Our team

 
Weatherden is a team of leaders who combine an agile biotech mindset with the proven expertise of pharmaceutical drug discovery and development.
— Houman Ashrafian, Co-Founder

Leadership

  • Professor Houman Ashrafian

    MA BM Bch DPhil FRCP

    CO-FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN

    Professor Ashrafian is a clinician scientist, serial entrepreneur, investor and company builder. He has received dozens of awards and authored over 70 publications.

  • Dr Duncan McHale

    MBBS PhD MRCP MFPM

    CO-FOUNDER

    Duncan is a clinical geneticist and early drug development expert. He has over 30 years of industry experience, sits on multiple MRC panels and authored the ICH E15 and E16 guidelines.

  • Emma Tinsley

    MSci ACA

    CHIEF EXECUTIVE

    Emma is a nationally recognised serial entrepreneur who has built multiple companies with breakthrough therapies and is bringing to market deep tech solutions that will transform clinical trial design efficiency.

  • Bryony Harraway

    VP FINANCE AND OPERATIONS

    Bryony is an R&D and biotech company creation executive with extensive experience of forecasting, company fundraising, investor management, and post-investment scaling of early stage biotechs and pre/seed.

  • Dr Victoria Simpkin

    MSc MBChB MRCP

    CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER AND DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Victoria is a clinician with extensive experience in R&D strategy, clinical development, medical affairs and commercial operations in large and mid-sized companies.

  • Andrea Sotak

    Head of Strategy and SVP Corporate Development

    Andrea is an exemplary strategy executive, life sciences investor and business operations leader with a deep understanding of the challenges facing investors, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies across global markets.

Core team

  • Dr Kirsty Wydenbach BSc MBBS MSc FRCA MFPM

    HEAD OF REGULATORY STRATEGY AND DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Kirsty is a clinician and expert medical assessor with extensive experience of regulation in clinical trials and more than a decade’s experience at the MHRA.

  • Professor Dominique Baeten MD PhD

    SENIOR DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Dominique is a physician scientist and university professor with extensive hands-on experience of strategic drug hunting and drug development in pharma and academia.

  • Geoff Brooks BSc

    HEAD OF CLINICAL OPERATIONS

    Geoff has worked at a senior level on trials Phases I to IV on a variety of international projects involving therapeutic agents ranging from small molecules to gene therapy, and is highly regarded for his success in leading R&D teams.

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    Dr Arash Yavari BSc MBBS DPhil MRCP MFPM

    SENIOR DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Arash is a clinician scientist with broad experience in drug development, including target discovery, early phase clinical trial design, Mendelian/rare disorders, oligonucleotide therapeutics, CV, oncology, drug repositioning and novel platform/precision medicine approaches.

  • Dr Raj Dattani BSc BM BCh DPM MFPM

    SENIOR DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Raj is a company creation executive and commercial and technical due diligence professional who brings extensive experience of asset and unmet need analyses, competitor therapy area pipeline investigations, and indication selection therapeutic area mapping.

  • Dr Michael Grant MB BCH BAO BSc MSc PGCert FHEA MCRP

    Senior Drug Development Clinician

    Michael is a physician-scientist and oncologist with extensive experience of translational medicine and conducting trials from FIH to PIII, including for compounds with Breakthrough Therapy and Innovate Licensing and Access Pathway designations.

  • Dr Simon Hutchings MPharmacol PhD

    Senior Clinical Pharmacologist

    Simon is an expert in pre-clinical and clinical pharmacology who has advised, designed, managed and delivered multiple FIH and POC studies across many therapeutic areas, including oncology, inflammation and infectious diseases.

  • Dr Claire Davies BSc PGDip

    SENIOR DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICAL SCIENTIST

    Claire is a drug development professional who brings more than 20 years’ experience of clinical research programmes across all phases and brings substantial experience in immunology and late-stage global regulatory filings.

  • Dr Koki Nakamura MD PhD

    STRATEGIC ADVISOR

    Koki is an is an experienced commercial executive and pharmaceutical physician with a track record of leading and managing business units as S/VP, supervising sales, marketing, and product communication in addition to launching new products and evaluating in-licensing opportunities.

  • Dr Christine Wilkinson Blanc MD DEA

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Christine is an expert in cancer drug development and seasoned pharmaceutical physician with an extensive track record in integrated clinical development across all stages of the product life cycle and the business.

