Professor Richard Barker

Richard has been associated with International Health Partners from its foundation and is the immediate past chairman. He is passionate about advancing biomedical innovation and about accelerating and spreading access to the fruits of this innovation to patients worldwide.

He is founding director of New Medicine Partners, a global firm assisting public and private sector organisations to accelerate the worldwide development and adoption of precision medicine. He also founded the Oxford-UCL Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (CASMI). He is chairman of the South London Health Innovation Network and of the corresponding Genomic Medicine Centre. He also chairs Kvatchii, a digital health company bringing cardiovascular health improvement to India and other middle-income economies. He is a board member of Image Analysis, a UK company using MRI to quantify the impact of therapy on disease and of Celgene, a major US-based bio-therapeutics company.

His 30-year career in healthcare has spanned biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical informatics, both in the USA and Europe. Richard has held several senior roles, and has been director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, general manager of Healthcare Solutions for IBM, chief executive officer of Chiron Diagnostics and head of McKinsey’s European healthcare practice.

Sean Greathead - Chair

Sean is a highly skilled HR professional, with more than 30 years of experience and has worked in seven countries and three continents and multiple sectors including property and real estate, not-for-profit, oil, pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance and technology companies, from FTSE 100 to start-ups including managing multi-site and multinational people functions.  Sean currently heads up the MAPP People Team, growing the number of people from 160 to over 650 since 2016. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, they were awarded one of Property Week's Best Places to Work and have achieved B-Corp Status. MAPP was chosen as number 30 in Newsweek's ‘Most Loved Companies in the UK' for 2022 and number 21 in 2023.  Sean is married with two children and a couple of dogs, and he spends his free time with his family and helping out with several charities. He is a big fan of cricket, rugby and coffee.

Helen Leighton

Helen has spent over 25 years working as a Senior Commercial Leader for a variety of global pharmaceutical companies including GSK, Abbot Labs, Janssen and Bayer. Having started her career as a pharmacist, she brings a wealth of experience across both pharmaceutical and consumer sectors and across all divisions, most notably recently in marketing and team development. Her style is underpinned with a strong collaborative approach and she is a qualified coach. Helen has two daughters and is a committed Christian worshipping at St Johns, Hampton Wick.

Glyn Williams

Glyn is a Chartered Accountant with 35 years’ experience in professional services, working in Mazars, an international firm of auditors and advisers.  He was a member of the firm’s UK Executive Board from 2002 to 2017; he was responsible for all aspects of internal and external financial reporting, to improve decision making and performance and to enhance confidence for stakeholders.

Glyn is now uses his financial experience to help charities manage their finances in alignment with achieving strategic goals.  He is married with three adult children and lives in Kent.

Alex Stewart

Alex Stewart is a London-based corporate lawyer and management consultant. He was born in Ethiopia and spent the early part of his life there and in the Seychelles. Alex has always retained close connections with East Africa, initially as part of volunteer teams with Alpha and Tearfund, and more recently as an advisor to renewal energy and impact funds focused on projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Alex is also the founding partner of Gihon Partners, a specialist, multi-disciplinary consulting and advisory firm focused on frontier markets and impact investments across Africa.

Alex is married to Rebecca and they have two children. Alex and his family worship locally at Saint Pauls, Hammersmith.

Simon Howard

Simon spent 10 years in a variety of sales and marketing roles in the Pharmaceutical industry working for Searle and then Bayer. He was involved in the UK launches of Tildiem LA and Arthrotec at Searle and then managed the anti-infectives portfolio at Bayer. In the 1990s, Simon founded Abacus International, which he later sold to an American market research company.

Currently, he is the founding chairman of CMS UK, a charity that raises money to support HIV Orphans in Eswatini. He is also on the international board of Challenge Ministries Swaziland.

He remains involved in the healthcare sector by acting as an advisor and non-exec chair to various healthcare agencies. He is a husband to Clare and father to three daughters.

Dr Joanna Hobbs MC BC MRCGP DRCOG DFFP

Jo qualified from St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London in 1991 and trained as a GP in Guildford and Camberley. She was a GP partner in Liphook for 13 years including 5 years as a senior partner before leaving in 2018 to help form a private GP clinic, Hindhead Health. She continues to practice as an NHS GP in Bordon, Hampshire.

She has four grown-up children and lives in West Sussex with her husband, 2 dogs and a collection of chickens.

Barbara Brese

Barbara is an Independent Consultant and Thought Leader in healthcare working with a range of bio- pharmaceutical industries and the NHS. A pharmacist by profession, she is passionate about making positive changes to healthcare through system leadership. She was the Strategic Account Manager for NHS England at MSD from 2016-2018. Prior to that, Barbara worked in the NHS for 22 years where she gained considerable experience in both hospital and primary care. Her final role was as the Deputy Director and Chief Pharmacist in NEL CSU from 2011-2016.

Barbara is married to Alikem, a Chartered Architect and Project Development Professional and they have three children. Barbara has been a member of her church for the past 27 years where she plays many roles.

Aurora Chen

Aurora has over 25 years of working experience in culturally diverse international organisations, and she has served at Nestle S.A. and Coca-Cola Company in the capacity of a seasoned corporate strategy executive coupled with business P/L and marketing communication responsibilities.

Aurora started the first ten years of her career in Switzerland and Germany, managing businesses covering international markets. For the following 13 years, she devoted herself to some of the world’s largest companies, including Nestle and Coca-Cola. At Nestle, she had the responsibility of managing the P&L of the Confectionery and Culinary Business, while at Coca-Cola, she served as Director of Operations and Corporate Marketing Communication of Greater China by catalysing and embedding the global Coca-Cola strategy into the China GCR business platform.

Aurora is a certified executive coach with a passion for developing and facilitating talented people in organisations to unleash their full potential to achieve better performance both in life and career. Aurora speaks English, Italian, Chinese and German and holds a BA in International Business and a Dipl. Certification in Marketing Communication and has recently completed her Theological Studies at the University of Oxford. She is from Lugano, Switzerland and when in the UK, she attends Holy Trinity Brompton.

Liz Earle MBE

One of the UK’s leading wellness voices, Liz is also known for founding the Liz Earle Beauty company, sold in 2010 and now owned by Walgreen Boots Alliance. She is the author of more than 35 best-selling books, including some of the first to focus on the importance of gut health and the Menopause. She is Editor-in-Chief of Liz Earle Wellbeing magazine and hosts the popular weekly Liz Earle Wellbeing Show podcast. She’s hosted TV shows, founded a Fairtrade jewellery brand, a humanitarian aid charity and run an organic farm. At the heart of it all is a healthy focus on looking good, feeling well and living our best “second half” of life, with wellness wisdom you can trust.