Health Tech Conference 2022

Paul was born in Warrington, later moving to Salford during his post-graduate studies time at University, qualifying with a BA (Hons) in International Business, an MSc in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations and MRES in Research in Social Sciences.  Paul worked as a lecturer and an active Trade Unionist before being elected as a local councillor for Langworthy in 2012 and held the Strategic Assistant Mayor position at Salford City Council, responsible for workforce, industrial relations, equalities, social value and impact until becoming the Elected Mayor in 2016.

Paul has a long history of campaigning on social issues and since becoming the City Mayor has campaigned on equalities, financial inclusion, the real living wage – with Salford becoming the first accredited Living Wage Council in Greater Manchester.  Similarly, Paul’s more recent work has focused on social value, anti-poverty, delivering an inclusive economy and critically tackling the housing and homelessness crisis.

Paul is currently the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) Deputy Mayor and his GMCA portfolio covers spatial planning, homelessness and more recently extending to Healthy Lives & Quality Care. Paul is the joint-Chair(s) of Greater Manchester’s Integrated Care Partnership and Joint Partnership Delivery Committee and Deputy Chair of the new Integrated Care Board.

Paul’s previous GMCA portfolios included leading on Low carbon, Waste and Environment and then the Housing and Infrastructure – overseeing the development of the Greater Manchester Housing Strategy and leading on Greater Manchester’s Plan for Homes, Jobs & the Environment.  Paul has also led the work on the Infrastructure Framework 2040 which will provide the focus for the Greater Manchester Infrastructure Strategy.

Dr Claudia Lindner is a Senior Research Fellow and Sir Henry Dale Fellow based at The University of Manchester. Her career includes over 15 years of international experience in the development and application of computational methods working within multi-disciplinary teams in both industrial and academic settings. Claudia uses methods from computer vision, machine learning and data science to develop automatic systems for analysing structures in medical images, aiming to transform clinically collected image data into useful medical information. In her role as the Translation Lead for the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research and Innovation, she focuses on facilitating and improving the translation of research findings into benefits for society. In 2021, Claudia received the Wellcome-Beit Prize for outstanding biomedical researchers.

Jess Jackson is an investment manager at Praetura Ventures and is responsible for identifying and managing investment opportunities for our EIS Growth Fund and the GMC Life Sciences Fund By Praetura. Jess boasts a wealth of experience working with startups across multiple sectors, including businesses with a social impact focus and is a well-known figure in the North’s investment scene. She is a founding member of Fund Her North – a collective which champions investment opportunities for women – and regularly gives talks around this subject and the early-stage investment market. Prior to joining Praetura Ventures, Jess managed fund deployment at GC Angels and HNWI Capital.

Rupert Lewis, CEO of Oyster Venture Partners, leads an investment intermediary dedicated to the healthcare innovation sector across four verticals – Drug, Diagnostic, Device and Digital.

Working in close association with the Alliance Manchester Business School, Oyster was incorporated in 2019 together with David D’Alton, representing a merger of two similar businesses now comprising a team of 12 tier-1-experienced healthcare and investment professionals based in the UK (London and Manchester) and in the EU (Belgium), backed by a 25-strong Scientific Advisory Board.

Together with its many ecosystem channel partners in the UK, EU, North America and Australia, Oyster supports healthcare start-/scale-ups through successive investment rounds, enabling innovators to concentrate on their core bench side-to-bedside innovation pathway.  Oyster’s main focus centres on providing support for scientists and technologists to convert their science/tech-oriented pitches into pre-due diligenced investment propositions that are meaningful to investors.  At the forefront of the investment-in-innovation process, Oyster increases the predictability of successful financing for its clients whilst also seeking to develop innovative support solutions, such as their recent valuation of data assets service, that is part of the portfolio of offerings that seeks to remove investment resistance.

