About

Chairman, Professor Ian Greer

Professor Ian Greer is a clinician, scientist and leader of international note who joined the University of Manchester in the summer of 2015 from the University of Liverpool. At Liverpool, he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences from 2010 and Provost responsible for research policy from 2013. Professor Greer led a major period of change during his time at Liverpool, increasing research income, instituting practices to develop progression for early career researchers, recruiting internationally renowned scientists and attracting new investment in partnership with the private sector, NHS and government.

Professor Greer is Director of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC). He was Dean and Professor of Obstetric Medicine at Hull York Medical School, Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Deputy Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Glasgow, and Clinical Scientist at the Medical Research Council Reproductive Biology Unit, Edinburgh.

His clinical practice and research focuses on medical disorders in pregnancy, and women’s vascular health, particularly in relation to haemostasis and thrombosis, and he has attracted over £10 million in funding during his career.

Chief Executive Officer, Dr Hakim Yadi

Dr Hakim Yadi is the founding CEO of the Northern Health Science Alliance Ltd (NHSA). Hakim has led the formation of the NHSA, bringing together 20 NHSA members as a single company. Over the past three years he has secured over £50m in contracts for NHSA members and has raised the profile of the North’s health research both nationally and internationally.

Hakim is at the forefront of establishing multi-partner collaborations between healthcare systems and leading industry from medtech to pharma, biotech and digital health companies. In his previous role as a strategy consultant at the leading firm PA Consulting, Hakim co-managed the company's translational medicine team. During his time at PA Hakim was seconded to the UK Government where he was the Chief Operations Officer and a founding member of the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Life Sciences Organisation (LSO). In this role he oversaw the UKTI’s global life science investment strategy. The LSO is now the best performing sector for inward investment at UKTI. Hakim continues to advise the UK Government and maintains strong links with the UKTI LSO.

Hakim is the co-founder of two women’s healthcare companies and the Vice-President and co-founder of the Global Heart Network, a not-for profit charity that provides better access to cardiovascular care in low and middle income countries. He holds a PhD in the Immunology of Pregnancy from the University of Cambridge.

Director, Professor Paul Stewart

Professor Paul Stewart is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Health and Dean of the Medical School at the University of Leeds and non-Executive Director and an Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Professor Stewart received his medical degree from Edinburgh Medical School in 1982 and was awarded an MD from Edinburgh University with Honours and a Gold Medal in 1988.
He is a primary investigator within the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Musculo skeletal Biomedical Research Unit in Leeds, an NIHR Senior Clinical Investigator and holds a prestigious ERC advanced research grant.
Professor Stewart has served as General Secretary to the Society for Endocrinology and is Secretary Treasurer to the International Society of Endocrinology. He chairs the Chairs & Programme Grants Committee of the British Heart Foundation, is a Member of the MRC Strategy Board and is a Council Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences Council.

Director, Siobhan McArdle

Siobhan is the Chief Executive of South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to this role Siobhan was the Trust’s Director of Transformation, working with staff across the health economy to identify and deliver opportunities to re-design patient pathways and services, work more efficiently and drive out waste.

As a managing consultant with PWC, Siobhan worked with a number of major national companies before setting up her own management consultancy in 1998. Since then she has worked nationally and internationally delivering strategic reviews, re-structuring and recovery programmes for both corporates and high growth SMEs, as well as working with NHS organisations across the North East.

Director, Dr Liz Mear

Dr Liz Mear is the Chief Executive of the Innovation Agency, North West Coast Academic Health Science Network. Prior to joining the AHSN, Liz was Chief Executive of the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Comprehensive Local Research Network.

Before working at the Walton Centre Liz held a number of Director roles in a variety of NHS organisations including the acute sector, mental health and ambulance service. Liz worked in local government for 17 years, holding a variety of senior customer service roles. Liz has also worked as a Senior Management Consultant, specialising in public sector business performance improvement and change management. Liz sits on the Well North Board, the national Patient Safety Strategy Board and chairs the North West Procurement Development Board.

Non Executive Director, Professor Steve Myint

Professor Steven Myint is a physician with Board level global experience in public, private and the third sectors. He is Chairman of INeX, a Singapore biotech company, senior fellow at A*Star, the government research agency of Singapore. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS and NTU Business School in Singapore.

Professor Myint is also a director of Oxford Biodynamics in the UK and Primex Oy and Aplagon Oy in Finland. He is a former Chairman of Plexpress Oy, Chairman of Green Signal Bio, and Director of Moewin Associates. Previous Board roles have included Care International, and the executive chairmanship of Onmedica Group Ltd and Onmedica India Private Ltd. He has been Chief Executive of a patient group, the European Federation of Neurological Associations.

He was Professor and Dean of Medicine & Health at the University of Surrey and Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Leicester. He has been a global Medical Director at GlaxoSmithKline and Senior Vice-President for R&D/Chief Medical Officer at BTG International. He is a Fellow or Member of several societies, including the Institute of Knowledge Transfer, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine.

Non Executive Director, Dr Stéphane Méry

Stéphane has extensive experience in the Healthcare industry. He is currently CEO of Contronics Ltd, which designs and sells laboratory monitoring equipment to UK hospital and life science research institutions.

Before Contronics, Stephane worked as a venture capitalist for 15 years: first, as the Fund Manager/CEO of the Bloomsbury Bioseed Fund, a Biotech and Medtech investment fund set up by a consortium of London-based Research Institutes led by UCL and CRUK, which was behind the birth of successful companies such as Spirogen (sold to MedImmune), Abzema, and Canbex . He was Partner at Bering LLP, a $500m US/UK venture capital fund, where he was responsible for healthcare investments in Europe and was behind the expansion of many companies such as CPL and All in One Medical.

Prior to this, Stéphane was Associate Director, Worldwide Business Development, for SmithKline Beecham (now GSK). He was involved in the start-up of Double Helix Development which recently sold to McCann. Stéphane is a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine and a Veterinary Pathologist, specialising in Nasal Toxicology at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT) in North Carolina. He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Non Executive Director, Alan Payne

Alan is the Chief Digital & Information Officer at Nuffield Health, responsible for all aspects of technology supporting the complex needs of a growth focused, full continuum healthcare organisation. Alan is an executive level Digital and Technology leader, successful entrepreneur and qualified Chartered Management Accountant, with a proven commercial track record of implementing at all sizes of organisations.

Alan's experience includes over 25 years in Healthcare, Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance, bringing digital innovation, vision, knowledge, drive and the ability to deliver globally across multiple businesses and support functions. He has commercially negotiated complex contracts, and has a deep knowledge of developing sophisticated architectures and platforms to satisfy business and consumer needs in international cultures and organisations, having lived and worked on four continents.

Alan holds an Honorary Professorship at the UCL Faculty of Engineering (Intelligent Systems) and has specific research interests in Digital Health, Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship.

The Team

Board of Directors