Who we’re steered by

Ken spent much of his 28-year career at Goldman Sachs in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors; a member of the Global Management Committee and Chairman and CEO of Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, from 2013 to 2019. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Ken was a carrier-based fighter bomber pilot for the U.S. Navy. He is currently a Board member of Wuxi Biologics and CStone Pharmaceuticals and a senior advisor to Wuxi Apptec. Ken is Chairman of HH&L and Cydar Medical. He is also a senior advisor to the early-stage venture capital firm Antler.
Ken has a BA from the University of Colorado and an MBA as a merit fellow from Columbia University Business School.

Throughout his career, Dale has focused on supporting early-stage and VC-backed pioneering tools companies and steering them towards global market success. Before joining Sphere Fluidics, he was Senior VP of Global Sales and Support at Vizgen and in this role established a global commercial infrastructure and rapidly scaled the Company’s operations.

Prior to this, as VP Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Dropworks Inc. Dale’s contributions were instrumental in developing an integrated Digital Droplet PCR platform, and his strategic leadership culminated in the Company’s acquisition by Bio-Rad for $125 million. He has also held key senior positions leading commercial expansion at NanoString Technologies, Illumina Inc., and Helixs Inc. Dale holds a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology and Genetics from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. 

Ian’s prior role, as the Managing Director of Candover, where he led investments into companies including Clondalkin, Ontec, Innovia, Dx Group, Ferretti, and Inveresk Research. With the latter, he was involved from its start-up phase through to its eventual Trade Sale for £600 million. Earlier in his career Ian was Head of Structured Finance (UK and Europe) at the Bank of Scotland and held other financial roles at TSB and Arthur Andersen. Ian is a Chartered Accountant and has a B. Com (Hons) in Business Studies and Law from Edinburgh University.

Alex is a seasoned executive with substantial experience at the intersection of healthcare, life science, and information technology. He currently sits on three boards in addition to Sphere Fluidics: Gencove (Next Generation Sequencing), ChromaCode (molecular diagnostics) and Ryght.ai (Generative AI applied to clinical trials). Previously he sat on the board of PRA Health Sciences, a 20,000 employee NASDAQ-listed Clinical Research Organization (CRO), from 2018 until it was acquired by ICON plc in 2021.  

From 2010 to 2017 Alex was a senior vice president at Illumina, where he founded and led BaseSpace, Illumina’s cloud-based bioinformatics platform, before going on to run global population sequencing healthcare programs. Alex came to Illumina through its acquisition of Helixis, a life science instrument company he co-founded with Nobel laureate David Baltimore. Earlier Alex was the founding CEO of Luxtera, a communications chip company acquired by Cisco Systems.  

Alex began his career in research at Bell Labs and holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Adelaide, Australia. 

Prior to founding GWC, Ian spent over 20 years working in London in investment banking at various companies including RBC, UBS, and HSBC. In 2017 he retired from the city to focus on GWC full-time and now serves on numerous boards of early-stage companies. Ian qualified as an electrical engineer from the University of the Witwatersrand and holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town. He also holds a Chartered Financial Analysts designation.

Before Panmure, Ed was Investment Director in life sciences venture capital firm, Arix Bioscience. This followed twenty years at various research-led investment firms including AMP Capital, Alliance Bernstein, UBS Asset Management and JP Morgan Investment Management. He covered healthcare, tech and other sectors and also managed equity portfolios, ran a research team and launched a small companies fund.

Ed has an MA in Chemistry and MSc in Management from Oxford University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Michael joined the Board of Sphere Fluidics in October 2021. He currently serves as Vice President at Redmile Group, a healthcare-focused investment firm. Prior to Redmile, Michael spent over ten years in the healthcare services industry as a management consultant and operating roles at a Fortune 500 health system and successful early-stage company. Michael received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and his BS in Business Law from the University of Southern California.

Throughout his career, Dale has focused on supporting early-stage and VC-backed pioneering tools companies and steering them towards global market success. Before joining Sphere Fluidics, he was Senior VP of Global Sales and Support at Vizgen and in this role established a global commercial infrastructure and rapidly scaled the Company’s operations.