Wendy is A BSc (Hons) graduate in Mathematics and Psychology, with a successful track record of over 22 years of leading business development initiatives, creating innovative solutions to commercial problems, with experience of managing relationships across the Professional Service, Manufacturing and Tech sectors. Specialisms include strategic development of international advertising and sponsorship revenues, innovation funding & finance including equity investment, R&D Tax credits, commercial credit and has a wealth of connectivity across the UK

Currently working at RTC North who has for 30 years been helping businesses innovate, compete and grow. Specialising in the commercialisation of new products and services, we work with individuals, businesses and the public sector support programmes and services such as Innovate UK Business Growth to help create more innovative and vibrant economies with offices in North East, North West and Yorkshire. Innovate UK Business Growth support some of the most ambitious, high growth potential innovative SMEs to seek funding and successfully commercialise . In tandem, Innovate UK Business Growth help companies to benefit from national and global opportunities, so that they could become tomorrow’s global success stories. As an Innovation & Growth Specialist, Wendy supports SME clients by acting as a strategic coach to support them in developing their short, medium and long-term innovation plans.

Dom Raban is the co-founder and CEO of Xploro, a patient engagement platform that uses augmented reality, artificial intelligence and games to reduce anxiety for young patients going to hospital. Dom established Xploro after his daughter had recovered from cancer treatment. He realised that the lack of information she received about treatments, people and places increased her anxiety and has affected her long-term engagement with health services. This led him to the conclusion that age-appropriate information can be a bona fide clinical therapy. Now the award-winning platform is in use in hospitals in the UK, USA, Europe and Africa and the team are currently setting up their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio backed by US investment. Dom has been creating ‘stuff’ for over 40 years, from punk fanzines in the 1970s to content for emerging technology platforms now. He’s been in the digital space since the start, building his first website in 1995 and his first 3D virtual environment in 1996. He is also Chair of Corporation Pop, a digital innovation agency that specialises in a user-centred design approach to develop apps, games and software.

Geeta has a Biomedical Science degree and over 20 years of experience in medical business development. She’s worked in various healthcare industries, including pharmaceutical, medical, devices, and life sciences, to name a few. Within the healthcare sector, Geeta’s focus was business development, where she provided training and education, workshops, business development, account management, sales strategies and product solutions.

Her customer base was procurement, healthcare professionals, medical engineering, and supply chain. Within the life science sector, her role was to establish a client base, identify what projects were being worked on and offer them products and solutions for their project. Geeta’s customers were Principal Investigators, PhD students, research fellows, small and medium R&D sites, and procurement.

Rory Cameron is CEO and Co-Founder at Gendius, a health data and insights business focussed on metabolic disease. After a successful career in Pharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca, Genzyme and InterMune. Rory set up Gendius to help people with diabetes  live a better life with a particular focus on the prevention of complications of diabetes. Gendius have two commercial offerings to do this; intellin their remote management platform for the management of diabetes and their CKD prioritizer (a pre-screening algorithm to identify those at highest risk of having Chronic Kidney Disease). These products have been validated in  28 countries and in data sets of over 140,000 patients and 30 million data points. Gendius are based in the North West with the data science team all with PhDs from The University of Manchester, with whom they have various academic partnerships.

Vicky is a partner in the Mills & Reeve corporate team with a particular focus in the life sciences, health and technology sectors. She works with clients on a variety of corporate matters including: disposals and acquisitions, investments (equity and debt); corporate governance; shareholder and joint venture arrangements and corporate restructures and reorganisations. Recent highlights include advising a number of management teams in the life sciences and biotech space on equity investments and additional fund raisings as well as a strategic restructure. Client feedback and why you would speak to Vicky about corporate issues:   “extremely knowledgeable, approachable and above all a pleasure to deal with.”

Dr Taz Aldawoud is a General Practitioner and holds an MBA with specialism in Strategic Management in Healthcare. Taz is passionate about creating a safer and more responsive healthcare system through the enabler of digital technologies within the NHS. Through his role as Director of Clinical Innovation at Local Care Direct, he pioneered the development of a national award-winning Telehealth service for NHS patients. Taz is a Clinical Board member and Chief Clinical Information Office (CCIO) for Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group and previously worked at a national level through his role as Clinical Adviser and ‘Digital Clinical Champion’ for NHS England. Taz is also the Founder and CEO of Doc Abode (www.DocAbode.com), a digital health start-up supporting the NHS workforce of the future, delivering healthcare in innovative ways.

