Oxford Science Enterprises Strengthens Investment Teams with Two New Appointments

-  Heather Roxborough PhD, former Partner at Optum Ventures, joins as Partner, Health Tech

-  Wallace Wallace MPhil, former Associate at M-Ventures, joins as Associate, Life Sciences

OXFORD, England, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxford Science Enterprises, the Science Business Builder and preferred investment partner of the University of Oxford, today announces further strengthening of its investment teams with the appointments of Heather Roxborough PhD as Partner, Health Tech and Wallace Wallace MPhil as Associate, Life Sciences.

As Partner, Heather will lead the Health Tech investment team to identify cutting-edge science and technology from the University's world leading academics, drive investments into new spinouts and support the scale up of existing enterprises. Wallace joins the growing Life Sciences team to support the creation of new businesses and ongoing work across the current portfolio.

Alexis Dormandy, CEO Oxford Science Enterprises, said: "I am thrilled to welcome Heather and Wallace. Heather brings over 15 years of investment and leadership experience, with a strong track record of deal-making and company building to lead the Health Tech team. While Wallace's experience in scientific due diligence and early-stage investing strengthens the Life Sciences team. These appointments continue to demonstrate our commitment and enhanced ability to identify, support and commercialise the University of Oxford's cutting-edge science in order to build world-leading businesses."

Heather Roxborough PhD, Partner, Health Tech

Heather is a highly experienced venture capitalist, with over 15 years of investment and company building experience from across a range of sectors, including health tech, consumer healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food technology.

Heather joins Oxford Science Enterprises from Optum Ventures where she was a Partner, responsible for establishing and leading the global health tech investment fund on behalf of Optum, a leading technology-enabled US health services business, part of UnitedHealth Group.

Heather has also held investment roles at J&J Innovations as Senior Director and Tate and Lyle Ventures as Principal. She holds a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry from Queen's University of Belfast.

Wallace Wallace MPhil, Associate, Life Sciences

Wallace joins Oxford Science Enterprises from M-Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, where she supported the life sciences investment team across scientific due diligence and portfolio management.

Prior to this, Wallace worked at Accenture as a consultant, assisting the Business Strategy and Operation Strategy units, advising financial services clients.

She holds a BSc in Genetics from the University of York and an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.

About Oxford Science Enterprises

We are Oxford Science Enterprises, the Science Business Builder. We want to help solve the world's toughest problems for more people, in more places, faster. We do this by transforming world-leading science into world-changing businesses, partnering the best scientists from the world's best university with the best business brains. We grow our companies with care and expertise; in a way that is systematic and scalable. We invest for real-world impact, not only financial returns. And we re-invest proceeds back into the next generation of original research and world-changing businesses.

Our enterprises address problems that affect people in life-changing ways: their health, the availability of food, the survival of the planet. Since 2015, we have received an automatic stake in all Oxford University science spinouts – more than 100 businesses founded by over 200 of Oxford's leading academics. We have taken a leading role in creating and building over 70 of these, adding +55,000 sq ft of lab & start-up space to support them. Today our businesses are worth over £2bn and have created +2,000 jobs.

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Contacts:

Oxford Science Enterprises
Lisa Bedwell – [email protected]

For media enquiries:
Mark Swallow, Sandi Greenwood, Eleanor Perkin – MEDiSTRAVA Consulting
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SOURCE Oxford Science Enterprises