Andrew Briggs

Professor of Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford

Professor Andrew Briggs is Professor of Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford, where his research focuses on materials and techniques for quantum information technologies and investigating vibrational states of nanotubes and charge transport through single molecules in graphene nanogaps. In addition to publishing nearly 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers, he is the author of several books that address scientific issues in the context of a broader humanist debate. His interests include understanding the influence of new technologies and how society views their potential impact on human flourishing. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Hermann Hauser

Investor & Board Observer

Hermann Hauser, entrepreneur and co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, supported the foundation of Evonetix in 2015, together with Cambridge Consultants.

In 40 year career as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Hermann has helped start a number of technology companies, including Acorn Computers and its spin-out ARM, as well as Cambridge Silicon Radio and next-generation DNA sequencing technology company Solexa, which became the market leader and was later acquired by Illumina.

Hermann was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’ in 2001.  In 2004, he was appointed a member of the Government Council for Science & Technology. In 2012, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his contribution to the translation of science into business, in 2013 a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, and in 2015 an Honorary Knight Commander (KBE) for services to engineering and industry.

Hermann holds an MA in Physics from Vienna University and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.

Nick McCooke

Non-executive Director

Nick McCooke is an experienced and successful bio-entrepreneur, well-known for his pioneering leadership in the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) space.  As CEO of Solexa, he developed the aspirational vision of the $1,000 genome.  He built and led the team that developed Solexa’s NGS platform and its listing on NASDAQ, which led subsequently to its sale to Illumina, now world leaders in NGS.

Nick has worked in the biotechnology industry for over 30 years, primarily in the areas of NGS and biomarkers.  At London-based DNA Electronics, Nick is a key member of the team leading the application of NGS technologies into near-to-patient clinical diagnostics with the LiDia platform.  In addition to his non-executive directorship with Evonetix, he is a non-executive director of AIM-listed biotech company Bioventix PLC, chairman of Sydney-based Longas Technologies, chairman of Belgium-based lnc-RNA specialist Biogazelle and a member of the scientific advisory board of venture philanthropy organisation Fondation Fournier-Majoie in Brussels.

He has an MBA from the London Business School.

Ray Edgson

Non-executive Director

​Ray Edgson is the Chief Technology Officer of Cambridge Consultants and a founding member of the team that created Evonetix in 2015, serving as a director since the company’s establishment.

Ray joined Cambridge Consultants in 1986, where he has won and managed many of the company’s largest medical product development programmes in dialysis and medical diagnostics. He has managed the ventures programme since 2001 and been a member of the Cambridge Consultants board since 2007.

Before joining Cambridge Consultants, Ray held positions in the aerospace and industrial equipment sectors.

He holds a degree in Engineering from Brunel University and an MBA from London Business School. He has held numerous directorships and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.

Stephanie Brooking

Head of Product Management

Stephanie Brooking was appointed as Head of Product Management in January 2019.

Stephanie has over 20 years’ commercial experience in the life science industry, having worked in operational, sales and marketing leadership roles to support product development and introduction, commercial launch planning and marketing content strategy. She has helped execute programmes to open new geographies and market opportunities within research, clinical, agricultural, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.

Previously she was the VP of Marketing and Sales at Cambridge Epigenetix, Global Commercial Director at Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and also held senior positions at Illumina, Applied Biosystems, Affymetrix and GE Healthcare (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). She first began her career working on the Human Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Stephanie will help to define the company’s strategy for market entry and longer-term product marketing for its novel gene synthesis products.

Raquel Sanches-Kuiper

Director of Biology

Raquel Sanches-Kuiper was appointed Director of Biology of Evonetix in February 2017.

Raquel is an experienced R&D leader with a track-record of taking new ideas from concept phase to commercialised products in the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) space.

Before joining Evonetix, Raquel was at Solexa (then Illumina Inc.) from 2002 as a Protein Engineer and major contributor to its disruptive NGS technology. She then moved to leadership roles of global multidisciplinary projects to support product development and introduction of new products. She also acted as a Consultant for projects in collaboration with Genomics England, Technology Development and Applications, and Customer Support.

Prior to that, Raquel was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, in the area of cancer gene therapy.

