Four decades of backing bold genetic science

John originally trained as a scientist with a PhD in Physiology from Cambridge University. His career in the pharmaceutical industry started as a clinical researcher, designing and running clinical trials, and he subsequently moved into marketing, general management, business development and strategy with a number of the largest pharmaceutical companies.

He has been a board member of a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies and has run three different businesses. In recent years he has been a self-employed interim manager and business consultant, advising and supporting the growth and development of smaller biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Francis is Professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College, London (ICL), a clinical and public health microbiologist and physician (accredited in Microbiology, Virology and Immunology) and Consultant Microbiologist at University Hospitals Dorset. He was a Wellcome Fellow based in New York City and Director of the UK National Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory (1996–2015), providing public health and clinical advice, and has 25 years' experience leading and co-leading complex respiratory disease research programmes focusing on TB/HIV infections, COVID-19, biomarker discovery, molecular and genomic-based diagnostics and antimicrobial drug resistance detection, integrating clinical, biological and social themes. Much of his research and training activity is focused in low- and middle-income countries, especially in Eastern Europe and Africa. He has provided clinical care as a resident and Consultant, primarily for patients with tuberculosis and/or AIDS, at King's College Hospital, Barts NHS Trust and other south London hospitals.

He was a Board Non-Executive Director for Kent Community Hospital Foundation Trust (2018–2022), including the COVID Clinical Reference Group, Vice Chair of the Quality Committee, and a member of the Strategic Workforce, Remuneration and Audit/Risk Committees. He founded and remains a member of the ECDC TB Reference Lab Network (2009 onwards) and served on several clinical and public health ECDC committees. He has held several roles with the World Health Organisation focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections and the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV-TB, including Director of a WHO Supra-national Reference Laboratory, member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group, and Chair of the WHO European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and viral hepatitis.

He was made a Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2017 and elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2025.

Richard Freeman is Global Head of Trading at CMC Markets in London. Prior to this he held a variety of trading roles in leading investment banks, most recently as a Managing Director in Equity Derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in London.

Richard has a BA in Economics from the University of Sheffield and is married with two teenage children.

Chris Mathew was born and raised in South Africa, where he graduated with a BSc Honours in Biochemistry. He then moved with his wife Denise to London, where he obtained a PhD in molecular biology at the Institute of Cancer Research. He later worked with Sir Bruce Ponder at the Institute on mapping genes for hereditary cancers, and moved to the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics in 1989 as Director of the newly formed NHS DNA Diagnostic Laboratory. He was appointed Professor of Molecular Genetics in the Department in 1999 and served in various roles including Deputy Head and acting Head of Department until his full retirement in January 2020, when he was appointed Professor Emeritus.

Chris was keen to develop the emerging field of Cancer Genetics in his native South Africa and was appointed Distinguished Professor in Human Genetics at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2015. His research group focuses on the genetics and genomics of common cancers in the Black South African population, and on the application of molecular technology and knowledge to improved diagnosis and treatment for African cancer patients.

Chris has served on many professional committees and research grant panels, including Chair of the Special Advisory Committee on Genetics for the Royal College of Pathologists, member of the Wellcome Trust Molecular and Cell Panel, Vice-Chair of Cancer Research UK's Biological Science Committee and Chair of CRUK's International Cancer Genome Review Panel.

He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) in 2011 in recognition of his discovery of genes involved in susceptibility to cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. He is delighted to contribute to the further success of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Guy's in his role as a Trustee for The Generation Trust.

Andrew Ross was one of the founding trustees of The Generation Trust in the 1980s. A retired charity executive, until 2013 he was Chief Executive of The Children's Trust, a charity providing care, education and therapeutic rehabilitation for children with disabilities and complex health needs. He was subsequently Director of The Peter Harrison Foundation, a grant-giving charity with a particular focus on sport for disabled people.

He has been a trustee of several other charities including The Edward Gostling Foundation, Lifelites, the Child Health Research CIO and the Masonic Charitable Foundation, where he was Chair of the Charity Grants Committee. He is a fellow and former chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

He has a degree in modern languages from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for 2013. He lives near Horsham, West Sussex, with his wife, Alison.