UK DRI is a limited company and registered charity and is governed by a Board of Trustees.
Our Board of Trustees meet in person four times per year, incorporating centre visits into their meetings in order that they maintain up to date knowledge of the work of the Institute.
Trustees serve for a term of three years and can serve a maximum of three consecutive terms.
Trustees
Decision making, risk and control
Our Trustees are accountable for annual approval of our budget and the overall strategic direction of the Institute as well as major policies. At each meeting the Trustees receive a Management update, incorporating top-level activities from across the Institute.
We have four Board-led subcommittees, each focusing on specific elements of the Institute:
- Audit and Risk Subcommittee
- Innovation and Intellectual Property Subcommittee
- Science Subcommittee
- Nominations and Renumeration Subcommittee
Our subcommittees meet virtually 4 times per year and are each attended by a nominated point of contact from the Core Team. We’re also fortunate to draw on expertise and experience from additional subcommittee members who are not trustees.
Meet our Trustees
William Rucker (Chairman)
Appointed to the Board in November 2017
Bringing a huge wealth of experience, William had a 36-year career at Lazard, culminating in positions as CEO and Chair of its UK investment bank, including asset management and financial advisory businesses. He joined Lazard in 1987 from Arthur Andersen where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
William is also Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Board and Chair of the Nomination Committee of British Land since July 2024.
Previous roles include Chairman of Crest Nicholson PLC, Chairman of Quintain, a London based property developer, and Chairman and one of the founders of Newbridge, a specialist eating disorder business. Founded in 2007, Newbridge was acquired by the German healthcare company, Shoen, in 2017. William is also a Trustee of the Racing Foundation, which was set up following the sale of the Tote to make a difference to the horse racing and thoroughbred breeding industry.
As well as his role of Chairman of the Board, William also chairs the Renumerations & Nominations subcommittee.
I was asked to take the Chair at the UK DRI on the day my mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia. This is a disease that touches friends and family everywhere and it is one of the biggest medical issues of our time.
William RuckerChairman of the Board
Rabia Khan
Appointed to the Board in June 2023
Rabia Khan, PhD, MBA is the founder and CEO of Serna Bio, a biotech building the world's first map of the druggable transcriptome to address novel inaccessible biology.
Before founding Serna Bio, Dr Khan was Managing Director of Discovery Sciences at Sensyne Health Plc (now: Arcturis) where she established the scientific strategy, built the data science and discovery teams and led the pharma partnerships with Bayer, BMS, Roche and Alexion and others. She has also held senior roles at BenevolentAI and Meta (acquired by Chan Zuckerberg BioHub).
Born and raised in Pakistan, Dr Khan is passionate about supporting diversity in technology and initiatives focused on improving access to care and availability of medicine.
Rabia is a member of both the UK DRI Science subcommittee and UK DRI Audit & Risk subcommittee.
Susan Kohlhaas
Appointed to the Board in July 2022
Susan is Executive Director of Research and Partnerships at Alzheimer’s Research UK, a founding funder of the UK Dementia Research Institute. As part of this role she leads the development of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s research strategy and our major initiatives alongside our strategic partnerships.
Susan holds a PhD in cell biology from the University of Leicester and postdoctoral experience in immunology at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. She’s worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 15 years holding senior roles in research, external affairs and partnership development for charities including the Multiple Sclerosis Society and National Cancer Research Institute before joining Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The UK DRI is an incredible organisation doing world-class research into dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. As a strategic partner of the UK DRI, Alzheimer’s Research UK is thrilled to be supporting this incredible work as well as the partnerships the UK DRI is making across the dementia field.
Susan is a member of the UK DRI Science Subcommittee.
Melanie Lee
Appointed to the Board in December 2017
Melanie is a seasoned Executive and Non-Executive Director across Pharma and Medtech companies, including FTSE 100 biotech, large public and small venture backed boards. She has a strong background in corporate development of strategy in public and private companies to their next phase of growth and is widely connected across the global healthcare sector. Melanie is pursuing a portfolio career in life sciences focused on new technologies and innovation to transform the opportunities for human health and wellbeing.
Melanie has held Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of R&D/CSO roles. She has a strong capability in corporate strategy and financial acuity and is passionate about translation in life sciences and is focused on driving and leading change to embrace technologies into pathways to product success for human health.
Melanie currently works through her own consultancy, Think-10, to provide support and advice to the life sciences sector and to bridge the generational divide to listen to young entrepreneurs to achieve their potential and bring through new life changing technologies to maximise patient wellbeing.
Melanie sits on both the UK DRI IIP subcommittee and UK DRI Renumerations & Nominations subcommittee.
Alasdair Moodie
Appointed to the Board in December 2017
Alasdair is General Counsel and Company Secretary at Syncona, a leading FTSE250 healthcare company focused on creating, building and scaling a portfolio of global leaders in life science.
