See our management structure

Management

Chief Executive Officer

Mr Léon J.A. Spijkers, MSc, PhD

Co-founder & CEO. Leon has over 15 years’ experience in Life Sciences and Pharma management, R&D and business development. Léon founded a biotech interim-management and consultancy firm via which he held several client positions as Chief Business Officer and BD Director. He worked with biotech start-up and scale-up clients, co-founded a biotech company from incorporation towards clinical stage and accumulated a significant track record in evolving ventures to the next phase. He holds a PhD in molecular cell biology, is a registered pharmacologist and holds a certificate in business administration essentials from the London School of Economics.

Korecyte Bio is an international biotech startup based between the Netherlands and United Kingdom that was established in 2023. Our mission is to develop next-generation CAR-T cellular immunotherapies

Chief Scientific Officer

Prof James N. Arnold, DPhil

Co-founder & CSO. James has over 20 years of research experience in the field of Immunology. He acquired his DPhil at the University of Oxford and conducted his Postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. James established the Tumour Immunology Group at King’s College London in 2012 and has dedicated his team there to developing new immunotherapy strategies for treating cancer. James has sat on Grant Committees for major UK cancer charities and currently holds the academic grade of full professor in Tumour Immunology and Immunotherapy at King’s College London. James is a co-inventor of HypoxiCAR Immunotherapy.

Chief Financial Officer

Mr Simi Nehra, BA, ACA, CF

Co-founder & CFO. Simi is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience. As an experienced CFO, he has led the growth of companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals and he has supported several Healthcare and Life Sciences companies. With his hands-on approach, he has been involved in several scale-up companies from managing KPIs, driving M&A transactions and capital raising processes, setting up financial and reporting systems, managing working capital, budgeting and cash flow forecasting. Previously, he was Head of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) for KPMG in the Middle East region, where he provided buy side, sell side and capital raising solutions to private equity (PE) and corporate clients. Prior to joining KPMG, Simi was a Corporate Finance Partner at Grant Thornton. Simi secured the accolade of the Mergermarket ‘2018 M&A Middle East winner for healthcare’.

Board of Directors

Dr Ian Durrant

-Board Observer-
Ian is responsible for the identification, protection and commercialisation of technologies arising from the academic research at King’s with a particular focus on the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Faculty of Dentistry. Early research career was as a bench scientist in Liverpool and later at the Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright, before joining Amersham International. He managed the development and commercialisation of novel non-radioactive products and technology platforms for research use. He subsequently joined Oxford Immunotec Ltd, a spin-out from the University of Oxford, focused on exploitation and commercialisation of the T-Cell based immune system as a diagnostic platform. Later, as Director of IP, Licensing and Scientific Operations, he was responsible for management of the company’s IP portfolio (licenses, patents and trademarks) and experienced the company’s successful IPO in 2013 on the NASDAQ and purchase by Perkin Elmer in 2021.

Prof James Arnold

-Director-

Dr Leon Spijkers

-Director & Chairperson-

Dr Andrew Brooks

-Board Observer-
Andrew brings extensive expertise in the CAR-T and TCR-T therapeutics field, with experience spanning early-stage R&D, manufacturing process development, non-clinical strategy development, and regulatory support. He obtained a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge and held roles at Adaptimmune and GSK, where he contributed to the advancement of novel cell therapies toward the clinic. At CGT Catapult, he has led academic Venture Creation (spin-outs) and direct investments in promising therapeutic technologies. As an investor and board observer, he supports company growth, strategic development, and progression toward first-in-human clinical studies.

Mr Philip Brady

-Board Observer-
Philip is the Chief Financial Officer at CGT Catapult, appointed in July 2023. He leads the HR, Financial, IT, Procurement and Operational Excellence teams. Philip started his career in corporate finance at BDO Stoy Hayward where he spent eight years before moving into industry in 2008 as a Chief Financial Officer. He has worked in a number of industries including business services, aviation, facilities management and property and has led various strategic transformations, including the implementation of enterprise resource planning software. He has worked in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, in both private and listed companies. He has a law degree from King’s College London, is a Chartered Accountant and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.