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About Us

Congenica is a digital health company enabling genomic medicine with the world’s leading clinical decision support platform for the interpretation of complex genomic data.

We are committed to integrating clinical genomics into healthcare. Built on a foundation of clinical genomics expertise, we develop software products and services that make the use of complex genomic data routine, accessible and ubiquitous.

We are driven to empower healthcare professionals worldwide to transform health and wellness by converting genomic data into actionable information to provide life-changing answers.

The Team

Our team includes clinical experts, commercial specialists, bioinformaticians, software engineers and AI innovators.

We have a wealth of experience in clinical interpretation, providing input for product development and undertaking cutting-edge research in assay development.

Members of the Board

Andy Richards

Andy Richards, CBE, PhD

Chairman

Andy is a well-established entrepreneur and builder of biotechnology, healthcare and diagnostic ventures. He brings a strong business focus and an in-depth knowledge of the industry and company scale up. He is currently Chairman of Arecor, Abcodia and Closed Loop Medicine and is a director of Owlstone Medical and Ieso Digital Health. He is Chairman of BBT the Babraham Research Campus and a director of Cancer Research Technology Ltd (the commercial board of Cancer Research UK). Andy is a graduate of Cambridge University with a PhD in Chemistry and a track record as a founder, active investor in and director of more than 25 innovative healthcare and life-science companies, including Vectura plc and Arakis.
David Atkins

David Atkins, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

David has over 25 years’ experience as a global leader in a broad range of diagnostics and healthcare businesses. He has held senior positions in R&D, business development, operations and sales and marketing. He has extensive commercial experience in North America, EMEA, Asia and Latin America. Prior to joining Congenica, David was CEO of Synevo, a clinical diagnostic laboratory service business operating across Germany and Eastern Europe. David also has over 20 years’ experience with Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Device and Diagnostic businesses in R&D and business development and in senior international commercial roles.
Nick Lench

Nick Lench, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Prior to founding Congenica, Nick was previously Director of the Regional Genetics Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, with responsibility for the strategic and operational management of a genetics service that provides DNA diagnostic testing and services to a population of approximately 4.5M people. Nick is an honorary Reader at the UCL Institute of Child Health and has over 25 years’ of academic, healthcare and commercial experience in medical genetics and genomics. He was awarded a personal chair in Medical Genetics at Cardiff University in 2005 and was a founding CEO of London Genetics Ltd and Programme Director at Oxagen Ltd.
Matthew Hurles

Matthew Hurles, PhD

Scientific Director

Matt is Head of Human Genetics and Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Matt is the scientific director of the Deciphering Developmental Disorders program and was a major contributor to the UK 10K projects. He has pioneered the analysis of whole exomes in clinically relevant disorders that previously failed diagnostic methods and has led an initiative to characterize structural variation in the human genome. Matt has been awarded the Balfour Lecture by the Genetics Society and the Crick Lecture prize for accomplishments in genetics and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Michael Anstey

Michael Anstey, PhD

Investment Director

Michael is an Investment Director at Cambridge Innovation Capital plc and is focused on Healthcare businesses. Before joining CIC he was a Principal in the Healthcare Practice Area at The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Toronto office. Michael has experience in advising multinational healthcare businesses across North America, Europe, India, and Japan on a broad range of topics, including corporate strategy, sales and marketing, new launches, R&D and medical strategy, and M&A.
David Shi

David Shi

Investment Director

David is the president and CEO of Digital China Health Technologies Corporation Limited. In China, he is the organizer of a national cancer database which includes information platforms in the National Cancer Center and provincial cancer hospitals, and built the National Population Macro Management Decision Model, approved by the UN. David serves as the Deputy Secretary General of the National Union for big data industry, the vice chairman of the national population medical big data Specialized Committee, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Cancer Professional Committee on Healthcare Big Data.
Alastair Kilgour

Alastair Kilgour

Investment Director

Alastair has over 30 years’ experience founding and leading various businesses and teams in broking, banking and fund management. Alastair was a Global Partner in Lazard Frere LLP. Currently he is a founder and CIO of Parkwalk Advisors, one of the biggest investors in UK University Technology Spinouts with a portfolio of over 80 companies.

