Skills Community Connects

Kate Barclay

Skills Strategy Consultant, BIA

What does your role at BIA involve?
As an experienced Biochemical Engineer, Kate leads skills and talent programme development across STEM industries using over 30 years of experience within large pharma and small company networks. Working with BIA, she represents the sector ensuring access to the incredible talent and addressing skills gaps to start, grow and scale innovative life sciences and biotech organisations.

Previous experience & achievements
In addition to her role at BIA, Kate works as an independent consultant supporting organisations to develop their skills and talent strategies. She has oversight for quality governance of technical and professional education as IfATE Non-Executive Director and is a Board member of North Hertfordshire College. Kate holds MBA from Open University and a PhD in Bio-Chemical Engineering from UCL. As a Chartered Engineer (CEng FIChemE), she held previous senior leadership roles across diverse pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D portfolios including Solid Dose, Parenteral & Inhaled Devices.

If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
Rosalind Franklin, as she made contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA and RNA. She studied science at a time when few women attended university and led pioneering work on multiple viruses. Kate would love to know what she thinks about what we know now!

Jacqueline Hall

Head of Early Careers, BioPharma R&D, AstraZeneca UK Ltd

Jacqui joined Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT, now MedImmune) in 2006 to establish a project leadership and management group. As part of this, Jacqui was responsible for setting up the Product Development Team Leadership (PDTL) group and was instrumental in establishing the role of the Product Development Teams (PDTs) within MedImmune. Following the reorganisation of the Research and Development operating structure in 2010, Jacqui led a number of initiatives to implement the new operating model and to establish principles for the transition of medicines from early to late-stage clinical development. 

In her current role, Jacqui leads a global team focussed on building scientific skills across AstraZeneca. Externally, she is a Board member of the Science Industry Partnership, where she is influencing the skills landscape in the UK, helping to shape the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and the Life Sciences Sector deal. Also, she chairs the Cambridge branch of the Science Industry Partnership and has been responsible for introducing the science apprenticeship program into AstraZeneca in Cambridge. 
Prior to joining MedImmune, Jacqui spent over 17 years working in clinical development and project leadership roles at Schering-Plough, PPD and GlaxoSmithKline. 
Jacqui holds a first class honours degree in Chemistry from the University of London and a postgraduate diploma in Clinical Science from the University of Wales. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange. 

Debbie Johnson

Head of Innovation Talent & Skills, UKRI

Head of Innovation Talent and Skills, Innovate UK 

As Head of Innovation Talent and Skills, Debbie is focused on two goals: 

• to support innovative businesses in accessing and developing talent to realise the UK’s innovation ambition 

• ensuring that the education and skills system is supported in responding to the changes created by our innovation to maximise its potential for our economy and society 

Before joining Innovate UK in 2020, Debbie spent 18 years at the Construction Industry Training Board, and led the design and implementation of a number of business led skills programmes in the construction sector. 

Gary Lye

Co-Director, Resilience

Gary is Co-Director of RESILIENCE alongside Ivan Wall. He is Director of the UCL East Manufacturing Futures Lab (MFL) and Director of the industry-collaborative EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership. He leads the UCL input into the EPSRC/BBSRC Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub (FBRH) and the EPSRC Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Research Hub(CARMA). He was awarded the IChemE Donald Medal for outstanding services to Biochemical Engineering in 2021. 

The MFL is the largest academic entity at UCL East and provides outstanding facilities for medicines manufacturing research and delivery of RESILIENCE training activities. In his previous role as Head of the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering, he was the academic lead of the department’s MBI industrial training programme. He has extensive experience teaching on MBI modules related to fermentation, cell culture, downstream processing and design of experiments. 

Deborah McElhone

Head of Sustainability, CPI

Deborah currently works at the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) as a Grand Challenge Lead 

The role includes defining and managing the overall strategy for the delivery of “Grand Challenge” programmes, within the MMIC business model.  This role is not only technical, but also includes strategic planning, stakeholder management alongside commercial support.  The Grand Challenge Lead ensures the success of our Innovation projects, building CPI -MMIC capability to one that is at the forefront of Pharmaceutical Innovation. 

