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Unparalleled knowledge and experience

We are committed to designing, managing, and delivering clinical trials that are cost-effective and provide robust evidence for treatments for the most common illnesses affecting the world today. We have decades of experience in medical research, academia and corporate management which allows us to expertly support our partners’ pipelines, accelerating the adoption of novel treatments into routine clinical practice.

Our leadership team

The Leadership Team at Protas guide and support staff across the organisation to deliver the strategic objectives of the organisation. They bring with them a wealth of scientific, clinical and industry knowledge and patient focus to realise Protas’s ambitions.

Martin Landray

Chief Executive Officer

Sir Martin Landray is CEO of Protas, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and a consultant hospital physician. He has over 20 years’ experience of leading large, randomized trials and is a joint lead of the RECOVERY trial of treatments for COVID-19. He works closely with regulators, industry, academia, patient groups and government organizations to improve all aspects of clinical trials.

Abby Taylor

Chief Operations Officer

Dr Abby Taylor is COO and is responsible for the efficient establishment and operations of Protas. Abby was the Associate Director of Strategy and Data Insights for the Wellcome Trust where she spent almost a decade leading the development and delivery of many of Wellcome’s major strategic initiatives and its international expansion. Abby has a PhD in Biochemistry.

Tim Peakman

Chief Clinical Operations Officer

Dr Tim Peakman is Chief Clinical Operations Officer at Protas and is responsible for the efficient establishment and operation of trials. Before joining Protas he worked at University of Leeds as Chief Operating Officer and for 14 years at UK Biobank as Deputy Chief Executive helping to establish and run this study involving 500,000 participants.

 

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Jonathan Sellors

Company Secretary & Legal Counsel

Jonathan Sellors is the legal counsel and company secretary of Protas and UK Biobank. He is an expert in intellectual property, life sciences and data protection law. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University.

Richard Eales

Finance Director

Richard Eales is Finance Director at Protas and is responsible for oversight of all financial matters. Richard is also Head of Commercial Finance at the Wellcome Trust and a member of the Audit Committee of Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility.

Stefan Blixen-Finecke

Chief Information Officer

Stefan Blixen-Finecke is the CIO and is responsible for the efficient establishment and operation of Protas information technology services, including the Unified Clinical Trials Management Platform. Before joining Protas, Stefan was the Chief Technology Officer at the European Medicines Agency where he led the development of strategic platforms underpinning medicines regulation in Europe.  He has also held technology leadership roles at the Financial Conduct Authority and Telenor Denmark.

Our board members

The Board of Directors work to achieve the aims of the organisation. Members bring broad expertise from across academic, clinical, corporate and industry backgrounds.

The Board act as company directors and have overall responsibility for the direction and management of Protas.

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Lord Prior of Brampton

David Prior was Chair of NHS England from November 2018 until March 2022. Educated at Cambridge University and a qualified barrister, he has held senior positions within the industrial and banking sectors. He has served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health and the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. In October 2017 he became Chair of University College London Hospitals before being appointed as Chair of NHS England

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Professor Sir Rory Collins, FRS FMedSci FRCP

Rory Collins is an epidemiologist and clinical trialist. He joined Oxford University in 1981, where he has designed and conducted large streamlined randomized trials. He became principal investigator of the UK Biobank study in 2005, was knighted for Services to Science in 2011, established Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Population Health in 2013, and was elected to the Royal Society in 2015.

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Sir Jonathan Symonds CBE

Jonathan Symonds is Chair of the GlaxoSmithKline board. A chartered accountant, he has extensive international financial, life sciences and governance experience. Previous roles include Chair of HSBC Bank and Chief Financial Officer of Novartis and Astra Zeneca. He is a Non-Executive Director of Rubius Therapeutics and of Genomics England Limited, and a member of the European Round Table for Industry.

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Professor Sir John Bell GBE FRS

John Bell is Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford University and has been the government’s UK Life Sciences Champion since 2011. He chaired the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research until 2017 and currently chairs the Gates Global Health Advisory Board, Genomics England Ltd Scientific Advisory Board and Our Future Health board. He wrote the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy in 2017 and co-developed UK Life Sciences Vision in 2021.

Careers at Protas

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Latest from Protas

Corporate 12 July 2022

Funding announcement: Protas receives support from Schmidt Futures

Protas announces today that it has been awarded a $2m USD grant by recommendation of Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative…

Corporate 20 May 2022

International Clinical Trials Day

Today is International Clinical Trials Day- a day to recognise the importance of good clinical trials for public health. We…

Corporate 11 May 2022

UCTMP Procurement

Protas has recently released a contract notice for a Unified Clinical Trials Platform (UCTMP).

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