James is a Partner in Cowgills Deal Advisory team. He has considerable transaction experience, advising on over £500m of deal value and has been shortlisted for multiple awards, including emerging dealmaker at the North West Insiders and Rising Star at the Dealmakers. James has experience in a variety of businesses and industries across the region, but his key focus is the healthcare sector. James works with shareholders on their respective growth journeys to help navigate some of the challenges and pitfalls in order to achieve best value.

An award winning commercial and technology lawyer specialising in the health and care sector, Charlotte advises health and care organisations on legal, commercial and strategic issues relating to commissioning, contracting and collaborating. Having worked on a range of health and social care projects from system and place based integration and provider collaboration to electronic patient record procurements and digital health platform development, Charlotte works in partnership with clients to help them to navigate complex issues in order to deliver the desired outcome.

Charlotte is an advocate for innovation and transformation in the sector and in addition to her legal role at Mills & Reeve she proudly chairs pro-Manchester’s healthcare committee and is co-vice chair of techUK’s Health and Social Care Council.

​Harman Singh is a security professional with more than 10 years of consulting experience across private and public sector organisations. His day job involves serving his consulting business customers at Cyphere to reduce their security concerns. Cyphere’s primary expertise lies in technical risk assessments across traditional networks and cloud computing threat landscapes. Besides delivering pen testing, he has also delivered talks and trainings at Black Hat and regional conferences. His favourite security topics are Active Directory, Azure & Networks.

Andy is Head of Innovation for Bruntwood SciTech, the country’s leading developer of Innovation and Science ecosystems. Having worked for over 25 years in early stage translation of science, from Big Pharma to start-up medtech, Andy now works with a wide variety of companies at various stages of their development. Specialising in start-up and early stage ventures, Andy runs a range of programmes and has worked with over 250 companies in the past 10 years, supporting them to achieve early-stage funding and commercial success.

Paul Brown is the founder and CEO of 6B, a rapidly growing technology and engineering consultancy focussed on developing integrations, applications, and software for the healthcare and pharma sectors. Paul started the company in 2014 with the vision to create a new type of digital agency; a place with purpose, where building teams and products to unlock positive change is the priority. A techy and problem-solver at heart, he has overseen the development of 6B from a small startup to one of the 50 fastest-growing digital companies in the North.

Passionate about using tech for good, Paul champions digital health interoperability and leads the team at 6B in creating digital health applications and their integration into healthcare systems. He is currently working with a team to build the Leeds Digital Health Community, and also supports the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN accelerator programme, Propel@YH, sharing his expertise in healthcare interoperability with the next wave of digital health innovators.

6B specialises in healthcare, specifically in healthcare interoperability, working with the latest HL7 FHIR technology to integrate healthcare systems and develop automated solutions. Experienced in delivering healthcare integration projects into systems like EMIS, SystmOne, Cerner, and Epic, with the goal of driving more efficient and safer patient care.

David is a digital technology and data lawyer, and leads on much of our technology work nationally. He advises on the commercial, information/data and contractual implications of digital technology: microchips and gadgets, networks and cloud services, apps and enterprise systems, security measures, and the data that flows in their veins. David advises across all sectors served by Mills & Reeve, but a large focus of his work is across the health tech space, including suppliers and NHS commissioners and users. David mixes legal expertise with a genuine deep interest in (and good understanding of) the technical subject matter that he advises on, and the commercial and risk implications.  Recent projects feature monitoring technology in wards, Primary Care data centralisation, regional scale data sharing, shared IT services for Trusts, and large-scale software deployment.

