London Area, United Kingdom
I’ve been Director of Research and Science for BAT since March 2023, and today I’m proud to sit on our Management Board. I first joined the business in 2005 after completing postdoctoral studies on building drug delivery vehicles using Synthetic Organic Polymer Chemistry at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, and since then I’ve held a variety of roles in R&D, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Marketing Futures, Nicoventures and in the Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa region. I’m passionate about amplifying BAT’s A Better Tomorrow™ story and have led on our global scientific engagement with the media, regulators, and the external scientific community. This has given me the opportunity to present at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC and deliver keynote speeches and moderate panels at key industry events. I’m proud to have been part of BAT’s New Categories journey since day one, as the product development lead for the first Vype (predecessor to Vuse) vapour launches in 2013–2014. As BAT’s Head of Reduced Risk Substantiation, I created and published the Group’s nine-step scientific assessment framework to assess the risk profile of our New Category products relative to smoking. I also previously led the scientific assessment of glo™, Vuse and Velo to understand their relative risk potential. Here, you’ll find me talking about what’s coming next - all things #TobaccoHarmReduction and some of the industry-leading scientific work from our amazing global #research and #science team.
Joined the Management Board as Director, Research and Science Designate on 1 February 2023. Appointed to the role of Director, Research and Science, reporting to the Chief Executive, on 1 March 2023.
-Board of Directors of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company -Member of the Reynolds American Management Team -Oversee all activities related to the deployment of our cross category portfolio -Oversee all activities related to the regulatory compliance of our cross category product portfolio with the US FDA -Oversee all scientific studies and their communication
-Group lead for assessing risk profile of our PRRP platforms inclusive of Tobacco Heating Products, Vapour Products and Modern non-tobacco nicotine Oral Products -Scientific lead for regulatory engagement -Scientific lead for communications and collaborations -Chair of Human Research Committee
Head of pre-clinical, clinical and population studies teams Pre-clinical assessment (in chemico, in silico, in vitro) Clinical assessment (PK, BoE, BoPH) pre- and post-market Computational tools & statistics Population studies pre- and post-market Claims substantiation Regulatory submissions Scientific engagement (collaborations and communication)
Design, development and implementation of product pipeline for Vype Build and maintain Chinese e-cigarette supply chain Fundamental science activities to support delivery of product pipeline Design and delivery of consumer research program to support pipeline delivery
Feasibility assessments (safety and performance) of novel nicotine delivery technologies Technical lead for Mergers & Acquisitions of companies with novel nicotine delivery systems
Lead roles in developing, charcterising and evaluating prototypes across the product continuum: Smokeless Heat not Burn Modified Combustible Combustible