Karen is Chief Project and Portfolio Officer at the self-funding medical research charity LifeArc. Here she is accountable for shaping and leading their portfolio of Translational Challenges, which are ambitious research programmes focused on solving complex healthcare problems.
Karen has more than 25 years’ experience within life sciences, from early exploratory to launch in a variety of therapeutic areas, having held numerous global leadership roles in portfolio management, pre-clinical and clinical development, R&D operations, product development and alliance management.
Prior to LifeArc, Karen held the role of VP Immuno-Oncology at the high-growth biotech BTG, where she was accountable for building their immunotherapy research portfolio through in-house research and collaborative partnerships. She began her R&D career within the pharmaceutical industry at Merck where she gained a strong grounding in drug discovery and has a DPhil in Pharmacology from the University of Oxford.