Client feedback, and why you would speak to David around technology and health and care matters: “absolutely outstanding, and I don’t recall ever working with a lawyer with such commercial acumen combined with this level of technical awareness and understanding, and its implications for the client”.

Janine is a Senior Patent Attorney at HGF Limited, one of Europe’s leading Intellectual Property (IP) firms. She is based in the Electronics and Computing group, and has over a decade of experience of helping inventors from SMEs, universities, and multinational companies, to protect their inventions relating to various technologies in physics and computing. Day to day she drafts and prosecutes patent applications, and enjoys working with clients who are developing their IP strategies by getting to know their business and work with them to ensure their IP provides the maximum value for their business and helps them to achieve their business goals.

She works across a broad range of technologies including MedTech, telecommunications, nanotechnology, electronic systems, automotive technologies, and software. She is co-lead of HGF’s Electronics MedTech group focussing on supporting innovators to protect their ideas in MedTech and healthcare technologies. MedTech innovation is currently developing at a rapid rate, which provides Janine with an enjoyable, fascinating and diverse range of cases for her to get her teeth into support those working in the very latest cutting edge developments in this field.

She is also passionate in helping and educating others about science, innovation, and opportunities in the IP profession, and is involved in school outreach projects helping to enthuse and inspire confidence in the next generation of young scientists. She is also a member of the HGF DEI focus group, working towards improving equality, diversity and inclusion for everyone working in IP.”

Chris Maguire has been a journalist for more than 30 years, with more than half his career spent working as an editor within regional and national press. Since 2012 he has specialised in business and hosted more than 700 events. Alongside running his own PR company – iMeg Partnership – he is the Executive Editor of technology publications TechBlast and BusinessCloud.

Keith is the CEO and co-founder of Isansys and is a strong advocate of digital and data driven methods in healthcare. He has physics degrees from Oxford University and the University of New South Wales and is a founding member of the Bessemer Society.

David Foreman is the MD and founder of Praetura Ventures, an award-winning tech and life sciences focused VC, born-and-bred in the North of England. Praised for its early backing of northern success stories such as Peak, Reacta, XR Games and Culture Shift, the Manchester-based VC has now become known for its  ‘more than money’ approach to supporting early-stage founders post investment. Praetura’s portfolio companies benefit from active mentorship from the company’s operational partners, who are industry-heavyweights that have led businesses such as AO, ANS, Apple, Co-op Bank, Dr Martens, Social Chain, OSTC and MPP Global.

As the largest partner on the British Business Investment’s Regional Angels Programme, Praetura’s team are focused on backing northern-based businesses with global potential. Having raised over £125m since 2019, the team typically looks to invest £1-3m in tech and life sciences businesses through their EIS Growth fund and £50k-2m through the GMC Life Sciences Fund By Praetura, which includes partners Bruntwood SciTech, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Cheshire & Warrington LEP.

Emma-Louise Fusari is the Founder of In-House Health. A Nurse for 20 years, Emma has acquired a vast wealth of knowledge and experience in the health sector, mainly through delivering public health programmes and chronic disease management initiatives.

Emma founded In-House Health to enable organisations to make a measurable impact on their people, performance and profits. With a focus on prevention, and getting to the root cause of issues, In-House Health provides actionable strategies and tangible results through a data-informed approach, so that organisations can sustain a healthy workforce for improved business outcomes and growth.

Recently recognised as a Top 40 Northern Gamechanger and winner of TalkTalk’s Tech for Good award at the Northwest Women in Tech Awards!

Patrick Wetzels is an Innovative leader with proven ability to produce results for Finance, Operations & IT with a strong track record of creating high-performance cultures. His extensive experience comes from having a 20+-year career in high profile Project & Finance roles in Fortune 500, international, multi-site and big four environments and matrix structures. He is also a Blockchain enthusiast who helps international MedTech businesses to expand into the UK.

Patrick has been rummaging around in emerging tech for multiple years and who finds Blockchain super interesting as it has the potential to be a real game changer. He likes to make emerging tech easy to understand so it becomes pragmatic rather than being a future vision.