President's Letter

Dear BABCNE Members and Friends,

 

It is a privilege to write to you for the first time as the President of the British American Business Council of New England. As I step into this role, I am filled with great anticipation and eagerness for the year ahead, but I must first look back with gratitude at the leadership that brought us here.

 

Acknowledging the Past

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Rick McKenna. Rick stepped in when he was needed most, serving as President for a second time. To borrow a metaphor from his new Captaincy career, he successfully “steered the ship" in the right direction. It has been an enormous pleasure working alongside him as Vice President over the past year, I thank him for his hard work, dedication, energy, and successful Captaincy of the Council.

 

I would also like to acknowledge the significant contributions of our resigning board members: Judy Ackerman, Mark Exley, Darleen Hollywood, Annabel Realf, and Paul Stanislas. In recognition of their dedication, the Board has agreed that all resigning members will become the first Honorary Fellows of the Council and I look forward to their continued involvement with BABCNE activities as we go forward.

 

Introducing Your Board

I am delighted to work with our returning board members: Jack Boyce, David Clay, Richard Hawke, Peter Hirst, Barlow Keener, Jane Ollerhead, and Paul Snape. 

 

We have also added new board members Louise Fisher, John Golden, James Normington, and Karl Petrick, this year. In particular, to signal a strategic evolution for the Council we have added 4 Board members from the biopharma sector. Given that we operate in the world’s largest concentration of biotech and pharma, four of our new leaders represent this sector: Avi Spiers, PhD (Novartis), Tim Clackson, PhD (Ex-CEO IDRx), Mel Ivarsson, PhD OBE (Ex-CDO Moderna) and Kevin MacDonald, PhD (Wolf Greenfield).

 

A Strategic Focus: Biotech & Beyond

The UK aims to be the third-largest biotech cluster globally, trailing only Massachusetts and California. I recently spoke to Sean Grady, UK Chairman at AZ, who commented "AstraZeneca exports more product from the UK than the whole of the Scottish Whiskey industry." AZ is currently building a facility in Kendal Square illustrating the strength of the UK-New England links in this sector. It is therefore a natural step for BABCNE to increase our activity in this sector.

 

Building on the foundation of the Boston Biotech Brits - founded in 2006 and now 650 members strong thanks in no small part to the British Consulate - we have a Life Sciences Steering Committee shared with the Consulate to drive this initiative forward.

 

However, this new focus does not mean we are ignoring our roots. Stepping into the role as Vice President, Jane Ollerhead, will lead our initiatives in other vital sectors, such as Aerospace & Defence and Financial Services (including VC and Insurance services). We are planning more Steering Committees in these areas and will need your involvement to make them a success.

 

Looking Ahead

I have already been active on behalf of BABCNE. In November I attended a meeting with Lord Vallance and a group of US biopharma executives to discuss UK-US talent flows, which I hope will help build on the aims of enhancing the UK-Boston BioBridge.

 

There is also a request from HMG for feedback on tax support for entrepreneurs. If this is of interest to you, please provide your feedback here: Tax Support for Entrepreneurs before midday GMT on 28th Feb.

 

We will be announcing a full calendar of events in the New Year, but plans are already afoot for a Boston Biotech Brits Curry Night in February - watch this space!

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Thank you for your continued support of BABCNE. I look forward to seeing you all very soon.

 

I’d like to wish all our Members, Partners and Friends the best of wishes for the holiday season and a happy and prosperous New Year.