  • Dr Tim Bourne PhD

    EARLY DRUG DEVELOPMENT SCIENTIST

    Tim is an experienced chief scientific officer with a track record of delivering on small molecule, biologics, and new chemical (NCE) project as well as successful biotech deals and partnerships.

  • Dr Alex Azizi BA MA MRes MAcadMEd MB BChir DPM MRCP

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Alex is an academic NHS clinician and NIHR fellow working at the intersection of academia, medicine and industry specialising in oncology, translational medicine, integrative immunogenomics and data science.

  • Dr Sara Brett PhD

    EARLY DRUG DEVELOPMENT SCIENTIST

    Sara is a pharmaceutical scientist and translational biology specialist with more than 35 years of experience in immunology, immunoinflammation and oncology.

  • Dr Stephen Evans BSc MBBS PhD

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Stephen is a clinician, medical affairs and clinical development professional with extensive translational experience and track record in conducting phases I-IV trials.

  • Dr Matthew Frise BM BCh MA DPhil FRCP FFICM

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Matthew is an acute medicine consultant, clinician scientist and principal investigator on several multi-centre trials focused on cardiovascular, metabolism, and pulmonary diseases, and Covid-19.

  • Harriet Holme portrait image

    Dr Harriet Holme MA MBBS MRCPCH PhD RNutr

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Harriet is a paediatrician with expertise primarily in oncology. Her PhD investigated cancer drivers and synthetic lethality in osteosarcoma. She founded and chairs PCD Research, a medical research charity.

  • Dr Dimitrios Karponis BSC MBBS

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Dimitrios is an award winning clinical-academic with a focus on skin cancer epidemiology and the use of artificial intelligence in skin cancer prevention and diagnosis. Published across a range of scientific disciplines. Author of medical and fiction books. Dermatology trainee (resident) supported by a prestigious NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship.

  • Dr Ian Mann BMedSci MBBS PhD

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Ian is a cardiology and electrophysiology consultant with extensive knowledge of pacing, cardiac electrophysiology, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure; and experience in medical devices and diagnostics, including limited and commercial pre-clinical release.

  • Dr Bhavik Modi MA MBBS PhD MRCP FHEA

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Bhavik is a consultant General and Interventional Cardiologist with 13 years’ experience of working in the NHS and a PhD in cardiovascular physiology. He brings extensive experience in leading regional/national academic and clinical teams, and a track-record of running clinical trials.

  • Dr Matthew Nour MA BM Bch PhD MRCPsych

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT CLINICIAN

    Matthew is a prizewinning neuroscientist and doctor with a decade of research experience in functional neuroimaging, computational cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychopharmacology.

  • Dr Hakim-Moulay Dehbi MSc MRes PhD

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT STATISTICIAN

    Hakim is a specialist in the design and analysis of clinical trials, providing critical input to creation, design and delivery of pioneering drug development programmes across all clinical trial phases, therapeutic and disease areas.

  • Sneha Bajpai BSc

    STRATEGY DIRECTOR

    Sneha is a health tech professional with more than 12 years’ experience of scaling tech-enabled approaches in healthcare across a range of platforms including AI, corporate strategy, and commercialisation in drug development.

  • Dr Steven Robery BSc PhD

    STRATEGY DIRECTOR

    Strategy and business development executive, Steven has led multiple therapeutic landscape assessments across clinical and commercial stage assets, using the inputs to support business development and support R&D strategy.

  • Dr Freddie Peakman MBiochem PhD

    STRATEGY CONSULTANT

    Freddie is UCL and Francis Crick oncology PhD and former grants adviser in infection and immunobiology at the Wellcome Trust working across clinical development, strategy and business development.

  • Eulene Gooden portrait image

    Eulene Gooden BSc MSc

    CLINICAL OPERATIONS PROJECT MANAGER

    Eulene is a clinical research professional with more than thirty years’ experience of clinical operations, and fifteen years managing Phase I-IV clinical trials Worldwide and Europe in particular.

  • Shirish Joshi BSc MSc

    CLINICAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

    Shirish has more than 28 years’ experience working across Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products and brings a significant track record of setting up and conducting national, EU, and global clinical trials.

  • Jeremy O'Sullivan BSc MICR

    CLINICAL OPERATIONS PROJECT MANAGER

    Jeremy has over 20 years’ experience in pharma and brings an impressive record in planning, setting up, coordinating, managing and overseeing every aspect of early phase clinical trials both nationally and globally.