Heiner Dreismann, PhD

Senior Independent Director

Heiner is a seasoned executive with more than 35 years of experience in the life sciences and health care industries. He was previously the President and CEO of Roche Molecular Systems, the world leader in molecular diagnostics, where he made significant contributions to the organisational and financial growth of the company’s molecular business area. Since leaving Roche Heiner has served on the board of a number of private and public biotechnology and healthcare companies in the United States, Europe and Israel.

Senior Management Team

Richard Durbin

Richard Durbin, PhD

Informatics Director

Richard is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University and Associate Faculty of the Wellcome Sanger Institute. A pioneer in genome sequencing and bioinformatics for over 25 years, he has developed sequence data analysis tools that are now standards in the field, including the alignment software bwa and the SAM/BAM format which underpin most clinical genomic data analysis. Richard has also made significant contributions to the Ensembl resource for vertebrate genome annotation, and the TreeFam and Pfam databases and led the international 1000 Genomes Project and the UK 10K Genome Project. Richard is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of EMBO.
Philip Beales

Philip Beales, PhD

Chief Medical Officer

Phil is a consultant clinical geneticist and Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), an NIHR Senior Investigator, Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the lead on Personalized Medicine for UCL. He is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics and pathogenesis of ciliopathies and pioneering use of next generation sequencing in mapping disease genes in this area.
Wendy Britten

Wendy Britten

Chief Financial Officer

Wendy is a Senior Finance professional and qualified Chartered Accountant with an extensive track record of delivering in leadership positions across a range of industries, including numerous M&A transactions. Most recently Wendy headed up the Group Finance Business Performance team at AstraZeneca, working in close partnership with the CEO, CFO and the Senior Executive Team. Prior to joining AstraZeneca Wendy progressed her career in a variety of roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers, culminating as a Director in M&A in London and New York.
Alistair Johnson

Alistair Johnson

Chief Product Officer

Alistair has over 20 years’ experience in project consultancy, product management and marketing in a range of industries including Finance, IT Security, Medicines Supply Chain Management and IT Service Management. He has worked in companies of all sizes ranging from start-ups to global enterprises including Symantec and Infor. Alistair is uniquely positioned to understand and address the technical and commercial challenges of delivering a secure, high quality system with user experience at its core.
Yvonne Larkin

Yvonne Larkin

Chief Organization Development & Talent Officer

Yvonne has over 25 years’ experience as a Human Resources leader.  She has significant talent development and change management experience, both leading and implementing business focused solutions within a range of international organizations across multiple sectors. Prior to joining Congenica, Yvonne spent 10 years with Johnson & Johnson’s Medical Device and Diagnostic businesses in EMEA where she led the creation of numerous Centers of Excellence to rapidly build expertise and capability in areas such as Commercial Excellence, Regulatory Affairs, and Market Access. Yvonne holds a BSc in Psychology and a Master of Business Studies from University College Dublin.

Rob Denison

Chief Information Officer

Rob has over 20 years experience in technology R&D and high growth software businesses. After founding and selling his own disruptive technology company he has been part of the executive team of businesses in R&D consultancy, biomedical development, and high volume webs services delivery. His experience ranges from aggressive start ups through to high growth multi billion dollar market cap organisations, where he has lead a broad range of areas of the business in CTO/CIO or COO positions. During his career he has been a member of the core team of large open source projects and has extensive experience of managing key technology partnerships.

Join the team

We are a highly motivated team, inspired to create a better future. We use our expertise to provide leading-edge solutions which empower clinicians to improve how people manage their health. We are seeking talented people who are driven to make a difference and who want to collaborate with like-minded individuals to transform healthcare. Please take a look at our current openings below and get in touch for more information.

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Thought Leadership

As experts in the field, we drive forward the conversation in genomics. Discover more about the impact of our work in the industry articles below.

Published 24th June 2019

World Economic Forum

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Published 1st June 2019

BIA

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Published 30th April 2019

Amadeus Capital Partners

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