Prof Richard Barker is Chairman of the Health Innovation Board. Richard is a strategic advisor, speaker and author on healthcare and life sciences.

He is Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation, a major European initiative aimed at transforming the R&D and regulatory processes in life sciences to bring advances more rapidly and affordably to patients. He is also Chairman of Stem Cells for Safer Medicines, a public-private partnership developing stem cell technology for predicting the safety profile of new medicines. He is a board member of Celgene, a major US-based bio-therapeutics company and of iCo Therapeutics, a Canadian bioscience company.

His 25-year business career in healthcare has spanned biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical informatics – both in the USA and Europe. Most recently he was Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, member of the Executive Committee of EFPIA (the European industry association) and Council member of IFPMA (the international equivalent).

As a co-founder of Life Sciences UK, member of the NHS Stakeholder Forum, vice-chair of the UK Clinical Trials Collaboration and in many other roles, he has advised successive UK governments on healthcare issues, especially those relating to developing, valuing and using new healthcare technologies.

His past leadership roles include head of McKinsey’s European healthcare practice, General Manager of Healthcare Solutions for IBM and Chief Executive of Chiron Diagnostics. He was also Chairman and Chief Executive of Molecular Staging, a US bioscience company, now part of Qiagen. He therefore has experience in leading and advising a wide range of high-technology companies.

His book on the future of healthcare ‘2030 – The Future of Medicine: Avoiding a Medical Meltdown’ is published by Oxford University Press. He speaks frequently on the future of life sciences and the restructuring of healthcare systems that new technology can enable.

He lives in London, but maintains an active business network in North America and worldwide.