Tim Edwards
Chairman
Tim Edwards
Chairman
Tim is an entrepreneur, mainly in the life sciences sector, operating across both private and listed companies. He is Chair of AstronauTx, EndLyz, and Storm Therapeutics, three private biotech companies working on the discovery of novel medicines spun out of the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), Oxford University and Cambridge University; Chair of Schroders Capital Global Innovation Fund plc and SID of Record PLC, both public companies, and Chair of the Institute for Research in Schools, a charity.
He has led two companies to exit via M&A in 2012 and 2016. Previously Tim was a Governing Board member of InnovateUK, the UK's Innovation agency, a founding Non-Executive Director of the UK Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult; and Chair of the UK BioIndustry Association.
Dr Ruth McKernan CBE FMedSci
Founder & Non-Executive Director
Dr Ruth McKernan CBE FMedSci
Founder & Non-Executive Director
Ruth has spent 27 years in the Pharmaceutical industry and was head of the Merck Neuroscience Research Centre in Harlow, the Pfizer Discovery Technology Centre in Cambridge Mass and the Pfizer site in Sandwich. As a neuroscientist she has over 120 publications and 15 patents in the areas of ion channels and regenerative medicine.
She has spanned the academic, business and government worlds with aplomb. Ruth was the CEO of InnovateUK, supporting the growth of SMEs in the UK and helping to develop the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Ruth is now a Venture Partner with SV Health Investors. She works particularly on companies that create new medicines for dementia and has been involved in founding four companies including Cumulus Neuroscience, a digital health company whose technology accelerates clinical trials in neurodegeneration, which she chairs. Ruth is also a Board member of the public US company, Cerevel.
Ruth is a trustee of Alzheimer’s Research UK and is a member of Cancer Research UK.
Dr David Reynolds
Founder & Non-Executive Director
Dr David Reynolds
Founder & Non-Executive Director
David is a highly experienced pharmaceutical research and development leader having worked for nearly 20 years at Merck Sharp & Dohme, Lundbeck and latterly Pfizer, where he was the Cambridge Neuroscience & Pain research site head.
David has held a variety of R&D leadership roles with responsibilities ranging from exploratory biology, through drug discovery, early clinical development and in-licensing in multiple disease areas, with a focus on neuroscience and pain.
Before joining the Dementia Discovery Fund and founding AstronauTx he spent three years as the Chief Scientific Officer of Alzheimer’s Research UK, Europe’s largest dementia research charity supporting academic research, translational drug discovery and providing information to patients and their families about their disease.
David holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK.
Dr Laurence Barker
Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF)
Dr Laurence Barker
Investor Director
Laurence is a Partner in the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) and has supported the funding and formation of numerous DDF companies developing transformational new medicines for dementia. He joined SV Health Investors in 2016 having played an active role in setting up DDF.
Prior to joining the DDF, Laurence was Head of Investment Management in Worldwide Business Development at GSK where he was responsible for managing GSK’s venture investment portfolio, covering both direct equity positions as well as a venture fund-of-funds portfolio. In addition, he led licensing transactions for the pharma R&D business.
Prior to GSK, Laurence worked in business development at biotech companies Syntaxin and MorphoSys. Laurence received his Masters degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and an MBA from Cambridge.
Dr Marianne Uteng
Novartis Venture Fund (NVF)
Dr Marianne Uteng
Investor Director
Marianne is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining NVF, she worked in Novartis Global Drug Development and, before that, in the Pre-Clinical Safety Department at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research, where she led teams delivering health authority-required and non-routine safety assessments for early and late stage programs across many therapeutic areas. Concurrently, she supported the Novartis BD&L Search & Evaluation Team, and spearheaded collaborations with biotechnology companies and academia for development of innovative in vitro/in vivo systems.
Marianne received her MSc in biochemistry from the University of Oslo and her PhD in molecular biology, cell biology and biophysics from a joint program between European Molecular Biology Laboratories and the University of Oslo.
