WHRL - Key Persons
Andy worked for over 25 years in the Retail and Leisure sector as Finance Director covering PLCs, AIM listed businesses and private companies, both family owned and private equity backed. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse and completed an MBA whilst working at Whitbread plc. Andy has undertaken other charity Trustee and company Non exec roles and since retirement has spent more time playing tennis and travelling the world.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Professor Brendan J. Whittle, B.Pharm., Ph.D., D.Sc., HonF.BPhS., HonM.FinPhS
Brendan Whittle has been a Director of the Company since 1996 and is also Professor Emeritus of Applied Pharmacology in Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. He is Visiting Professor of both the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Tampere, Finland. In addition to his three academic degrees, he is an Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and Honorary Member of the Finnish Pharmacological Society.
He joined the William Harvey Research Institute after some 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, latterly as Director of Pharmacology, and is still actively involved as a pharmaceutical scientific consultant. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed scientific papers and reviews, while the Institute of Scientific Information has nominated him as one of the world's 100 most-cited scientists based on his publications over a 20 year period. He has also won numerous prestigious scientific awards.
His research areas have included studies on the gastro-intestinal tract, particularly in relation to the adverse effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Such work has significant potential to understand and hence alleviate the associated gut damage, a major clinical problem still to be resolved. His work on colitis has identified new inflammatory mediators and processes that underlie this debilitating disease. He has found that a well-established class of anti-colitic agents that includes mesalamine, promotes the colonic expression of an endogenous anti-oxidant protective system, identifying a novel mechanism for this old but still clinically effective drug.
His work also concerns pulmonary arterial hypertension, a devastating and often fatal disease involving pulmonary vascular occlusion. He holds a number of patents in this area, and led the early identification, selection and early development of a highly effective prostacyclin analogue. This compound was subsequently developed into a number of pharmaceutical preparations, and is now one of the key therapies for this often-fatal disease. His ongoing collaborative work has identified the profile of receptors that are activated by clinically used prostacyclin-like agents, and is currently working on the complex pharmacological mechanisms underlying the adverse pulmonary vascular cell proliferation in this disease.
He is closely involved in many aspects of research and development of novel drugs in collaboration with a number of international pharmaceutical companies, and brings this expertise to William Harvey Research Limited.
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Professor Christoph Thiemermann, MD PhD FBPhS FRCP FMedSci / Chairman & Chief Executive
Chris(toph) Thiemermann has been a Director of the company since 1995, and Chairman & CEO since 2003. He is also Professor of Pharmacology and Centre Lead for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Diabetic Kidney Disease at the Royal London Hospital, Bart's Health NHS Trust.
He graduated with honours in Medicine (1986), obtained his MD in Medicine (1987, summa cum laude) from the University in Cologne in Germany (awarded University Prize 1987 for 'Best Doctorate Degree of all Faculties of the University of Cologne') and received consecutive Fellowships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Thyssen Foundation (Germany). He joined the WHRI in July 1987, where he obtained a PhD in Pharmacology under the supervision of The Nobel Laureate Sir John Vane in 1991.
Thiemermann is a Scientist/Clinician with a strong research track record in cardiovascular disease (acute medicine, renal disease, trauma, shock, diabetes) with a specific expertise in target discovery, pharmacology and translational medicine. Since 2007, he is Centre Lead for Translational Medicine at the WHRI/Barts NHS Trust (since 2007). Recent successes have been phase II RCTs evaluating the effects of pentoxiphylline in patients with chronic kidney disease (on dialysis) and the repositioning of the antimalarial drug artesunate for patients with severe haemorrhage and organ failure (ongoing).
His research was recognised by Awards of the British Pharmacological Society (1994), the Surgical Infection Society Europe (1999) and the Menarini-Award for CV Research (2001). Over the years, Thiemermann's research has been generously supported by the British Heart Foundation (Senior Fellow from 1996 to 2001), the European Union, the Medical Research Council, Kidney Research UK and William Harvey Research Foundation, Barts and the London Charity (BLC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Francesca joined us as a Trustee in May 2019. She is the Director of London Advanced Therapies, a programme that brings together the academic community in London working in the field of gene and cell therapies. Prior to this role, Francesca was the Director of Grants at the Bart's Charity for three years. Francesca has a Master's degree in Industrial Chemistry from Milano University and a PhD in Structural Biology from Padova University. Following a Postdoctural Research Fellowship in Groningen, the Netherlands, Francesca has worked at the pharma-academia interface, having held various positions in universities and commercial companies in the UK and overseas.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Jeremy Tigue worked in the City for more than thirty years and was the fund manager of F&C Investment Trust until 2014. He is now a director of several other investment companies. Jeremy has a Modern History degree from Oxford University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Trustee and Chair, Audit & Risk Committee
Kathryn is a Trustee and Chair, Audit & Risk Committee of the William Harvey Research Foundation. She is also a Non-executive Director and Chair, Audit and Risk Committee of Planet Smart City. She is a member of the Risk Coalition. Kathryn has more than 35 years' experience in the financial sector, most recently at RBS, where she led a team responsible for reviewing customer complaints in relation to a strategic remediation project. Previously, she was Head of Enterprise Risk Reporting for the bank. She joined RBS from Moody's Investors Service, where she held a number of analytical and managerial roles in the UK, the US and Singapore. Earlier in her career, she founded and managed The Paradigm Alliance, a consulting firm based in Sydney, Australia. She began her career in finance at The Chase Manhattan Bank. Kathryn served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fez, Morocco. Kathryn holds a BA from Bryn Mawr College and an MA from Georgetown University, both of the US.
