Rob Bryan

Chair of the Board (On Sabbatical)

Independent Trustee

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Rob sits on the board of several major companies working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM, including the Open Data Institute and Medicines Discovery Catapult. As the founder of BPE Innovation (in July 2010), Rob was encouraged by the Royal Society to establish the UK’s first and, still, only dedicated legal service to STEM. Working at the interface between the private sector and Government in the UK’s innovation community, Rob has been involved in the establishment of most of the major publicly funded companies created in recent years to fill the innovation ‘gap’ in the sectors which they serve.

Ian Campbell OBE, PhD

Independent Trustee

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Ian was previously Executive Chair at Innovate UK, and before that Director for Health and Life Sciences. Prior to Innovate, Ian was Chief Executive of Arquer Diagnostics, a company developing and commercialising immunoassay tests for cancers of the urogenital tract. A graduate of the University of Glasgow, Ian holds a PhD in Biochemistry.

Nick Caplin, CB

Chief Executive Officer

Blind Veterans UK

Governing Charity Trustee

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CEO of Blind Veterans UK since 2014, Nick has over 33 years’ experience of command, leadership and management of military and civilian personnel in all three Defence Services.

Mark O'Donnell

Acting Chair of the Board

Strategy Director, Philanthropy & Fundraising Europe

Independent Trustee

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Mark is an experienced CEO with third, public and private sector experience.  He was a founding Trustee of AAAMD whilst CEO of Sight Scotland & Sight Scotland Veterans, between 2017 – 2021. He was previously CEO of Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, which funded medical research. Currently, he is Strategy Director with Philanthropy & Fundraising Europe.  He sits on the UK Policy & Research Committee of Marie Curie as well as its Scottish Advisory Board.  He has also recently become a Career Mentor with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at The University of Edinburgh.

Ton Rijnders, PhD

Independent Trustee

 

Ton holds a PhD in molecular biology. He joined the Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon in 1986 and moved to the position of Vice President Research in 2003. After the acquisition of Organon by Schering-Plough in 2007,Ton was appointed VP Discovery and Site Head Oss and continued this position after the merger of Merck and Schering-Plough. In 2011 Ton co-founded TI Pharma, a public private partnership in drug discovery, and acted as its Scientific Director. He continued this work after the merger of CTMM and TI Pharma into Lygature in 2016. Until 2020, Ton was General Director at the Oncode Institute (Netherlands), created to develop innovative cancer treatments. 

Craig Spalding

Chief Executive Officer

Sight Scotland Veterans

Governing Charity Trustee

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Craig is the Chief Executive of Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans, having joined the organisation in January 2022. Craig initially trained as a microbiologist, and worked in the food and pharmaceutical fields for a number of years, predominantly in quality management roles. He then moved to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service where he held a number of positions in quality management and medical services, with a focus on service transformation. He has subsequently held senior management positions at th Irish Blood Transfusion Service, and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service prior to joining Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans.

Cathy Yelf

Chief Executive Officer

Macular Society

Governing Charity Trustee

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Cathy is a former BBC journalist who has worked in the sight loss sector for 10 years, the last three as CEO of the Macular Society. She is also a Trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC).