Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe

Chief Executive Officer

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

Chief Operating Officer

William (Bill) Bertrand has served as our Chief Operating Officer since March 2017 and is responsible for operational functions including commercial, compliance, human resources, quality and legal/IP, communications and IM. He is a member of our Executive Team.

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.

Joanna (Jo) Brewer, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jo Brewer has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since May 4, 2022 and is a member of our Executive Team.

Most recently, Dr. Brewer served as Senior Vice President, Allogeneic Research at Adaptimmune since December 2019. In this role, she built the Allogeneic Research organization from the ground up and took the concept of iPSC-derived allogeneic T-cell therapies from an idea into the potential for an allogeneic candidate in the clinic. Prior to her SVP role, Dr. Brewer held a series of senior managerial roles within Adaptimmune’s research organization. Her experience in immunotherapy and cell therapy at Adaptimmune and its predecessor companies spans more than 20 years and includes roles across the breadth of discovery. Before focusing solely on the allogeneic platform, Dr. Brewer was one of the founding scientists at Adaptimmune who built multiple research teams working on the development of SPEAR T-cell therapies including NY-ESO (transitioned to GSK in 2018), ADP-A2M4 and ADP-A2AFP, as well as early next-generation approaches including the ADP-A2M4CD8 construct.

Prior to joining Adaptimmune in 2009, Dr. Brewer held positions at Avidex, Medigene and Immunocore. She holds a master’s degree in Natural Sciences, and a Ph.D. in cellular signalling, both from the University of Cambridge, U.K.

Mark Dudley, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Early Stage Development

Dr. Mark Dudley has served as Senior Vice President (SVP) of our Early Stage Development Group since December 2019, in charge of evaluating therapies in Phase 1 studies for safety and determining their potential for further clinical development. He previously served as SVP Product Development, having joined Adaptimmune in 2017.

Dr. Dudley is a pioneer in the field of cell and gene therapies. He led the early phase process development group and contributed to BLA activities, enabling approval by the FDA of the first cell and gene therapy product in the United States (KYMRIAH™), while at Novartis from 2013 to 2016.

He has implemented innovative process design, product analysis, and lifecycle management for cellular therapies from exploratory clinical trials to commercial products. His work has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications including seminal studies demonstrating that lymphodepletion combined with a patient’s autologous T-cells can mediate complete responses in advanced refractory cancers.

Dr. Dudley helped implement first-in-human clinical studies with young tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), affinity optimized TCR T-cells, and next-generation CAR T-cells as the Head of Manufacturing and Process Development at the Surgery Branch of the NCI, between 2004 and 2013.

Dr. Dudley holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He received post-doctoral fellowship awards from The University of Pennsylvania and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine before joining the Surgery Branch of The National Cancer Institute.

John Lunger

Chief Patient Supply Officer

John Lunger has served as our Chief Patient Supply Officer since August 2019 and is a member of our Executive Team. John leads the teams responsible for producing and delivering products to patients, accelerating supply execution, and optimizing the supply chain to be ready for commercialization. Prior to joining our Executive Team, he was Senior Vice President, Manufacturing and Supply Chain at Adaptimmune, having joined the Company in March of 2017. In this role, he was responsible for clinical manufacturing and global supply of Adaptimmune’s autologous T-cell therapy products. 

Previously, John was Head of Supply Chain and Commercial Product Supply at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where he led clinical and commercial supply chain as well as the cross-functional supply team for Merrimack’s first commercial product launched in October of 2015.  Earlier in his career, he held various senior manufacturing, operational, and strategy roles with VWR International, Pfizer, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In his nearly 10 years with Wyeth he held a number of leadership positions, including operations and supply chain strategy, supply management, procurement and strategic sourcing, business systems implementation, generic pharmaceutical business management, and site operations management in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Ireland. John began his career serving as a nuclear-trained officer on a U.S. Navy submarine followed by strategic consulting with Accenture. He previously served as a non-executive director of Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNCA).

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree (with distinction) in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA in economics and operations management from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Karen Miller, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Pipeline Research

Dr. Karen Miller has served as Senior Vice President of our Pipeline Research team since April 2019, working to design, engineer and validate advanced cell therapies for the treatment of cancer.

