In addition to the consultants and associates introduced here Isis Enterprise draws on the full expertise of all 50+ staff of Isis Innovation in delivering services to our clients.

OUR CONSULTANTS

Dr David Baghurst - David is Head of Isis Enterprise. David studied chemistry at the University of Oxford prior to completing a DPhil entitled "Applications of microwaves in chemical synthesis". Following two years as a fixed term lecturer in chemistry at Imperial College, London, David joined the Cookson Group as Head of the Advanced Products Group at the Cookson Technology Centre. David joined The Oxford Trust as Director of Industrial Programmes in 1996 supporting the creation and growth of high tech companies, managing technology business incubation and business networks. David joined Isis in 2002 as Head of the Physical Sciences Group working on commercialisation projects from chemistry, physics, engineering, materials and computing. David has an MBA from Warwick Business School and has sat of the board of a number of emerging technology businesses from the life and physical sciences.

Dr Mark Mawhinney - Mark joined Isis as General Manager Isis Enterprise in November 2004 and manages Isis Enterprise worldwide business activities. Mark has many years experience at operating in the interface between the research world, business and the public sector. Mark’s previous experience in technology transfer comes from a wide range of previous activities, from which he has built a strong understanding of the diverse drivers of innovation. Most recently Mark was Project Director of Knowledge Starts, an ERDF Programme to support Sheffield’s universities in technology transfer and building links with business. Before that Mark was the first Director of the Sustainable Cities Research Institute at Northumbria University, where he established strong links with public sector agencies and was involved in the formation of a start-up business. Mark has a PhD in Civil Engineering and worked in UK, South-East Asia and South America for Tarmac and Penta Ocean.

Dr Tim Hart - Tim is Business Development Manager at Isis Enterprise. Tim’s remit is to work with industrial clients outside the University to provide Isis technology management services and support. He also works with Isis to progress other technology projects to spin-out. Prior to his work at Isis, Tim was the founder and CEO of an environmental diagnostics University spin-out. He took the company through six rounds of private investment and managed 28 shareholders. He has recently obtained an acquisition offer for the business. Tim has obtained significant experience in a wide range of issues associated with early stage technology business development. He is a proactive supporter of entrepreneurship and business mentoring both inside and outside academia. Tim gained a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Surrey in 1997 and a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Nottingham in 1993..

Dr Sarah Macnaughton - Sarah completed her PhD in Microbial Ecology at the University of Newcastle in 1992. After three years in post-doctoral research at Newcastle she became the senior researcher at a US environmental analysis business.  Following this she joined the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee before moving back to the UK in 2000 to join AEA Technology Environment and its Momenta operating division.    At Momenta Sarah worked on a number of projects including research into bioremediation, management of a UK site for contaminated land research, a review of environmental science and training in the UK and the DTI BIOWISE Programme.  Her final role at Momenta was as regional manager on the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme.  Sarah joined Isis Enterprise in October 2006.

Terry Pollard - Terry studied physics at the University of Bristol, and then moved into a technical business consulting role. After 4 years consulting into many different industries, he decided to study for an MBA at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London.Terry first joined Isis Innovation in 2003, where he worked as a project manager commercialising intellectual property from the physics, chemistry, materials and engineering departments. He was involved in the formation of several spinout companies, including Oxford Catalysts Ltd, a company that is developing specialty catalysts for the generation of clean fuels from conventional fossil fuels and renewable sources such as biomass. Oxford Catalysts floated on AIM in 2006, and Terry left Isis in early 2007 to join Oxford Catalysts, where he gained valuable experience in a business development role. Terry returned to work in a new role at Isis Enterprise in April 2008.

Robert Swerdlow - Robert is a Project Manager at Isis Enterprise. Robert gained a masters in Economic Analysis from the University of Nottingham in 2007. Prior to joining Isis, he briefly worked for the Institute of Cancer Research before joining LMC International Ltd as a research economist. During his time at LMC, he was responsible for writing numerous economic reports on the subject of agricultural commodity markets. Robert Joined Isis Enterprise in July 2008.

Dr Roger Welch - Roger Welch completed his Ph.D. from the Physics Department of Warwick University in 1995. He then spent three years as a cryogenic systems design engineer working in the Oxford area. Later, Roger was involved in several sales and marketing positions dealing with new and innovative technologies closely associated with science and engineering including cryogenics, optics, optoelectronics, and vacuum technology. Roger joined Isis in September 2003.

