Nicola has over 26 years of life science experience, holding senior positions across the public and private sectors in organisations including AstraZeneca and the NHS.
With a broad range of experience from research to commercialisation in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, Nicola brings a breadth of experience to her role as Chief Strategy Officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC).
She gained her PhD in Chemistry in Boston, USA and an MBA from the University of Sheffield. Nicola joined AstraZeneca in 1998 as a medicinal chemist. She moved to Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2009, where she was Programme Director of the NIHR Healthcare Technology Cooperative, D4D. She is an accomplished scientist with over 45 publications and board-level experience in multiple life sciences organisations.
She is currently Chair of the Industry Board for the Manchester NIHR Clinical Research Facility, Trustee at Tinnitus UK and member of Asthma and Lung UK’s research review panel.
Nicola joined MDC in 2018 as Head of Collaborative R&D, joining the Executive team in January 2021. In her role as Chief Strategy Officer, Nicola builds and maintains MDC’s strategic national R&D programmes and our impact evaluation to ensure MDC continues to deliver upon our vision of reshaping drug discovery for patient benefit.