Deborah has an eclectic career journey spanning ~20 years within the pharmaceutical industry, with multi discipline roles.  Her career journey started with a strong compliant mindset in Quality and Regulations as a Quality Officer, progressing on to Head of Research and Development for an award-winning Conjugation CRO/CMO, specialising in Antibody Drug Conjugates. Deborah has extensive experience in all activities from Proof of concept, Technology transfer, Tox, through to commercialisation of drug product, leading a team of 17 highly skilled scientists to ensure success. 

Deborah graduated with a PhD in Glycobiology, and a BSC (Hons) in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Strathclyde. 

Mustafa Munye

VP, Operations, Complement Therapeutics

Mustafa has significant industry experience in the discovery and development of cell and gene therapies gained at GSK and CGTC. He has previously led process and analytical development for AAV, CAR-T and PSC derived cell therapy products to support FIH and late-stage clinical studies. Mustafa serves as a board member of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy working in pan-industry/academia working groups to overcome common barriers to translation and commercialisation of Advanced Therapies. 

Thomas Sims

Skills Programme Manager, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

Tom joined CGT Catapult in July 2022 and is currently supporting the Industry Skills Accelerator, Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community (ATAC) and Life Sciences Learner Hub within the CGT Catapult Skills programme, with delivery of industry targeted courses and opportunities. Tom spent over 13 years within the British Military, with a high level of experience in designing and delivering specialised training programmes across a variety of overseas locations. Prior to joining the Catapult, Tom worked for Pearson Education leading the delivery and roll out of a new apprenticeship qualification for military service personnel.  Most recently, Tom has successfully achieved his MBA from the University of Northampton.

Fay Treloar

Head of Skills, Life Sciences, Cogent Skills

Fay has recently taken the position of Head of Skills at Cogent Skills, where she is responsible for overseeing strategic collaborations within the Cogent Charity and providing intelligence and insight on life sciences. In this role, she collaborates directly with employers and stakeholders to address their skill requirements. Additionally, she manages the development of the Science Industry Partnership, which is now in its tenth year. Prior to this appointment, Fay served as Director of Business Engagement for Health Sciences at the University of Hull, where she was responsible for leading strategic partnerships in health and life sciences. She possesses extensive experience in relationship management across academia, industry, local government, the NHS, and voluntary sectors.

Ivan Wall

Co-Director, RESILIENCE

Ivan is a multi-disciplinary scientist and entrepreneur, who works at the interface of life science and engineering. He obtained his PhD in cell and molecular biology from Cardiff University in 2007 and subsequently undertook postdoctoral work at UCL in regenerative medicine and developmental neurobiology. He was an academic at UCL Dept. Biochemical Engineering from 2009-2017 where his research team focussed on stem cell bioprocessing, cell line engineering and tissue engineering. It was there his interest in skills and training innovation stemmed from, when he designed and led a 3 module programme in regenerative medicines manufacturing. 

In 2018 Ivan moved to Aston University as Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing and whilst there he set up a Level 7 MRes Research Scientist apprenticeship. He also completed his MBA (level 7 senior leaders apprenticeship). During this time he co-founded his first start-up, FourPlus Immersive, who create software including VR/AR for training and technology transfer. He also established one of three National Training Centres under the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult-coordinated Advanced Therapies Skills and Training Network (ATSTN) programme.

In 2021 Ivan co-founded his second start-up, Quest Meat, and in 2022, moved to University of Birmingham as Professor of Regenerative Medicine, in a part-time role that has enabled him to spend time building FourPlus and Quest Meat. His major focus in his academic role is RESILIENCE. As Co-Director of RESILIENCE, he brings together leading experts in industry skills training and led the adoption of creative new approaches to meet rapidly evolving sector skills needs.