Professor Neil Hall, Chair of the Board

Professor Neil Hall is the Director of Earlham Institute and has been working in genomics for over 15 years.

He has previously led research groups at the Sanger Institute, The Institute for Genomic Research, and The University of Liverpool. His research focuses on comparative and evolutionary genomics in pathogens (particularly parasitic protists) to understand the molecular basis of important phenotypes such as virulence and host specificity.

His group also apply genomics to the analysis of microbial communities in order to understand how they may influence health or respond to changing environments. Neil serves on the Wellcome Trust Biomedical Resources Committee and the BBSRC Exploring New Ways of Working Strategy Panel.

Sarah Cossey

Sarah Cossey is the Chief Operating Officer at Earlham Institute. Sarah is a professional accountant and project manager with extensive experience across the public and private sector. Sarah spent nine years in finance and audit within local government and the NHS. She then moved to the Cabinet Office as part of the Senior Management Team of the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) in 1998 to lead the finance and business support team. Sarah has been at EI since 2011, taking up her current position in 2014.

She is a member of the EI Executive Team, and has responsibility for the service delivery operations at EI, including the advanced training, communications, knowledge exchange and industrial engagement and oversight of corporate services delivery.

Professor Ed Louis

Ed Louis is Director of Research at Phenotypeca Ltd., a small biotech company that optimises yeast for the production for therapeutics to bring affordable medicines to the underserved world.

A PhD in Genetics from Berkeley was followed by postdoctoral research at Brandeis studying genetic diversity of yeast. In 1991 a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship brought him to the Institute of Molecualr Medicine, in Oxford where he expanded into antigenic diversity in microbial parasites in addition to the yeast genomic studies with telomere biology connecting the two. A brief stint as an Oxford Don was followed by Professorships at Leicester (2000), Nottingham (2005) and return to Leicester (2013) where breeding and quantitative trait technologies in yeast were developed to explore and exploit genetic variation. Phenotypeca was founded on the 40 years of Ed’s academic research in yeast genetic and phenotypic diversity combined with rational genetic engineering.

Partial retirement from academia in 2019 followed by full retirement in 2023 has allowed Ed to grow into fulltime Director after starting as a parttime CSO. Over the years Ed has served on many committees, panels and boards, including as Trustee Director of EI, and still serves on such both industrially and academically.

Nick Maishman

Nick is a senior leader with over 30 years’ experience in process development, technology transfer and manufacturing and supply in the pharmaceuticals, biotech and vaccines industry.

He has expertise in leading change, start-up, and product approvals, working in the UK, Ireland, Europe and US.

Nick is now working as an NED, a Business Mentor and an Executive Coach. He has a degree in Microbiology from Imperial College University of London, and an MBA from the University of Warwick Business School.

Dr Stephanie Pilkington

Stephanie Pilkington is a highly-regarded and experienced patent attorney at the IP law firm Potter Clarkson, with a particular specialism in molecular biology.

She was also the first female Board member at the firm. In her career as a biotech patent attorney, Stephanie has worked with many start-ups and university spinouts, as well as established international corporations.

She has extensive experience in advising SMEs and academic technology transfer departments and brings valuable experience of working within the Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation environment. Prior to her legal career, Stephanie completed a PhD in Molecular Biology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

During her time as a Research Biochemist, she gained first-hand industry experience working for Fisons Pharmaceuticals, then Astra AB.