Coulter Partners places three board members at Cancer Research Horizons to drive translational strategy

Cancer Research Horizons is the innovation arm of Cancer Research UK. Its strategy focuses on working directly with researchers to help them maximize the impact of their work, providing funding, expertise and advice to translate research out of the lab and into tools, tests and treatments that benefit people with cancer.

The new board members bring extensive biotech business, scientific and fund-raising experience to help accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into patient benefit. 

Iain Foulkes, CEO of Cancer Research Horizons, commented: “Heather, Richard and Hans each bring deep expertise, spanning research, healthcare and biotechnology. This knowledge from across the translational ecosystem will strengthen our strategic direction and decision-making as we work to get more promising research outputs developed and commercialized sooner.”

“We chose to work with Coulter Partners because of the depth of their networks and their understanding of the type of people we need to future-proof our organization. Their ability to simultaneously source three distinct leadership profiles and shepherd us through the process of bringing them on board ensured that we have the right mix of clinical, scientific, and entrepreneurial rigor to drive our mission forward”.

Dr. Justine McIlroy, Client Partner at Coulter Partners, added: “We are proud to have worked with Cancer Research Horizons on these critical Board appointments. Delivering a multi-track international search required a highly collaborative effort across our firm. Working alongside my colleagues Laura Esam and Kay Wardle, we managed a carefully choreographed board succession process, with the goal of bringing CRH a mix of business leadership, translational science and venture fundraising experience. Heather’s investment acumen, Richard’s world-class scientific pedigree and Hans’s entrepreneurial track record will be instrumental in helping CRH bridge the gap between academic innovation and market-ready cancer therapies.”

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Heather Preston, Non-Executive Director at Cancer Research Horizons

Heather Preston is on the board of Oxford Biomedica, Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc and of Aligos Therapeutics, a Nasdaq listed company. In addition, she is a Senior Advisor to TPG Biotech and the Chair of the Board of Harness Therapeutics. She has over 35 years of experience in healthcare, as a scientist, physician and management consultant and she has been an investor in life sciences and biotechnology for more than 25 years. 

Over the course of her career, Heather has also served as a Director of more than 20 healthcare companies, both public and private. Dr. Preston holds a degree in Medicine from the University of Oxford and completed her research fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 

Richard Wooster, Non-Executive Director at Cancer Research Horizons

Richard Wooster is an Executive Partner at Syncona Investment Management Ltd and a Director of Slingshot Therapeutics. Richard 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. In addition to advancing multiple programs from early-stage discovery into the clinic, he helped the company raise multiple rounds of private funding to advance the business. Prior to Tarveda, he was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head in Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline. 

Richard 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.

Hans Bishop, Non-Executive Director at Cancer Research Horizons

Hans Bishop is a Biotech entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the industry whose ventures have driven transformative advancements in the field of cancer treatment. 

Hans is currently the President, Co-Founder, and Board Co-Chair of Altos Labs. Hans served previously as the CEO of GRAIL, which was acquired by Illumina. In 2013 he co-founded Juno Therapeutics, a company that was dedicated to treating various types of cancer. He served as President and CEO until 2018 when the company was acquired by Celgene. 

Hans also serves as the Chairman of Sana Biotechnology’s Board of Directors and held previous board roles at Agilent Technologies and Lyell Immunopharma.

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