Dr Lisa Thomas is currently a Director at The Pioneer Group, a life science specialist property operator and investment fund. As the Venture Development Partner, she works with early-stage life science companies as a sounding board/coach to refine and help build business plans and guide them to investor readiness.
She has over 15 years of hands-on and advisory experience working with start-ups and scaling companies.
Her career started with a Regenerative Medicine PhD from Nottingham University, before working in a variety of grant roles including a consultant grant specialist and a government R&D fund manager. She then trained with PwC as a chartered accountant specialising in R&D tax and Innovation grants. Lisa served as the CFO of Deep Branch an Anglo Dutch biotech start up helping to raise over £15m in Series A investment and non-dilutive funding. From there Lisa joined Pioneer Group as a Director & Venture Development Partner giving her a 360 view of the biotechnology landscape.
At Forge Genetics Lisa will serve on the board of directors as a non-executive director offering guidance around the various aspects of starting a biotechnology business especially in financial matters, and strategy.
It's rare to find so many skills and experiences that we require in one person. We are exceptionally lucky that this person happens also to be fantastic to work with.
A background in regenerative medicine, as well as practical experience in biotech startups, finance, venture capital, and grants is really a perfect fit for where the company is right now.
"Getting Lisa on board is a major coup for us. We’re lucky to have found so many of the key skills and experience we require in one person. Lisa is also fantastic to work with and will surely contribute hugely to our future growth." - Craig Woods, CEO.
