Carole is a respected leader in health technology assessment with considerable achievements in research, public and private sectors. She has unparalleled insight into the health technology innovation pipeline having pioneered the development oof NICE’s health technology evaluation programmes. After a career in drug discovery at GSK, Carole was an Executive Director at NICE from 2000-2018 and Chief Scientific Officer at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry from 2018-2020. She was formerly President of Health Technology Assessment International and now is an independent advisor including Life Science Advisor at NICE. Carole is currently vice chair of the Medicines Discovery Catapult in the UK, was previously on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and holds non-Executive Director and advisory roles in the UK and abroad. Throughout her career, she has championed the public and private sector collaborating to ensure medical innovation benefits patients in a way that is sustainable for healthcare systems.

Lord Prior is Deputy Chairman UK and Global Senior Advisor at Lazard. He was educated at Cambridge University and subsequently qualified as a barrister. He trained in finance at Lehman Brothers and Lazard Freres in New York before holding a number of senior positions within the industrial sector, including British Steel, where he was Commercial Director. He was elected MP for North Norfolk in 1997. He served as Chairman of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2002 – 2012 before becoming Chairman of the Care Quality Commission. In 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and created a Life Peer. In December 2016, he was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, with specific responsibility for developing industrial strategy. He stepped down from this role in October 2017 to become Chairman of University College London Hospitals and subsequently became Chairman of NHS England from November 2018 to March 2022. He was an Advisor to Lazard from October 2019 and has been Deputy Chairman UK and Global Senior Advisor since January 2022.

Before joining us in February 2022, Sam was the managing director of health and care at Legal and General, a financial services firm. In this role, she had responsibility for identifying promising areas for investment across health and care. Prior to that, Sam was the first chief executive of the Accelerated Access Collaborative. This is a national umbrella organisation for health innovation, hosted by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI). She originally trained as a doctor and practiced medicine in South Africa, the UK, and Australia before undertaking an MBA. She then joined McKinsey and Company, where she worked in a wide range of industries before specialising in healthcare. After McKinsey, Sam moved into the NHS as a senior manager at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She was also a director in UCLPartners, an Academic Health Sciences Centre and Network. Last year, she took on the role of director of innovation, research and life sciences at NHSEI. Over the last 5 years Sam has become involved in research, working with health economic models to inform evidence-based policy at the London School of Economics. She then moved to the University of Oxford where she undertook a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy).

Sir Patrick Vallance is Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession and National Technology Adviser. His personal research was in the area of diseases of blood vessels and endothelial biology.
Patrick was President, R&D at GlaxoSmithKline from 2012 until 2017. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He was a member of the GSK Board and the Corporate Executive Team. During his period as head of R&D over 14 new medicines were approved for use worldwide, for diseases ranging from cancer to asthma and HIV.
Prior to joining GSK, he was a clinical academic, Professor of Medicine and led the Division of Medicine at UCL. He has over 20 years’ experience of basic and clinical research, and was a consultant physician in the NHS. His research spanned from work on medicinal chemistry and structural biology, through to cellular work, studies in humans and use of large electronic health record databases.”

Mel is an adviser to biotech and digital health companies with a passion for enabling patient access to innovation. He founded BioPharma Futures in 2020 to support clinical stage companies in developing products that meet major unmet needs, and are viable for global launch, partnering or acquisition. Prior to this, Mel spent twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry in early and late phase commercial roles. He has held leadership roles at Otsuka, GSK and Roche and launched multiple products in a range of therapeutic areas across UK, European and Global markets. He was a senior executive for ten years, sitting on global R&D, business development, digital health, and corporate strategy boards. He has led teams responsible for commercial launch, pipeline strategy, business development, digital health, market access, pricing, health economics, evidence generation, and public affairs. Mel is a firm believer in patient-focused, evidence-based approaches and enjoys diverse working environments that value people, creativity, and learning. He has co-authored over 30 research papers and abstracts, 2 book chapters, and enjoys chairing international conferences. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a PHD in Health Outcomes.