Bakul Gupta

CEO and Co-Founder, Deliver Biosciences

Dr Bakul Gupta is the CEO and Co-founder of Deliver Biosciences, a preclinical stage biotech developing nanoparticle-based gene delivery vectors for in vivo cell reprogramming and gene editing. The company is leveraging its unique nanoparticle platform to effectively deliver genetic cargoes directly to targeted cells, and applying it across different indications in cell and gene therapies.

Bakul founded the company in 2019, along with her business partner, Dr George Tetley. She holds a PhD and BSc in Nanotechnology and Chemistry from the UNSW Australia, and finished her postdoctoral training at Imperial College London with Prof Molly Stevens before starting Deliver Bio. 

She has been listed as the Top 30 biotech entrepreneurs to watch, and awarded several prizes including Innovate UK's Women In Innovation award and recognised as a trailblazer in the UK entrepreneurial ecosystem.  

Susan Hill

CEO, Mestag Therapeutics

Susan Hill PhD brings more than 25 years of experience as a strategic and operational leader in the international biotech, investor and pharmaceutical industries. She co-founded Mestag Therapeutics in 2020, building a strong organization around ground-breaking science and leading the company through a $45m financing and strategic pharma and academic partnerships. In addition to serving as Chief Executive Officer of Mestag, Susan is a Venture Partner at SV Health Investors, an advisor to AdBio (Paris) and a member of the Development Board of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Susan joined Mestag from retinal therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis), where she served as Chief Business Officer, driving the company’s $62m Series B and adding critical delivery technology via the acquisition of Orbit Biomedical ($12m Series A), where she was founding Chief Executive Officer. Prior to Orbit (Philadelphia), Susan led strategy and operations as Chief Business Officer of Freeline Therapeutics (London). Susan completed multiple transactions during her tenures in Global Business & Corporate Development at Alexion (Switzerland/US) and Merck KGaA (Geneva). Susan began her career in strategy consulting/M&A and led biotech seed investments managed by AMJ, part of global investment company ABRDN. She has an MA and PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a previous Fellow of the Securities Institute.

Claire Thompson

CEO, Agility Life Sciences

Claire is a multi-award winning entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning large multi-nationals (GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer), virtual biotech and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs). She is the Founder and CEO of Agility Life Sciences, a formulation development CDMO which supports pharmaceutical and biotech companies developing formulations which give badly behaved molecules the best chance of success in preclinical studies, and allow them to be accelerated to clinic. Claire is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge where she helps academics translate their research into healthcare products and platforms. She also holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Nottingham.
Named in the Medicine Maker Power List in 2022, and the inaugural recipient of the One Nucleus “Life Science Inspiration of the Year” award in 2021, Claire is passionate not just about the process of getting medicines to patients, but the people involved in the development. One of her mantras is “People and purpose over products and profits”.

Claire was formerly Deputy Chief Scientist of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Chief Scientist of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She has made appearances for the BBC (Health: Truth or Scare), ITV News and Channel 4 (Food Unwrapped) to illustrate the science behind medicines in a way which engages the public, and demonstrates to girls where science can take them. Claire is passionate about providing opportunities for women and girls to excel in whatever they do. She Chairs the global FIP WiSE (Women in Science and Education) initiative to engage, enable and empower girls and women, professionally or personally. As a former international footballer, Claire launched and fully funds the Girls In Football Teams (GIFT) Grants scheme, which currently supports more than 30 girls’ and women’s teams across the UK.