Oxford Science Enterprises Strengthens Investment Teams with Two Senior Appointments

OXFORD, England, Feb. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxford Science Enterprises, the Science Business Builder and preferred intellectual property partner of the University of Oxford, today announces the appointment of Craig Fox PhD as Operating Partner, Life Sciences and Caroline Cake MBA, MEng, as Entrepreneur in Residence, Health Tech.

As Operating Partner, Craig will work across Oxford Science Enterprises' life sciences portfolio and apply his extensive operating and scientific expertise to support the growth and development of early and late-stage companies. He will also help identify novel scientific opportunities leading to the formation of new spinouts. 

As an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), Caroline will lead the creation and development of a new Health Tech enterprise based on ground-breaking research from the University of Oxford. The team will also benefit from her extensive network across government, the private healthcare sector and NHS as well as her deep understanding of health policy and data science.

The EIR model has been successfully deployed by Oxford Science Enterprises as exemplified by the creation of Base Genomics, led by former EIR Ollie Waterhouse and acquired by Exact Sciences in 2020, and the recently launched Salience Labs led by former EIR Vaysh Kewada.

Alexis Dormandy, CEO Oxford Science Enterprises, said: "I am delighted to welcome both Craig and Caroline to the team. Their operational expertise and highly relevant networks will be invaluable to our organisation, academic founders, and enterprises. The appointments of Craig and Caroline, two seasoned executives with impressive track records, builds on the recent strengthening of our senior leadership team. I am thrilled to have them both on board."

Craig Fox, PhD, Operating Partner, Life Sciences.

Craig brings over 20 years of drug discovery and development expertise to Oxford Science Enterprises, with vast experience as a research scientist managing initial target selection through to Phase 2 clinical studies. He joins from C4X Discovery where he was Chief Scientific Officer and an Executive Board Member for more than six years, guiding its transition from a technology-based company to a therapeutics business. Craig has also worked at a number of biotechnology companies supporting multiple financing deals, the creation and management of strategic collaborations and licensing deals with Pharma. 

Caroline Cake, MBA, MEng, Entrepreneur in Residence, Health Tech.

Caroline has over 25 years' experience working in commercial, government and charitable organisations and has a proven track record in delivering transformational health tech initiatives. As CEO of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), she established the company as the national institute for health data science and played a pivotal role in the UK's COVID-19 pandemic response. Under her leadership, HDR UK created Health Data Research Hubs, which supported the RECOVERY Trial to identify dexamethasone as the first drug to be effective against COVID-19, the PRINCIPLE Trial to identify budesonide as the first treatment to shorten recovery time in patients not admitted to hospital, and the vaccine rollout by providing access to real-world data on vaccine effectiveness. She also led the development of the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, which is already transforming the scale and impact of UK health data research. Caroline also worked for the PSC where she was a founding director and prior to that she worked as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company.

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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Visit us: 46 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HT

Media contacts:

Oxford Science Enterprises:
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SOURCE Oxford Science Enterprises