Raquel holds a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Auvergne and a MSci in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon.

Tim Brears

Chief Executive Officer

Tim Brears was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Evonetix in May 2017. Tim previously served as Chief Executive of a number of bioscience companies, including Xention, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the discovery and development of ion-channel-modulating drugs for the control of atrial fibrillation, and Gendaq, a company focused on the development of zinc finger proteins for gene regulation. Prior to that, he spent ten years in the US, initially as a long-term fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organisation at Rockefeller University, New York, and subsequently as Director of Licensing at Ciba-Geigy (later Novartis) Agribusiness in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Tim is a graduate of Oxford University and holds a PhD in molecular biology from Cambridge University.  He also has an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is a Registered US Patent Agent.

Tim currently serves as chair of the Engineering Biology Advisory Committee of the BIA and is a member of the UK’s Synthetic Biology Leadership Council.

Tim Brears

Chief Executive Officer

​Tim Brears was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Evonetix in May 2017.

Tim previously served as Chief Executive of a number of bioscience companies, including Xention, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in the discovery and development of ion-channel-modulating drugs for the control of atrial fibrillation, and Gendaq, a company focused on the development of zinc finger proteins for gene regulation.

Prior to that, he spent ten years in the US, initially as a long-term fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organisation at Rockefeller University, New York, and subsequently as Director of Licensing at Ciba-Geigy (later Novartis) Agribusiness in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Tim is a graduate of Oxford University and holds a PhD in molecular biology from Cambridge University. He also has an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and is a Registered US Patent Agent.

Tim currently serves as chair of the Engineering Biology Advisory Committee of the BIA and is a member of the UK’s Synthetic Biology Leadership Council.

Matthew Hayes

Chief Technology Officer

Matthew Hayes is the Chief Technology Officer of Evonetix, and was a founder member of the team that created the company in 2015.

Before joining Evonetix, Matthew was Head of Technology for the Global Medtech Division of Cambridge Consultants.  He joined Cambridge Consultants in 2001, and was responsible for the leadership of many of their largest and most technically challenging projects.

Matthew specialises in multi-disciplinary system design, medical device development, ASIC design and opto-electronics. He holds a PhD and MEng in Electronic Engineering, both from Loughborough University.

Vishal Gulati

Non-executive Director

Dr. Vishal Gulati is one of the Europe’s leading digital healthcare investors. Vishal is a qualified physician and chairman of the Digital Health Forum. Over the last decade he has championed deals across areas including diagnostics, devices & biotech. He is currently on the boards of Horizon Discovery PLC and EcoEos. His investments include Napo Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark, Renovo, Phagenesis. He has also held board positions at Psynova Neurotech, Bioscale and Enigma Diagnostics. Previously, Vishal worked at Atlas Venture, The Wellcome Trust and Radiant Capital.

Sir David Klenerman

Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge

Professor Sir David Klenerman is Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he also earned his PhD. His research focuses on developing quantitative biophysical methods, applied to biology and biomedicine. Prof Klenerman co-developed next-generation DNA sequencing methods that were subsequently commercialised by Solexa (now Illumina), which he also co-founded. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and The Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and has received numerous awards including a Royal Medal and Interdisciplinary Award of the RSC.

Matt Ocko

Non-executive Director

Matt Ocko has three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur and VC, in the US and globally. Matt’s current investments on behalf of DCVC span from computational drug discovery and synthetic biology to robotics, AI, and large-scale enterprise platforms including quantum computers.

In addition to large IPO outcomes, many of Matt’s prior investments were acquired to become core capabilities of companies like Illumina, Cisco, Google, IBM, Amazon/AWS, VMware, Netapp, and Akamai. His venture investments prior to DCVC include Couchbase, Ayasdi, D-Wave Systems, Uber, AngelList, Fortinet (FTNT), Xensource (CTRX), UltraDNS (NSR), Facebook (FB), and Zoom.us.

Matt founded and was VP of R&D of Da Vinci Systems, a pioneering e-mail software vendor with over 1 million users world-wide prior to its acquisition. Matt holds a degree in Physics from Yale University, and he is an inventor on over 40 granted or in-process patents in areas as diverse as virtualization, fraud detection, and AR.