Prior to joining the Charity St. George Street Capital as Chief Executive Officer and a trustee, David held senior leadership positions at Senior Vice President or CEO level in international R&D healthcare companies and Charities with responsibility for the strategic leadership of these organisations. David’s past roles include joint worldwide head of chemistry for Zeneca agrochemicals, Vice President of Glaxo Smith Kline Pharmaceuticals and Senior Vice President of Millennium Pharmaceuticals which, at the time, was the third largest Biotech company in the world. At St. George Street Capital he successfully led a £7m funding round to fund a Covid-19 clinical trial programme on an asset that was licensed out from Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.
Immediately prior to joining St. George Street Capital, David was for 10 years the CEO of Medical Research Council Technology and led that organisation through a renaming and rebranding exercise to create the strategy and vision for the Charity now known as LifeArc. During his time at MRCT/LifeArc he served on the Executive management committee of the Medical Research Council reporting to both Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and Sir John Savill and represented the UK research Councils in meetings with European heads of research councils on International patent strategies and commercialisation of research. David built an extensive network of connections in the technology transfer and commercialisation sector of UK University technology transfer offices and represented the healthcare sector of the UK at International Conferences in Europe and the Far East and trade missions to Japan and China. During these missions he met with the ministers of health for both countries and even the current and previous presidents of China.
Whilst at LifeArc David worked closely with Dr Freda Lewis-Hall to create the highly innovative and hugely successful company Springworks which currently has a Market Capitalisation of $3.08Bn (Jan 2022). David left LifeArc having steered the charity to Endowment status funding with a cash balance of $1.4Bn.
David also worked extensively as an entrepreneur having now started or been involved with the creation or funding of 10 new life science companies here in the UK. Four of these successfully exited via trade sales, one was listed on the AIM market and one was listed on the London Stock Exchange. He has also served as a non-Executive director/Chairman in a range of Biotech and healthcare technology companies both here in the UK and internationally.
David has built an international network and reputation in pharmaceutical research and development and commercialisation of technology in healthcare. This has encompassed public and private sectors including working for government bodies such as the funding councils and the Department of Trade and Industry as well as the Venture Capital and Charity sectors internationally. He has a strong academic track record with more than 40 patents and publications. He has been a visiting professor at Sussex University and is currently a visiting professor at Wenzhou University and Nanjing Medical University. David has also held positions as a Senior Special advisor and Special Expert advisor (life sciences) to the Shanghai government. In 2012 He was awarded the Tianjin government “Haihe Friendship” award and the Tianjin Economic Development Area “TEDA Friendship Award”.
During her 35-year career in medicine, Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall served as Pfizer, Inc.’s Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President until the end of 2018 and as Chief Patient Officer and Executive Vice President during 2019. Before joining Pfizer, Freda held senior leadership positions in medical affairs and product development with Vertex, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia and Eli Lilly and Company.
Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall has been on the frontlines of healthcare as a clinician, a researcher, and a leader in the biopharmaceuticals and life sciences industries. The common thread throughout has been her passion to advocate for health equity and improved outcomes for all patients. Dr. Lewis-Hall appears regularly on health-related television programs in major global markets, including CBS-syndicated shows such as The Doctors and Dr. Phil. She also shares health and medical information through GetHealthyStayHealthy.com.
Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical industry, she served as vice chairperson and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University College of Medicine and was an advisor to the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Lewis-Hall served on the board of directors of SpringWorks Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company which licensed four compounds initially from Pfizer which currently has a Market Capitalisation of $3.08Bn (Jan 2022), in collaboration with UK-charity LifeArc.