Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2019 and is a member of our Executive Team. Previously, he served as our Chief Financial Officer from March 2015 through September 2019.

Mr. Rawcliffe has over 20 years of experience within the biopharmaceutical industry and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Finance of GSK’s North American Pharmaceuticals business. He joined GSK in 1998 and his other senior roles at the company included Senior Vice President Worldwide Business Development and R&D Finance, where he was responsible for all business development and finance activities for GSK’s Pharmaceuticals R&D business and Managing Partner and President of SR One Ltd, GSK’s venture‑capital business. Mr. Rawcliffe currently serves as a non‑executive director of WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ: WVE).

Mr. Rawcliffe qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and holds a B.Sc. degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham, UK.

William (Bill) Bertrand has served as our Chief Operating Officer since March 2017 and is responsible for operational functions including business operations, legal/IP,  compliance, human resources, quality, corporate affairs (including communications and investor relations) and IM.  He is a member of our Executive Team and also serves as the company’s Chief Compliance Officer.

Mr. Bertrand’s prior experience includes a 12 year tenure at MedImmune, where he served as its first General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, along with holding a variety of operational and corporate strategy roles. He has also formerly served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel for Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and as Senior Vice President, Acting Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for Salix Pharmaceuticals, where he remained as General Manager to help finalize the integration of the company’s $14 billion acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals in April 2015. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Ardelyx, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDX) and has served as a member of the board of directors of several private companies including Trustwave and Inotek Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Bertrand received a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. in biology from Wayne State University.

Kerry has served as our General Counsel since October 2015. She heads up the teams in legal, intellectual property, corporate compliance and clinical compliance, COSHH/Biological Safety (BioCOSHH) and HTA Compliance teams.

She graduated from Imperial College with a Bsc. Hons in Biotechnology before qualifying as an English solicitor. Having over 20 years of experience, she started her legal career at magic circle firm, Linklaters before moving to IP niche firm Bird and Bird. From there, Kerry became sole counsel at Innovision, Research and Technology plc and then Regional Counsel, Europe at Broadcom Inc. Subsequently, Kerry was a commercial IP partner and co-head of the life sciences practice area at Pennington’s Manches LLP advising on a wide variety of life sciences transactions including licensing, collaboration and research, IP exploitation and strategy, life sciences regulatory advice, manufacturing, clinical trial agreements, technology transfer and supply and distribution agreements.

Gavin Wood has served as our Chief Financial Officer since April 2020 and is a member of our Executive Team. He leads our financial operations and strategy and investor relations.  

Mr. Wood has held CFO and senior management roles in public companies in the life sciences sector since 2006. Before joining Adaptimmune, he served as the Chief Financial Officer and a director of Abcam plc (LSE: ABC) from September 2016 through February 3, 2020, working as part of the executive team that led the company through a period of significant growth and change. Before that, he held a series of roles at Affymetrix Inc, (Nasdaq: AFFX) from 2006 to 2016, including serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from May 2013 through March 2016, and managing the global finance, IT, internal audit and facilities functions, until the company was acquired by ThermoFisher Scientific. Mr. Wood is currently a member of the board of directors of Atlas Antibodies AB.

Mr. Wood is a Chartered Accountant and holds a B.A. degree in Archaeology from the University of Durham, U.K.