Clive has more than 30 years’ experience in life science research, with over 20 years in senior pharmaceutical industry positions and a degree and PhD in Pharmacology. His expertise includes an in-depth understanding of all facets of drug discovery and development, a broad knowledge of the science and commercial landscape of a variety of therapeutic areas and solid experience of the pharmaceutical business and finance community supporting the sector.

Clive was co-founder and chief executive of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which was acquired by Biogen in January 2015. Clive was previously co-founder and chief executive of PowderMed Ltd, a vaccines development company acquired by Pfizer in November 2006. Before that he was senior vice president, research and development and a Board member of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc until its acquisition by Chiron Vaccines in 2003. Clive began his career in industry at Ciba-Geigy and then GlaxoWellcome, where he left as UK research director in 2001. Clive is a recent past chairman of the BioIndustry Association and the UK Vaccine Taskforce, is also past non-executive chairman of Touchlight Genetics Ltd and Centauri Ltd and a past non-executive Director of the Medicines Discovery Catapult.

Clive is currently CEO at C4X Discovery plc and a non-executive director of the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator.

Dr. Timothy Clackson is a seasoned biotechnology executive with 30 years of leadership experience in oncology drug development. Most recently, as CEO of IDRx, he led the development of a best-in-class targeted therapy for gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), guiding the company through clinical proof-of-concept, a successful Series B financing, and its acquisition by GSK.

Prior to IDRx, Dr. Clackson served as President and CEO of Theseus Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company through its IPO and early clinical development of targeted therapies for GIST and other cancers. He was also President of Xilio Therapeutics, where he oversaw the development of tumor-selective immunotherapies and shaped the company’s technology and product strategy.

From 1994 to 2018, Dr. Clackson held various roles at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, ultimately serving as President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer. He was instrumental in transforming ARIAD from a research-focused organization into a global commercial oncology company, culminating in its $5.2 billion acquisition by Takeda. Under his leadership, ARIAD discovered and advanced five clinical-stage therapies, including three FDA-approved treatments: ICLUSIG® (ponatinib) for treatment-resistant Ph+ leukemias, ALUNBRIG® (brigatinib) for ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer, and EXKIVITY™ for NSCLC with EGFR Exon20 insertion mutations.

Dr. Clackson holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Cambridge, and completed postdoctoral research at Genentech. He currently serves on the Board of Elevation Oncology and has previously served on the Boards of Forma Therapeutics, Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).

Harry has significant experience within the pharmaceutical industry, specialising in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and development. More recently he acted as an independent consultant working with a variety of small biotech companies and investors, many of which are in the oncology arena. Harry has had non-executive director roles in, C4X Discovery, Pulmocide Therapeutics and Artios Pharma Ltd. Prior to attaining a PhD in Organic Chemistry, Harry worked at Ciba-Geigy AG (now Novartis AG) but subsequently joined Roche followed by Allen & Hanburys / Glaxo Limited. At GlaxoWellcome plc he became Director of Chemistry.

Harry has considerable experience in the respiratory area and is co-inventor of GSK’s successful asthma drug salmeterol (Serevent). In addition, he has worked across a range of therapeutic areas and at several biotechnology companies, including Ribotargets, Vernalis, Argenta Discovery and Pulmagen Therapeutics.

Harry founded Kesmalea Therapeutics in 2020.

Craig is an Operating Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises, with over 20 years of drug discovery and development expertise, including vast experience as a research scientist managing initial target selection through to Phase 2 clinical studies.

Prior to OSE, Craig was at C4X Discovery where he was Chief Scientific Officer and an Executive Board Member for more than six years, guiding its transition from a technology-based company to a therapeutics business. Craig has also worked at a number of biotechnology companies supporting multiple financing deals, the creation and management of strategic collaborations and licensing deals with Pharma.

Craig holds a PhD in Respiratory Medicine from Birmingham University and a first-class Biochemistry degree from the University of Surrey.

Rob has more than 25 years of industry experience and joins Kesmalea after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Adrestia Therapeutics, a leader in the field of synthetic rescue that was acquired by global biopharma Insmed in 2023. Following the acquisition, Rob served as a Senior Vice President and Site Head (Cambridge) for Insmed, leading the discovery and development of new synthetic rescue drugs for genetically driven diseases.

Prior to Adrestia, Johnson was co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Affinia Therapeutics, a Boston-based gene therapy company engineering next-generation AAV capsids. Affinia’s Series A was backed by noted life sciences investors NEA, Atlas and F-Prime, and was followed by a $1.6 billion strategic alliance with Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to Affinia, in 2009 Johnson co-founded and was Managing Partner at Alacrita, a multinational biotech and pharmaceutical strategy consulting firm. While working at Alacrita, Rob also founded Foothold America, a fast-growing facilitator of market entry into the U.S. for the life sciences and other industries. He began his career at Onyvax, a 3i and SR One portfolio company developing allogeneic whole cell cancer vaccines.

Rob has a degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of Nottingham, UK.

Magdalena is a Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. Alongside Kesmalea Therapeutics, Magdalena is a Director on the board of OMass Therapeutics.

Previously, she was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company where she specialised in pharmaceuticals Research & Development, portfolio management and Business Development and Licensing.

Magdalena holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University and was a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard Medical School’s Computational Health Informatics Programme.

Richard is an Executive Partner of Syncona Investment Management Ltd. He brings extensive experience of creating drug discovery strategies and leading discovery teams at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

He most recently served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Translate Bio, which was acquired by Sanofi in September 2021. Richard joined Translate Bio from Tarveda Therapeutics where he was Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D. Prior to Tarveda, he was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head in Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline.

He began his career in academia at the Institute of Cancer Research where he discovered the BRCA2 gene and as a founder of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where mutations in BRAF were first discovered.

He received his PhD from the University of Dundee and has co-authored over 100 publications, book chapters, and patents.