Todd Foley
MPM BioImpact
Todd Foley
Investor Director
Todd Foley is a Managing Director at MPM BioImpact and serves on a number of MPM portfolio company boards, including Aktis Oncology (Chairman), Repare Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPTX) and Tetherex Pharmaceuticals. Todd also serves as Chairman of portfolio companies ashibio and Crossbow Therapeutics. He previously served on the board of Semma Therapeutics, a potentially curative diabetes cell-therapy company founded by MPM and Doug Melton at Harvard, which was acquired by Vertex for $950 million in 2019 in one of the largest ever preclinical M&A deals. He guided Selexys Pharmaceuticals to an acquisition by Novartis for $665 million in 2016. Later, Novartis launched the Selexys drug, Adakveo™ in late 2019 to treat sickle cell disease.
Prior to joining MPM in 1999, Todd’s career in the life science industry included business development at Genentech (Roche) and management consulting with Arthur D. Little.
Todd earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Professor Philip Scheltens
EQT Life Sciences, Dementia Fund
Professor Philip Schltens
Investor Director
Prof. Philip Scheltens studied at the VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands, gaining his MD in 1984, and PhD in 1993. He was appointed as Professor of Cognitive Neurology in 2002 and founded the Alzheimer Center at Amsterdam University Medical Centers in that same year, which he directed until 2022. Currently he is partner at EQT group and heads the Dementia Fund at EQT Life Sciences, that he started in 2020.
He has been the (inter)national PI for over 35 studies, including phase 1-3 multicenter clinical trials. He supervised >100 PhD theses since 2000. He founded and led the Dutch National Plan against dementia and served as chair of the board until 2021. He currently sits on the advisory panel of the Dutch National Strategy for Dementia 2022-2030.
Philip served as co-editor-in-chief of Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy from 2013-2022 and co-led various EU projects. He authored over 1100 peer reviewed papers and >75 book chapters and co-edited several major text books.
He is member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2011 and member of the board from 2015-2020. In 2016 he was awarded the European Grand Prix for Alzheimer’s Research. In 2020 he was Knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion by the King of the Netherlands. In 2021 he was elected honorary member of the European Academy of Neurology. He acts as chair of the World Dementia council since 2021. In 2023 he received the Bengt Winblad Life Time Achievement Award.
Dr Jonathan Tobin
Brandon Capital
Dr Jonathan Tobin
Investor Director
Jonathan is a Partner with Brandon Capital based in its London office where he heads Brandon’s European operations. He specialises in life science investing and serves on the boards of Pheon Therapeutics, Myricx Bio, NRG Therapeutics, and Catalym.
Prior to joining Brandon, Jonathan was Managing Director at Arix Bioscience, a UK and US-based biotech VC firm, and before that was a Principal in Healthcare Ventures at Touchstone Innovations. He has previously also worked in business development and academic research. Jonathan has a degree in Biology from Oxford University; a PhD in Molecular Medicine from UCL, and an MBA from Imperial College London.
Dr Kenneth Rhodes
Bristol Myers Squibb
Dr Kenneth Rhodes
Investor Director
Ken serves as Vice President, Neuroscience Research at Bristol Myers Squibb, based in Cambridge, MA, USA. Prior to joining BMS, Ken was Vice President, Rare Neurology and Discovery Biology at Pfizer, where he led a team focused on the advancement of gene therapy, gene editing and small molecule programs targeting rare neurological and metabolic disorders. Prior to Pfizer, Ken served as Senior Vice President, Therapeutics Discovery, at Wave Life Sciences, where he oversaw the development of stereo-pure oligonucleotide therapeutics for neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases and defined the company’s early discovery strategy.
Prior to Wave, Ken co-founded and served for 6 years as CSO of Yumanity Therapeutics, where he built and led a team working to identify novel pathways and drug targets for neurodegenerative diseases of which one is now in clinical development for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. Also, Ken served as Vice President of Neurology Discovery at Biogen, where, over a seven-year period, his team delivered nine drug candidates for the potential treatment of neurological diseases; one of these candidates (BIIB037, aducanumab/Aduhelm™) was recently given accelerated approval for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to these positions, Ken worked in discovery research teams at both Wyeth and Johnson and Johnson with a similar focus on neurologic diseases.
Ken earned his PhD from Boston University and received post-doctoral training at the National Eye Institute (NIH) and Boston University in the areas of systems neuroscience and neuropharmacology, respectively. He has authored over 70 peer-reviewed research publications, several book chapters and is a named inventor on 5 issued US patents.