Dr Paul Whyte - Paul has experience in commercial leadership roles spanning the pharmaceutical, academic and emerging technology environments from partnering late stage pharmaceutical products to exploiting innovative emerging products and technologies. Prior to joining Isis Enterprise Paul was responsible for leading the commercial development and partnering of therapeutic medicines at Evolutec Plc as Director of Business Development and prior to this for partnering Avidex Ltd’s (Medigene’s) cancer and inflammatory therapies and therapeutic discovery platform. Paul also spent several years at Cancer Research Technology (CRT) in a commercial role during its rapid organisational growth where he was instrumental in forming a joint venture company - Cancer Therapeutics Limited, with Antisoma plc to develop a late stage cancer therapy, commercialising CRTs portfolio based around the Muc-1 cancer antigen and executing numerous licence transactions. In his early career Paul worked on cancer diagnostics at Zeneca Diagnostics, undertook vaccine research and development at Pierre Fabre Medicament and was part of a small molecule drug discovery team at Astra Zeneca.  Paul has an honours degree from Warwick University, a PhD in immunology and an MBA.

Dr Suzanna Wood - Suzanna studied at The University of Surrey in Guildford where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry. Subsequently she spent 6 years at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton where she studied for a University of London PhD and then worked as a postdoctoral scientist. Suzanna's research was investigating genes encoding Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase, which is involved in the Thymidylate Synthase Cycle and subsequently the role of SYT/SSX gene translocations in Synovial Sarcoma. Suzanna then left academia to pursue a career in sales. She has been involved in sales of a wide range of molecular biology reagents and equipment including products used for microarrays and robotic instruments. More recently Suzanna was employed as the UK Product Manager at MWG Biotech for the oligonucleotide synthesis and DNA sequencing services and then as the key account manager in the UK for Proligo, an oligonucleotide synthesis company. Suzanna joined Isis as a Project Manager in May 2005.

James Lye - James joined Isis to advance the firm’s corporate services and expand international operations. He has broad experience in the APAC region having previously worked as a strategy consultant with Frost & Sullivan Singapore. While at Frost he advised senior executives in the telecoms and government sectors in a range of consulting engagements. James has in-depth experience in product development and market entry, performance benchmarking, and innovation process. He has been published and interviewed in a variety of media including Malaysian Business and Television Asia. He has a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Singapore and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

OUR ASSOCIATES

Tom Hockaday - Tom became Managing Director of Isis Innovation Ltd in 2006, having joined Isis in 2000. Before moving to Oxford in March 2000, Tom was at Bristol University for seven years where he was Managing Director of Bristol Innovations Ltd; before that Tom worked in UCL’s research contracting section for four years. Tom was Chairman of UNICO in 2003, the UK’s technology transfer trade association. Tom was on the founding Committee of Praxis, the UK’s national training programme aimed at technology transfer professionals, from 2002 to 2005.

Dr Jeff Skinner - Jeff is the Executive Director for the Centre for Enterprise and Innovation at London Business School. Prior to this he was at UCL where, as Commercial Director, he was responsible for conceiving and running UCL’s Knowledge Transfer activities, including their spin-out, consultancy, business development, enterprise education and corporate alliance programmes as well as their proof-of-concept and seed funds. He has taken the commercial lead in around 25 spin-outs, working with academics to raise over £30m in seed and venture capital finance. He takes a leading role in the Technology Transfer community in the UK and Europe. He is past Chair of UNICO and remains a Board Member. He is immediate past-President of ASTP (the leading TT Association in Europe) and was on the founding team of PRAXIS which trains the vast majority of KT managers in the UK. He was a member of the core team that devised the Lambert Model Agreement. Prior to joining UCL he worked as Marketing Manager at Hoechst Celanese, commercialising novel opto-electronic devices into the US market. Prior to that he was a research manager at General Electric, leading research in optical telecommunication devices. He has a PhD from University College London, an MBA from London Business School and is a Certified Accountant. He is frequently asked to speak and facilitate Knowledge Transfer Events (for both industry and university audiences). He leads a variety of ‘Entrepreneurship’ MBA courses at LBS.