LifeArc appoints Dr Ian Campbell as Chief Business Officer

Former Innovate UK Executive Chair joins charity to drive new collaborations and partnerships to benefit patient health

31 July 2020 – LifeArc, the independent medical research charity specialising in translation, has appointed Dr Ian Campbell to the position of Chief Business Officer (CBO). He will join the organisation in the fourth quarter of 2020. In this newly created role, Ian will take on responsibility for LifeArc’s business development and partnerships – a key component in the charity’s purpose of accelerating the translation of life sciences innovation into benefits for patients.

As an organisation, LifeArc has been through significant change, boosted last year by the receipt of nearly £1billion for monetising a portion of its royalty rights in the breakthrough oncology medicine Keytruda™ (pembrolizumab). Since that time, the charity, which focuses on medical translation and technology transfer, has been reviewing how it can most effectively deploy its new capital to increase the impact that it delivers.

Commenting on the appointment, LifeArc CEO Dr Melanie Lee said: “We are delighted to welcome Ian to LifeArc’s executive team. His knowledge and experience of the UK life sciences and diagnostics sectors and the supporting infrastructure required to enable research and innovation to thrive, will boost our ability to have an impact.”

LifeArc is unique in the UK sector. It specialises in the translation of innovation via its own lab-based therapeutics discovery and diagnostics development facilities. It also supports external translation by sharing advice and expertise and providing funding to third parties, including medical research charities, academics and early stage start-ups.

“I am excited to be taking up this role and to have the opportunity to build the innovative alliances that will help realise LifeArc’s ambitions and build on its reputation as an integral part of the UK life sciences community. At this time in the UK it is more important than ever that a charity like LifeArc can use its resources to advance the most promising medical innovation,” said Ian.

Ian joins LifeArc from Innovate UK where he has been interim executive chair 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.

Media contacts
Surinder Maan
Communications Manager, LifeArc
surinder.maan@lifearc.org