Chief Executive Officer, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst

Dr Martino Picardo is the first CEO of the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. With a PhD in Biochemistry, he has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector and is a board member of UKBI.

Dr Picardo joined Amersham International in 1991 and subsequently went on to manage the R&D Technology Transfer Group, based in Cardiff, developing high throughput screening technologies for the pharmaceutical sector. Following the merger of Amersham with Pharmacia Biotech, he became the Science Director for the Cardiff site, looking to acquire and develop next generation technologies for the company.

More recently, he was Managing Director of the University of Manchester Innovation Company (UMIC), a company set up by the university to manage all incubation facilities. In this role, Dr Picardo oversaw its development into a venture that housed in excess of 80 small and medium enterprises and startup companies, generating more than 500 jobs in the process.

In addition to his role as CEO for Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, he is also acting Chairman for a start-up company, SRi Forensics Ltd and has previously been on the Board of Cartesian Technologies. He is also a non executive Director for Queen Mary Bioenterprise Ltd.