Corporate Governance

Professor Sir John Bell was appointed to the Immunocore Board in March 2015. Professor Bell is the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and Chairman of the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is regarded as one of the world’s most distinguished scientists in the fields of genomic and genetic research and immunology, also has significant experience in the Healthcare industry, having been a founding director at three biotechnology companies; Avidex Ltd (a precursor to Immunocore which was acquired by MediGene in 2006), Oxagen and PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc (acquired by Chiron Corporation in 2003). He currently also serves on the boards of Roche and Genentech and had a previous role on the scientific advisory board at AstraZeneca. Professor Bell was involved in the founding of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, now chairs the scientific committee of UK Biobank and the Global Health Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is one of three Life Science Champions for the UK, reporting to the UK Prime Minister. His research has contributed significantly to the understanding of immune activation in a number of auto-immune diseases.

Dr Bahija Jallal is Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Board of Immunocore. Prior to joining Immunocore in January 2019, she was President of MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development unit. She was also Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca and a member of its senior executive team.

Dr Jallal serves on the Board of Elevance, Inc. and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University.

Bahija has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and has more than 15 patents. She is also the immediate past president of the Association of Women in Science. Bahija was named the 2017 Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Bahija was Vice President, Drug Assessment and Development, at Chiron Corporation, where she successfully established the company’s translational medicine group. Prior to Chiron, she was part of the research team at Sugen, Inc.

Bahija received her PhD in Physiology from Université de Paris VI, France and conducted her post-doctorate work in molecular biology and oncology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany. 

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, is ensign professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, deputy director for Yale Cancer Center (YCC), chief of medical oncology and hematology, and program director, Master of Health Science—Clinical Investigation track at Yale School of Medicine. He is the principal investigator (PI) of the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer, PI of the YCC Advanced Training Program for Physician-Scientists, PI on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) NCTN LAPS Grant, and PI of the Yale-AstraZeneca Alliance, which has 12 projects spanning various cancer types.

Dr Herbst has led Phase I development of multiple targeted agents for non-small cell lung cancer, including gefitinib, cetuximab, bevacizumab, axitinib, atezolizumab, and anti-PD1/PDL1 therapies. Additionally, he has helped bring targeted therapy to early-stage disease as the PI of the adjuvant osimertinib study (ADAURA). He co-led MD Anderson's BATTLE-1 effort, which led to the BATTLE-2 trial defining biomarkers as standard for the use of targeted therapies. He served as the national PI of the SWOG S0819 trial and held the role of founding PI for the NCI Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP, S1400) for a decade. He has authored or coauthored more than 450 publications, and his work published in Nature was awarded Clinical Research Forum’s 2015 Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award.</p >

Dr Herbst is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum for which he organized National Academy of Medicine meetings focused on policy issues in personalized medicine and tobacco control. He is an elected member of the NCI Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee and the chair of the American Association for Cancer Research Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians.

Dr Herbst received the 2022 Giants of Cancer Care® award for lung cancer as one of their 25 scientific and advocacy leaders who have been instrumental over the course of the last 25 years in making significant advancements for patients. Most recently, Dr. Herbst received the 2024 Ezra Greenspan Award from the Chemotherapy+ Foundation for the work he has done throughout his career and the work he continues to do for lung cancer patients.

Sid Kaul was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in June 2022. Sid retired from Novartis as Group Treasurer and Head of Business Planning and Analysis in April 2021 after a 17 year career there. He led Novartis’s Strategic Review and Spin-Off for the Alcon (eye care) business. Sid joined Novartis as CFO Pharma Europe and subsequently served as CFO Pharma US following a 20-year career with Procter & Gamble in Financial Planning & Analysis, Strategic Planning, Accounting and Auditing in the US and Japan.

William Pao, M.D., Ph.D., age 57, is the co-founder and since May 2024 has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Revelio Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Revelio, Dr. Pao served as the Chief Development Officer, Executive Vice President at Pfizer, Inc. from March 2022 to August 2023. He also previously served in various roles at F. Hoffmann-LaRoche AG from May 2014 to March 2022, including most recently as its Head of Pharma Research & Early Development and as a member of its Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee from April 2018 until March 2022. In addition to his role at Revelio, Dr. Pao has served as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University since May 2024 and as an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 2014. Dr. Pao is also a member of the board of directors of the American Association for Cancer Research, as well as the boards of directors of Obsidian Therapeutics, Inc. and Alentis Therapeutics, AG. Dr. Pao has a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.D. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Kristine Peterson was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in November 2017. Ms. Peterson has more than 30 years’ experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Her most recent role was as Chief Executive Officer for Valeritas, Inc., where she led the company’s development from early stage R&D through to commercialisation, achieving approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the company’s Type 2 diabetes drug-device. In addition, Kristine raised more than $200 million in equity financing and prepared the company for its public listing on NASDAQ. Prior to Valeritas, Kristine was Company Group Chair at Johnson & Johnson for their worldwide biotech and oncology groups, growing those businesses to more than $6 billion in sales, launching several new products, and re-establishing the foundation for oncology R&D. She was also President and Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Biovail Corporation with responsibility for the US and Canadian business units. Earlier in her career, Kristine spent 20 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of senior roles, including running their cardiovascular and metabolics business unit.

Kristine continues to play a role on several other Boards of Directors at pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Amarin Corporation, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceutics, pSivida, and ImmunoGen. She is also a senior advisor to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and a former Member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization Board.

Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe has over 30 years’ experience as a clinically active physician scientist. He currently serves as Director of Clinical Research at The Francis Crick Institute in London and Director of the Target Discovery Institute and Distinguished Scholar of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research within the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. Sir Peter was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society and to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002. He is a member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy. His work has been recognised through a number of awards, including the Louis‐Jeantet Prize in Medicine, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research. In 2019, he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the key mechanisms that cells use to detect and respond to hypoxia (low oxygen levels), opening up promising new ways to tackle cancer, anaemia and many other diseases. He was knighted for services to medicine in 2014.