Peter Keen

Peter is a chartered accountant by training with over 35 years’ experience in the commercial exploitation of healthcare related technologies in both private and public companies. He has held senior roles with a range of responsibilities including 10 years in venture capital and latterly was the founding Chief Executive of Cambridge Innovation Capital Plc an investment fund focusing on technology investments arising from the University of Cambridge.

He joined his first technology business, Agricultural Genetics Ltd back in 1984 and then following experience in the medical diagnostic sector with Cambridge Life Sciences Plc. He was a co-founder of Chiroscience Group Plc and as Finance Director led the £102m initial public offering in March 1994. In 1996 he co-founded the venture capital firm Merlin Biosciences as its UK Managing Director and was responsible for many early-stage healthcare investments. Four of these became public companies and the private company BioVex was sold for a consideration of up to $1bn. Another investment was Arakis whom he joined in a full time capacity in 2004 and then subsequently led the negotiations for its sale to the Japanese biotech company Sosei.

An experienced public and private company Non-Executive Director he has sat on over 30 boards during his career. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Endomagnetics Ltd a company improving cancer surgery outcomes and the medical charity LifeArc which has assets significantly in excess of £1bn following the monetisation of the leading cancer drug Keytruda. Recent Directorships include SpringWorks Therapeutics Inc a rare disease company that successfully listed on NASDAQ in September 2019, the Biotechnology Growth Trust Plc a £400m investment trust investing in global biotechnology and Abcam Plc the leading supplier of protein research tools where he was the Senior Independent Director.