Dr. Miller is an immunologist by training with more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery across a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammatory disease, and neurosciences. She has broad experience in small molecule and biological drug discovery with more recent experience in cell and gene therapy.

Dr. Miller joined Adaptimmune in 2019 from GSK where she was Vice President, Head of the Immunology Innovation Fund from 2017, with responsibility for sourcing and evaluating internal and external project opportunities in immunology across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology. From 2013 to 2017, she led GSK’s cytokine, chemokine, and complement discovery performance unit taking projects, such as otilimab and sirukumab, from target identification and validation through to late-stage clinical trials.

Her prior roles have included Head of Biology for UCB Pharma, from 2006 to 2013, making contributions to the development of brivaracetam, lacosamide, levetiracetam, rotigotine, and certolizumab pegol. Between 1998 and 2006, she was Head of Biology at Vertex.

She earned a B.Sc. degree in Medical Cell Biology and a Ph.D. in cell secretory mechanisms from Liverpool University and a PhD funded by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Co-operative Award in Science and Engineering award with ICI Pharmaceuticals before starting her research career at Imperial College in London.

Elliot Norry, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Elliot Norry has served as our Chief Medical Officer (CMO) since January 2020 after having served as our acting CMO since August 2019. He is a member of our Executive Team.

Previously, Dr. Norry was Vice President and Head of Clinical Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Adaptimmune, and leader of our ADP-A2AFP program, having joined the company in July 2015.

Prior to joining Adaptimmune, Dr. Norry served as Safety Development Leader at GSK from 2009, where he managed clinical safety for a broad range of early and late stage products, including approval activities for pazopanib for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. He was also Chair of GSK’s Hepatic Safety Panel.

Prior to his roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Norry practiced adult internal medicine at Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pennsylvania for 13 years. He holds a B.A. from Columbia College and an M.D. from New York University. He performed his residency in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and his fellowship in gastroenterology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Helen Tayton-Martin, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Chief Business & Strategy Officer

Dr. Helen Tayton-Martin has served as our Chief Business & Strategy Officer since October 2022 and is a member of our Executive Team. She formerly served as our Chief Business Officer since 2017 and as our Chief Operating Officer since 2008, a role in which she oversaw the transition of all operations in the company from five to 300 staff, through transatlantic growth, multiple clinical, academic and commercial collaborations and private and public financing through to its Nasdaq IPO.

As our CBSO, Dr. Tayton-Martin is responsible for optimizing the strategic and commercial opportunity for Adaptimmune’s assets, leading on business development, competitive intelligence and alliance management. Her role encompasses all aspects of pipeline and technology assessment, strategic portfolio analysis and partnerships, including the company’s strategic partnerships with Astellas, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE/NYSE: GSK).

Dr. Tayton‑Martin has 30 years of experience working within the pharma, biotech and consulting environment in disciplines across preclinical and clinical development, outsourcing, strategic planning, due diligence, business development and company operations. She co‑founded Adaptimmune from the former company, Avidex Limited, where she had been responsible for business development of the soluble TCR program in cancer and HIV from 2005 to 2008.

Dr. Tayton‑Martin previously served as a non‑executive director of Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq and TSX: TRIL) from October 2017 through the sale of the company in November 2021 to Pfizer Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular immunology from the University of Bristol, U.K. and an M.B.A. from London Business School.

Dennis Williams, Pharm.D.

Senior Vice President, Late Stage Development

Dennis Williams has served as Senior Vice President, Late Stage Development since December 2019 and is responsible for overseeing our late stage pipeline activities, including Phase 2/3 clinical trials through market application submission and approval.

Dr. Williams joined Adaptimmune in 2015 and served as Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs. He has also led our ADP-A2M4 development program and previously led the NY-ESO development program prior to the transition of NY-ESO to GSK. 

Prior to joining Adaptimmune, Dr. Williams served as Director and Global Regulatory Lead at GSK Oncology, where he was instrumental in the development and approval of innovative products such as PROMACTA®/REVOLADE®. 

Dr. Williams has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2000 at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Williams holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Temple University.

Gavin Wood

Chief Financial Officer

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.