Sir Richard Sykes
Major Career Roles:
- Former Chair and Chief Executive, GlaxoSmithKline
- Chair, UK Government Vaccine Taskforce
- Chair, The Royal Institution of Great Britain
- Chair, King Edward VII’s Hospital
- Chair, Omnicyte Ltd
- Non-Executive Director, PDS Biotechnology Corp.
- Chair, The UK Stem Cell Foundation
- International Advisory Board, A*Star Biomedical Research Council, Singapore and Chancellor of Brunel University
- Chair, NHS London
Other Career Highlights:
- President, Research and Development Society
- Chair, NetScientific plc
- Chair, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
- Chair, PDS Operating Corp
- Chair, British Pharma Group
- Chair, Frontier Smart Technology Group ltd
- Chair, Medeus Pharma Limited
- Vice Chair, Swiss life sciences company Lonza Group AG
- Deputy Chair, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp
- Member of the President’s Committee, Confederation of British Industry
Sir Richard Sykes has over 30 years of international senior leadership experience which gave him a multi-industry knowledge in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, mining, private equity. Sir Richard gained this knowledge through working as Chair and CEO for FTSE 100, FTSE AIM, STOXX EUROPE 50 and private companies.
Sir Richard was previously the Chair and Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline. He currently serves as Chair of King Edward VII’s Hospital, Non-Executive Director of PDS Biotechnology and as joint Advisory Board member for the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and the Grantham Research Institute at LSE. Sir Richard is also the President of the Research and Development Society.
Sir Richard has held a number of senior appointments including , Chair of the UK Government Vaccine Taskforce, Chair of The UK Stem Cell Foundation, Chair and Chief Executive of Glaxo and Chair and Chief Executive Glaxo Wellcome plc following the acquisition of Wellcome. He led the company through the formation of GlaxoSmithKline plc, where he was Chair and CEO.
Sir Richard was also on the International Advisory Board, of A*Star Biomedical Research Council, Singapore and he was the Chancellor of Brunel University.
Other appointments include Chair of NetScientific plc, the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, NHS London, PDS Operating Corp, British Pharma Group, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, Frontier Smart Technology Group ltd, Medeus Pharma Limited, Vice Chair at Swiss life sciences company Lonza Group AG, Senior Non-Executive Director of Eurasian Natural Resources Corp, a member of the President’s Committee of the Confederation of British Industry, a member of the UK Trade Policy Forum, Chair of the Task Force for Inward Investment in the UK Pharmaceutical Industry, a member of the Advisory Committee for Human Genome Research, a member of the Council for Industry & Higher Education and member of DTI’s Strategy Board. He was also a Senior Independent Director of Rio Tinto plc, Board member of ContraFect Corp and a Non-Executive Chair of Circassia Holdings Ltd.