He has three decades of experience in business law in the life sciences sector. Most recently he was General Counsel EMEA and APAC of Mundipharma and prior to that General Counsel EMEA of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., where he helped drive the successful transformation of those businesses. He has worked in senior legal roles in Gilead Sciences Inc., Cambridge Antibody Technology PLC (acquired by AstraZeneca PLC), and Pfizer Inc., after qualifying as a solicitor with Linklaters.
Alasdair has a degree in biological sciences (Immunology) from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from London Business School.
Alasdair chairs the UK DRI Audit and Risk subcommittee and is a member of the UK DRI IIP subcommittee
Jo Pisani
Appointed to the Board in September 2018
Jo focuses on supporting charities, universities, business start-ups, and the UK’s Life Sciences ecosystem. She is the Chair of Birmingham’s Precision Health Technology Accelerator and the West Midlands Health Technology Innovation Accelerator, and was previously the Chair of London’s MedCity. Jo serves on the boards of LifeArc, The RSA Group, Beacon, Bioventix plc, and London and Partners. She is also a strategic advisor and non-executive director for biotech companies in the UK, Finland, and Spain.
Prior to this, Jo led PwC’s UK Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences practice, spending 20 years assisting clients with strategy, transformational change, and deals. She began her career at BP and then GSK, holding roles in strategy, commercial, and operations functions.
Jo is a passionate supporter of critical public health issues such as tackling rare diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and dementia. Having cared for her parents who both had dementia, Jo has experienced the devastating impact of the condition on individuals and their families. She is keen to support initiatives such as the UK Dementia Research Institute that accelerate the discovery and translation of dementia diagnostics and treatments.
Jo chairs the UK DRI Innovation and Intellectual Property subcommittee and sits on the UK DRI Renumerations & Nominations subcommittee.
Professor Sheena Radford, OBE, FRS, FMedSci
Appointed to the Board in May 2020
Sheena brings her experience in fundamental science knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and diseases of protein misfolding to the Board of Trustees at the DRI, where she also serves on the Science subcommittee. She has also served on many other grant funding bodies, Scientific Advisory Boards in Academia and Industry, has served as Trustee of the Council of the Royal Society, and directed the multidisciplinary Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology for 9 years.
Sheena enjoys helping the UK DRI focus its mission towards delivering ground-breaking discovery science of the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in dementia and disease and improving the prospects for therapy working across the scales within its excellent research centres. She has a deep and genuine passion for discovery science, and it gives her enormous satisfaction to know that her expertise may help the DRI in its mission to beat dementia.
Sheena is a member of the UK DRI Science subcommittee.
Nathan Richardson
Appointed to the Board in June 2024
Nathan has a PhD molecular biology from Imperial College London and post-doctoral research experience in early neural development undertaken at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). In 2004 he changed career direction and joined the MRC since which he has held a number of roles, including - Programme Manager, looking after a number of science domains; Head of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, shaping partnerships and strategies and overseeing a large portfolio of community-led and major strategic investments; and since 2018 Associate/Deputy Director of Research Programmes, overseeing MRC’s four regular research boards and shaping a number of major investments.
UK DRI has quickly established itself as one of the pre-eminent international institutes in dementia research and I am delighted to contribute to the governance and evolution of its ambitions and to help support the development of desperately needed treatments.
Nathan is a member of the UK DRI Science subcommittee.
Roudie Shafie
Appointed to the Board in June 2023
Roudie is a life sciences policy and communications expert, with experience in the public sector and pharmaceutical industry. Working in companies and in agency, she has worked with all the top 10 pharmaceutical companies on accelerating access for patients to innovative medical technologies in developed countries markets.
Roudie specialises in complex multi stakeholder policy challenges such as cell and gene therapies and rare diseases, as well as patient engagement in policy making. In 2015, Roudie led the Mayor of London team advocating for Government investment in the Dementia Research Institute as a critical piece of medical research infrastructure in the UK life sciences ecosystem.
Roudie is a passionate supporter for collaborative working and has since been involved in brokering other public private partnerships in the life science sector.
Roudie is a member of the UK DRI Audit & Risk subcommittee.
Professor Sir Doug Turnbull
Appointed to the Board in May 2020
Professor Sir Doug Turnbull is a Strategic Research Advisor and previously Professor of Neurology, Newcastle University.
Doug Turnbull has led a basic science research programme and used the results of his research to develop clinical services that have had major benefit on the lives of patients. His research has focused on understanding the role of mitochondria in health and disease.
He was the Director of the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research and the MRC Centre for Ageing and Vitality and Clinical Lead for the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Mitochondrial Disease.
Doug chairs the UK DRI Science Subcommittee.