Magdi Yaqoob, MD, FRCP (Medical Director since 2003) is a Professor of Nephrology and Academic Director for the Department of Clinical Nephrology and Transplantation at Barts and the Royal London NHS Trust. He is also Director of Diabetic Kidney Centre for East London and member of advisory board for Barts Life sciences centre and Joint National Formulary for BNF.
Magdi Yaqoob is an internationally recognized expert in nephrology. He leads a research program designed to gain a better insight into the mechanisms underlying uraemic cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy pharmacogenomics in transplantation, renal anaemia, and renal bone disease, progression of chronic kidney disease and mediators of acute kidney injury. He has been involved and co-ordinated a number of large clinical trials relating to testing the efficacy of novel therapeutics in acute and chronic renal disease. He has published over 300 peer reviewed publications with H-Index of 54 in addition to seven book chapters in medical text books including Clinical Medicine by Kumar & Clark, Oxford Clinical Medicine and Oxford Clinical Nephrology.
As an Educator, he has supervised more than 25 PhD-students, many of which have become leaders in theirs chosen fields of Medicine and hospital management. Together with Professor Thiemermann he has developed commercially funded 10 HCA-Barts Clinical PhD/MD studentships.
Mauro Perretti, PhD FBPharmacolS FSB (Director since 2003) is Professor of Immunopharmacology (2001) and Co-Director of the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI; 2013). He joined WHRI in 1991 after a 4-year experience at the Sclavo Research Centre (Siena, Italy). He obtained a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Florence (Italy) in 1985, and a PhD in 1996 (University of London). His inflammation research of the last decade has focused on the patho-pharmacology of endogenous anti-inflammatory mediators and their receptors, to be used as innovative targets for the development of therapeutics to moderate over-exuberant inflammation.
After reading physiology at the University of Sheffield Rod Flower began a postgraduate degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in London and was awarded his PhD in 1974. Rod then worked at the Wellcome Foundation for 12 years, leaving in 1985 to take up the Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Bath.
In 1989, Rod moved to Barts and the London Charterhouse Square where, together with Sir John Vane and others, he set up the William Harvey Research Institute. He remained there directing his department of Biochemical Pharmacology until his retirement in 2015. Rod was a Principal Fellow of the Wellcome Trust from 1994-2007 and was elected to fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999) and the Royal Society (2003). He is now an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology.
William Harvey Research Limited (WHRL) was established in 1990 to facilitate interaction between academia and the pharmaceutical industry. A primary aim of WHRL is to co-ordinate Contract Research as an Efficacy, Verification and Interpretation Service (EVIS). Scientific personnel of the William Harvey Research Institute provide the foundation of experience and expertise to complement drug development for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. WHRL also organizes Conferences, facilitates PhD fellowships, and provides registration and payment management services.
Stephen DeCherney is Professor of Medicine in the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, University of North Carolina (UNC). Prior to joining the faculty at UNC, Stephen worked at Quintiles Transnational Corporation. Stephen is also a Director of Health Decisions, Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Anagenesis Capital Partners, Inc. He also serves as Chair of the University of Delaware Research Foundation. He is a Trustee of the Christiana Care Health System, Delaware.
Steve Bates is a director GuardCap Asset Management Ltd, an asset management company. He has had a long career as a portfolio manager originally with Flemings, then with JP Morgan and since 2003 with the predecessor business of GuardCap. He sits on a number of Boards as Chairman or non-executive director, including Biotech Growth Trust plc, a London listed investment trust specialising in the biotechnology industry. Steve has a law degree from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Investor and Industry Executive
Vanela Bushi is an experienced investor and industry executive with over 16 years in the biopharma and healthcare sectors. She is currently co-founder and GP at H Tree Capital, a specialist venture fund focusing on deep tech and with particular focus on opportunities at the intersection of tech and life sciences and healthcare more broadly. Prior to H Tree Capital, she held senior positions with the London offices of Syneos Health, EY Parthenon and PwC focusing on transactions in the biopharma space. Early in her career, Vanela held roles with the Investments Teams at the Wellcome Trust and IP Group (formerly Touchstone Innovations). She holds degrees from McGill University in Canada and Imperial College London.