Speakers
Steve Bates
Presentation
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.
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.
Jonathan Haigh has been active in the biopharmaceutical industry for almost twenty years, working in both the Life Science technology vendor and end-user sectors, holding positions in both the US and UK. He completed a Ph.D. in antibody purification from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from Durham University Business School. Jonathan has fulfilled a number of global technical, management and leadership roles encompassing biopharmaceutical innovation, process development, GMP operations, and merger & acquisition activities.
Jonathan has worked for FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies for the last twelve years in roles of increasing responsibility. He previously acted as Vice President of Process Development, leading a team of over 350 process scientists and engineers across Mammalian, Microbial and Advanced Therapy modalities. He currently holds the role of Head of UK Sites, leading all aspects of the business across three UK sites. Jonathan holds a number of patents and publications pertinent to the bioprocessing field.