Spanning both private and public sectors, the Automata Advisory Board includes senior leaders from pharmaceuticals, healthcare, regulatory affairs, scientific research, and international trade. It’s the ambition of this board to advise Automata on its journey to make automation technologies accessible to all laboratories seeking to develop and deliver life-changing treatments to patients faster.
Meet the Automata Advisory Board
Lord David Prior
Lord Prior qualified as a barrister and worked in finance and industry before being elected an MP in 1997. He was Chair of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust before becoming Chair of the Care Quality Commission.
In 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and created a Life Peer. He then served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, with responsibility for developing industrial strategy. He was appointed Chair of University College London Hospitals in 2017 and subsequently became Chair of NHS England, a member of the UK Life Sciences Council and a director of Genomics England.
He brings strong experience in business and corporate leadership, as well as engineering, manufacturing, finance, healthcare systems and health policy. He is an advisor to Healthcare UK, Chair of Protas, a not-for-profit clinical trials business, chair of the Cambridge Life Sciences Council, Chair of Science Capital Imperial and a Global Senior Advisor at Lazard.
Dr Annalisa Jenkins
Annalisa Jenkins trained as a physician, spending her early career as a medical officer in the Royal Navy before moving into biopharma with Bristol Myers-Squibb and Merck Serono. She became President and Chief Executive of Nasdaq-listed Dimension Therapeutics in 2014 before being appointed Executive Chairman of Vium in 2016 which was later acquired by Recursion Therapeutics.
Her Non-Executive Director and advisory career has been varied across the US and Europe, with a focus on building and financing biotech companies pursuing cures for challenging rare diseases. She is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly for women in science.
She brings valuable insight into the challenges of scientific research and clinical development, as well as growth companies within life sciences across the UK and Europe. Current Non-Executive Directorships include Cancer Research Horizons, Genomics England, FasterCures, K2 HealthVentures, CYTE Global, Ori Biotech, AoBiome, Phaim Pharma, Cocoon Biotech, Skye Bioscience, Mereo BioPharma, Affimed, Avrobio and Compass Pathways.
Dr Sy Pretorius
A physician by training with several advanced degrees, Sy spent most of his professional career working for global CRO Parexel International, in roles across Medical, Bioanalytical Labs, Project Management and Clinical operations before becoming Chief Medical Officer and President of end-to-end Clinical Development.
Currently Chief Operating Officer at outsourced life sciences solutions provider Eversana, he drives operational and delivery excellence across its growing portfolio of outsourced services and critical infrastructure operations teams.
An honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FFPM) in the United Kingdom and lecturer in drug development at several institutions, including Harvard Medical School, Sy has twice been named in the PharmaVOICE 100 most inspiring leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.
He brings a vital understanding of the outsourced services and contract research, drug development and pharma sectors, along with international insight on the global life sciences industry.
John D. Young
After graduating with a B.Sc. in Biological Science from Glasgow University, John Young joined the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation Pfizer in 1987, progressing through several leadership roles, including Regional President of the Primary Care Business Unit for Europe and Canada and President and General Manager of the Global Primary Care Business Unit. He became Group President of Pfizer’s Essential Health and Innovative Health businesses, overseeing multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare diseases, and vaccines. In 2019, he was appointed Group President and Chief Business Officer and played a key role in the strategy and development efforts that led to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
He retired from Pfizer in 2022 and serves on the Boards of Novartis AG, Johnson Controls International, and Arvinas Inc. He previously served on the Boards of Haleon PLC, Imbria Pharmaceuticals, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations, The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and the National Committee on United States-China
Relations.
John brings extensive experience in leadership, strategy, and commercialisation and continues to contribute as a non-executive director and advisor across various organisations in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.