  • Harjit Singh BSc

    CLINICAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

    Harj has a significant track record of designing, managing and leading international and multi-centre studies through all phases; setting up clinical development teams; developing study protocols; and devising clinical development plans and study timelines.

  • Dr Zuhair Elgaid BSc PhD

    GRADUATE PROJECT MANAGER

    Zuhair was a BBSRC scholar at UCL’s Drug Discovery Lab, where he recently completed his PhD. He specialises in computational, biophysical and cell biology methods in immune-oncology and brings expertise in experimental pharmacology and genetic, cellular and molecular biology.

  • Katie Lui MSci

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT ANALYST

    Pharmacology graduate knowledgeable in bioinformatics approaches, Katie has researched in multiple therapeutic areas including neuroscience, cardiovascular, and inflammation, and has previous operational experience working in a biomanufacturing and medical diagnostics company.

  • Maxim Sverjinski MEng IChemE

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT ANALYST

    Maxim is an award winning biochemical engineering graduate skilled in bioprocess modelling and pharmaceutical product analyses, with particular interests in regenerative medicine products, cell and gene therapy, and AAV. 

  • Stan Konopka BASc MBA

    INFORMATION GOVERNANCE CONSULTANT

    Stan is a digital transformation and information management technology professional with more than 20 years' experience across pharma and biotech.

  • Russell Joyce BA

    INFORMATION GOVERNANCE CONSULTANT

    Russell is a records management and information governance professional with extensive experience of selection, evaluation and implementation of archives and procedures, including metadata schema and digital preservation.

  • Dr Al Naylor BSc PhD

    EARLY DRUG DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

    Alasdair is a big pharma veteran, research director and chief scientific officer with 30 years’ experience in the application of scientific research to drug discovery and development with numerous positive proof of pre/clinical concepts across mechanisms in pain, neuroscience and inflammation to his name.

  • Dr Neil Benson, BSc PhD

    PHARMACOLOGIST

    Neil is a research scientist with more than 20 years experience working in large pharmaceutical companies specialised in applied modelling and simulation, PKPD, and QSP.

  • Dr Graham Scott BSc PhD MRPharmS

    CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGIST

    Graham is a pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist of more than 30 years’ experience with extensive knowledge of translational science and significant track record of completing programs from candidate selection through FIH and PoC to submission and approval.

  • Mark Aubrey BSc MBA

    QUALITY ASSURANCE

    Mark is a GCP clinical research professional with over 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical, sector. He has managed global system audits, conducted multiple onsite sponsor inspections, as well as held total responsibility for the delivery of GCP, GLP and Clinical Safety Quality Programmes in big pharma across five continents.

  • Victoria Parry

    Operations Director

    Victoria is a project and product manager with extensive experience with SMEs in the banking sector, where she executed multiple complex projects in regulatory and compliance, feasibility, communications, and marketing.

  • Caroline McHugh BSc

    EVENTS MANAGER

    Caroline brings substantial experience of working internationally in the production of small- and large-scale events to budget and with finesse, incorporating summits, incentive programmes, sales kick-off meetings, scientific advisory boards, and leadership events.

  • Armin Yavari BA MA MLitt

    FINANCE AND OPERATIONS ANALYST

    Armin is a charity trustee and trainee chartered governance professional. He co-headed an early career development initiative developed with the University of St Andrews and is a past fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Our track record

 

Client
satisfaction

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An above average rate of repeat business and word-of-mouth driven new client relationships reflects the quality of our input and the outcomes we achieve​.

Clinical
successes

With a track record of successful clinical trials in multiple cities and countries, our thoughtful design and integrated approach can chart your fastest path to efficacy in patients.

900+ years’
experience

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Blending more than 900 years’ experience, we are uniquely positioned to de-risk your programs and maximise value across the drug development lifecycle.

International
reach

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We can manage single and multi-centre trials across the world – our current portfolio involves 15 cities across 12 countries, including Brazil, France, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and USA.

Regulatory
wins

We have led multiple defence meetings with regulatory authorities, including the MHRA, FDA, EMA (including CHMP, SAG, COMP and PDCO), MEB, AEMPS, BfArM, and PEI.

Therapeutic
areas

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Our expertise spans more than 30 therapeutic areas, which is augmented further by our network of KOLs.