iiCON strengthens team following ongoing growth

Following the ongoing growth of the programme, iiCON has appointed a new Senior Programme Manager, Gillian Kyalo, who works closely with iiCON’s founding Director Professor Janet Hemingway to oversee and support the smooth running of the programme. Gillian brings over 20 years’ experience managing complex global International Public Health projects for international consortia and organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, UK Research Councils, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The consortium has also welcomed a new Business Development Manager, Dr Lizzie Crawford, who will focus on fostering strategic relationships and driving commercial partnerships for translational research. Lizzie will work with iiCON’s business development team to engage with companies looking to connect into iiCON’s platforms to support their research and development needs.

With a strong scientific background as a pharmacologist and a PhD in molecular and cell biology, Lizzie also has experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. She spent nine years in technology transfer at the University of Manchester playing a pivotal role in supporting translational research, facilitating licence negotiations and establishing successful spin-out companies. Her expertise spans the full lifecycle of research projects from inception to licence agreements within the complex landscape of academia-industry collaborations.

Lizzie is also the founder of a digital health spin out company, with experience across all aspects of the start-up process, including business planning, fundraising, partnership development and regulatory planning, providing a solid understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

iiCON has also strengthened its core team, welcoming a new finance manager, Lauren Thistlethwaite; programme manager Rose Lopeman; project administrators, Amy Collins, and Alexandra Pendleton; data analyst Jolene Dunlop, and senior finance business partner Laura Carney, to support operational activity across the dynamic consortium, which operates across ten platforms of activity.

Professor Janet Hemingway, founding Director of iiCON, said: “We’re very pleased to have welcomed a number of new faces to the iiCON team, each one bringing particular skills and expertise.

“As iiCON continues to attract investment and expand activity across our platforms, the complementary experience and specialist sector knowledge within our team means we are well equipped to continue to develop and support long-lasting strategic commercial partnerships; collaborating effectively with diverse stakeholder groups to drive forward the programme – enabling world-leading infection R&D.”

iiCON, led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), is comprised of partners Unilever, Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, University of Liverpool, LifeArc, Evotec, and Infex Therapeutics.

The programme brings together industry, academia, and clinicians to accelerate the discovery, development and deployment of new treatments and innovations– saving and improving millions of lives globally through collaborative innovation.