Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), a leading location for development and commercialisation of cutting-edge therapeutics, is pleased to announce that Dr Hugo Villanueva is to join as Innovation and Business Development Director in May 2020.

Hugo joins us from Revenant Bio, a research organisation and consultancy supporting and attracting funding for start-ups, spinouts and growing companies in the life sciences sector and has experience of working with Clustermarket.

He is passionate about life science entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of research. As a founding member of the Science Entrepreneur Club he has great experience of managing events and competitions for entrepreneurs within the “Golden Triangle” in partnership with RebelBio, Merck, Arctoris and others. During his time as President of the London branch of Innovation Forum he was responsible for organising a successful series of lectures, workshops and conferences.

Hugo holds a PhD in Synthetic Biology from UCL and Birkbeck College, an MRes in Systems Biology from Imperial College London and a BSc in Biotechnology from Edinburgh University. He is a big fan of bacteriophages and synthetic biology, and likes making music in his free time.

Dr Sally Ann Forsyth, CEO at SBC said “With his excellent experience in supporting and attracting funding for companies, Hugo is ideally placed to support the growing cluster of exciting companies here at SBC. We are delighted to welcome him to the team and look forwards to working with him in the future”.

Dr Hugo Villanueva commented “I am delighted to be joining SBC at such an exciting time of growth for the Campus. I very much look forward to working with Sally Ann and her team.”

The role will replace that of the Chief Business Officer held by Dr Wesley Randle who will be leaving in May with all our best wishes for the future.