Prior to this, as VP Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Dropworks Inc. Dale’s contributions were instrumental in developing an integrated Digital Droplet PCR platform, and his strategic leadership culminated in the Company’s acquisition by Bio-Rad for $125 million. He has also held key senior positions leading commercial expansion at NanoString Technologies, Illumina Inc., and Helix’s Inc. Dale holds a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology and Genetics from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. 

Richard has held numerous senior positions responsible for product and technology development. At Alere Inc., he led major cross-company R&D programs including the Alere i platform, the world’s first CLIA-waived point-of-care molecular infectious disease diagnostic device. Richard founded Cambridge Consultants’ Bioinnovation group, providing biotechnical consultancy services, and recently was VP of Technology at DNA Electronics developing sequence-based diagnostics. Richard has MA and MEng degrees from King’s College, University of Cambridge.

Graeme has held various senior commercial positions, including Global Sales Leader at Revvity, where he successfully developed and implemented international sales strategies. He holds a PhD in Developmental Biology from the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Molecular Genetics in Biotechnology from the University of Sussex. Graeme’s expertise in cultivating strong customer relationships, alongside his extensive knowledge in the life science industry, is instrumental in driving our international sales and marketing initiatives.

Jay has led Marketing and Product Management for several innovative companies. Before joining Sphere Fluidics, Jay was VP of Marketing for Purigen Biosystems, where he helped the company grow its install base and build market presence, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Bionano for $64 million.

Prior to that, Jay was Head of Product Management and Business Unit Leader for NanoString’s nCounter Platform, providing leadership as the company scaled from an install base of less than 10 to nearly 1,000. Jay also held positions at PATH, Seattle Biomed, and Ambit Biosciences. He holds a BSc in Cell and Molecular Biology and an MBA from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Denise has diverse industrial experience from SMEs (Juddmonte Farms Ltd) and several Blue-Chip Firms, including Sainsbury’s, Mundipharma International, and Abcam, which ensures that she adopts a balanced, pragmatic, and considered approach. She has demonstrable success in translating business strategies into people plans with the ability to implement them at scale with pace. Denise loves developing high-performing teams, Organizational Development, and Employee Engagement. She has a postgraduate qualification in HR Management from Anglia Ruskin University.

Andy trained with KPMG in audit and advisory services before moving to industry to work in various sectors including financial services, media, and life sciences. He has held senior management posts including Head of Finance for Capital Credit Union, Financial Controller for Cambrex, and Phoremost. Andy is passionate about adding value in alignment with wider strategic business goals. He has managed significant continuous improvement projects such as system implementation and adoption of IFRSs. Andy has an MA in Economics from the University of Aberdeen.

Rob has experience running large Logistics and Supply Chain teams during periods of rapid growth for both Abcam and Axol Bioscience. He has designed and implemented inventory strategies, developed novel distribution processes, and opened new company sites e.g. in the US, China & Australia.
Rob has a range of international experience in supply chain and procurement management. Rob is Lean Six Sigma qualified and passionate about quality, efficiency, and continuous improvement. He is a former British Army Captain and has a BA in Business from DeMontfort University.

Nick brings 15 years of Pharma and Life Sciences industry experience ranging from drug discovery to manufacturing, and from scientific instrumentation to consulting, to spearheading strategic partnerships and commercializing disruptive technologies. Former roles include GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Sharp Life Sciences, and UKRI. He has a keen eye for innovation and a methodical approach to building strategic partnerships and commercialization strategies. Nick holds a BSc in Chemistry & Biochemistry and an MSc in Biotechnology & Molecular Biology.

Wilhelm dedicates his research efforts to understanding complex molecular systems with a view to ultimately construct a living cell. His research uses picodroplets as an experimental platform for studying physical aspects of cellular organization and as a tool for high throughput single cell studies. In 2015 he co-founded Cytofind Diagnostics, a company developing a new route for the detection and isolation of Circulating Tumour Cells. Wilhelm is a Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Tristan Vaughan, VP of Protein Engineering at Immunocore, was previously Vice President of Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering at Astra-Zeneca where he directed discovery and engineering for around half of the company’s biologics portfolio. He joined MedImmune (formerly Cambridge Antibody Technology) in 1993 where he played a key role in the development of its world-leading platform technology to build the first human antibody libraries of 1010 members. Tristan was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and a graduate of the University of Leeds. He has authored over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals.