Ambassadors
As Chief Research & Enterprise Officer (CREO) I lead the Research, Engagement and Innovation Services (REIS) department and, more broadly, am also accountable for the transformation, implementation and continuous improvement of the research, innovation and enterprise support services across the whole of Swansea University's three faculties and research and innovation communities, delivering value within an enabling, inclusive ecosystem.
Malcolm has BSc in Pharmacology/Biochemistry and a PhD in Neuropharmacology. He has gained a wide breadth of experience in the management of research activities and has more than 60 publications including articles on the interface between industry and academia.
For more than two decades he has managed Academic Liaison at GSK managing staff in the UK and US. His role involves close liaison with several groups outside the Company e.g. Government Departments, Research and Funding Councils, Small Biotechnology Companies and other science-driven organisations.
He sits on many external bodies and several UK University Department advisory groups. He also chairs several groups including the Diamond (Synchotron) Industrial Advisory Board, the Science Industry Partnership addressing skill needs for scientists in England and the ABPI group working on academic liaison.
Malcolm is a former PraxisUnico Board member, and was awarded a CBE in the 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his contribution to the pharmaceutical industry, as well as an Honorary Professorship from the College of Medical and Dental Sciences at the University of Birmingham and honorary degrees from the Universities of Dundee and Hertfordshire.
David Secher is an independent consultant in the areas of research commercialisation, intellectual property and technology transfer – in the UK and internationally. Recent assignments include work in Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Lebanon, Jordan, Mexico and Europe. He is based in the University of Cambridge and is a Life Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. In 2002, together with Lita Nelsen of MIT, he founded Praxis (now PraxisAuril), the leading UK technology transfer training organisation. He served as chairman or as a director of that company until 2014 and is now Patron. For his contributions to “creating environments that favour enterprise, specialising in the practical aspects of commercialising the results of academic research”, he received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2007.
Previous roles include: Senior Bursar, Gonville & Caius College; Chief Executive of the N8 Research Partnership (a collaboration of the eight most research--intensive universities in the North of England); Director of Research Services, University of Cambridge; Director of Drug Development, Cancer Research Campaign (now Cancer Research UK); Director of Monoclonal Therapeutics, Celltech Ltd.; and Tenured Group Leader, Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology. As a consultant, he has advised universities, governments and individuals on commercialisation of intellectual property, as well as acting as a non-executive director of technology and investment companies. He is a non-executive director of Crossword Cybersecurity plc and an angel investor.
Secher graduated from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) with first class honours in biochemistry. His PhD work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology was with César Milstein (Nobel Prize--winner for discovery of monoclonal antibodies). Together with Derek Burke, Secher made and patented the first monoclonal antibody to human interferon.
Phil is the CEO of Queen Mary Innovation Ltd, the Technology Transfer Company of Queen Mary University of London
Phil worked previously at the Universities of Oxford, Bath and Bournemouth in a variety of roles related to Research Management and Commercialisation, and for the UK Research Office in Brussels focusing on European research funding.
He is a Council member for Research England, former director of and Ambassador for PraxisAuril, the UK professional association for Knowledge Exchange Practitioners, and has previously been on the board of ARMA, the Association of Research Managers and Administrators. He is a registered technology transfer professional (RTTP), a Member of the Institute of Directors (MIoD) and is also a director of Fluvial Innovations Ltd. He has an MBA from Oxford and an MA in Intellectual Property Management from Bournemouth University. He used to be a chemist.