Deborah has recently moved to Oxfordshire from Scotland, where she worked for the last 15 years in the Life Sciences sector in a number of high profile roles. She gained a wealth of experience in growing a biotechnology cluster in Dundee and a Genomics Hub while working at the Medical School at the University of Edinburgh. She has a particular interest in Life Science clusters with an academic focus on Life Science intermediaries that add value and provide economic growth. This focus led to a role with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), where Deborah worked on strategy and policy development for their Research and Innovation Campus’s across the UK. While there she also worked on strategy development with BIS to support the internationalisation of UK companies through intermediaries.

She has worked for both the public and private sector and has good understanding of the needs and drivers of both sectors. Much of her time in the public sector has been working at the interface between industry and academia and driving the commercialisation agenda. Her private sector experience includes working as a Management Consultant for PwC and as Global Head of Business Development for a clinical trials company.

Deborah has been employed by OxLEP to lead on the Life Sciences across the region and to be a focal point for the sector. Although she works across the region, she has a particular focus on growing the HealthTec Cluster based at Harwell, where a number of technology sectors including the Space and Physical Sciences cross-over with the Life Sciences.  She believes that the ecosystem across the region is both dynamic and high performing, which means growth will be inevitable.