His career started in engineering and project management. Then as an entrepreneur he started and raised money for companies in various sectors as well as running an investor network.
Chief Operating Officer, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group
Alix Mackay MRSC has 14 years commercial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry marketing, selling and launching innovative products. Now based in Glasgow, she helps ambitious leaders in healthcare and life sciences increase their presence in the market in order to launch new technologies or to accelerate sales performance.
From 2009 to 2014, Alix launched and led the UK marketing strategy for Amgen’s Prolia®, a joint venture with GSK, rapidly building the brand’s presence in the market through focusing on customer insights, evidence-based communication and collaborating with the field’s most influential thought leaders. Alix’s career began at Servier Laboratories Ltd. where, over nine years, she had increasingly senior roles in sales, training and marketing, specialising in the fields of cardiology and bone health. She has gained valuable experience in conducting robust market analyses to secure internal investment, capturing detailed customer insights to demonstrate value and achieving operational excellence among large sales teams to maximise return on investment.
She co-leads the Life Sciences Scotland Marketing & Communications group to help drive the Industry Leadership Group’s 2025 strategy and regularly speaks at sector conferences and events.
Alix has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, an associate member of IBioIC (the industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre), is certified for promotion to health professionals by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and is Inbound Marketing Certified by HubSpot.
Ronnie is the Regional Skills Planning Lead (Central) for Skills Development Scotland (SDS), covering Forth Valley, Stirling, Clackmannanshire, Fife, Perth & Kinross, Angus and Dundee. This is a strategic role within SDS, working closely with partners across Central Scotland to align the delivery of Scotland’s Enterprise and Skills agencies and drive the implementation of the SDS Strategic plan. Ronnie has significant experience in developing and implementing skills strategies across the key growth sectors and regions and works closely with partners at a senior level across industry bodies, academia and public agencies to ensure that the skills system is aligned with and informed by employer demand for skills. Ronnie also acts as the lead SDS representative for the City / Growth Deal Partnerships within the central regions.
Previous to taking up this position, Ronnie was the Key Sector Manager for Life and Chemical Sciences in SDS.
Head of Investment Management, Scottish Investment Bank
Derek is Head of Investment Management within the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise (SE). Derek leads the teams responsible for SIB’s Portfolio Management, Compliance & Risk Management and Business Support functions.
The role of SIB is to grow Scotland’s private sector funding market, ensuring both early stage and established SMEs with growth and exporting potential have adequate access to growth capital to reach their full potential. The Portfolio Management team manages SE’s portfolio of commercial investments across SIB’s equity funds that consists of 280 companies valued at c£260m.
Derek also oversees the team responsible for delivery of the compliance, risk management and business supports functions within SIB. Derek joined SE from Bank of Scotland where he was Associate Director having spent eight years in a variety of roles within the Corporate Banking division, including within the equity investment and high growth start-up teams.
Professor of Medical Biotechnology, University of Aberdeen
Andy is Professor of Medical Biotechnology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland and Director of the Scottish Biologics Facility. In 2006 he was became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and is currently the Vice President for Business, chairing the Economy and Enterprise Committee and helping to run the highly successful Enterprise Fellowship scheme which has launched over 200 businesses. Andy also holds non-executive Board positions on a number of Scottish biotechnology companies including Elasmogen Ltd and Novabiotics Ltd. Outside of bioscience, and with a team of young industry savvy entrepreneurs, Andy has helped to establish a portfolio of award winning cocktail bars (top 200 in the world) and opened Langstrane Liquor Ltd in 2015, Aberdeen’s first gin distillery for 100 years. Andy is a graduate of St Andrew’s University.
Head of life sciences at Highlands and Islands Enterprise
James is currently Head of Health & Life Sciences for Highlands and Islands Enterprise where he has responsibility for driving sector growth, setting strategy, securing resources and engagement with partners and stakeholders.
Prior to returning to his home planet of Inverness, James had a number of roles and worked across multiple sectors with Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International. James led on highly-intricate and often politically-sensitive projects. These included Sales & Marketing Director at Edinburgh BioQuarter and projects with Amazon, Aptuit, GSK, Quintiles, Toshiba Medical, SELEX, and Bausch & Lomb.