David M. Mott

Chairman

David Mott has served as our Chairman since January 2017 and as a Non-Executive Director since February 2015. He formerly served as a Non-Executive Director of Adaptimmune Limited since September 2014, initially in a capacity as a nominee of New Enterprise Associates 14 LP (NEA), one of our shareholders. Mr. Mott formerly served as a General Partner of NEA, an investment firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments, from September 2008 to February 2020, and led its healthcare investing practice.

Prior to joining NEA, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of MedImmune LLC, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca Plc, and Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca Plc. From 1992 to 2008, Mr. Mott worked at MedImmune and served in roles including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining MedImmune, Mr. Mott was a Vice President in the Health Care Investment Banking Group at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., Inc.

Mr. Mott is currently a private investor through Mott Family Capital. He is Chairman of Ardelyx, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDX)and Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRSN) and serves as a director of Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX). He previously served as Chairman of Epizyme, Inc (Nasdaq: EPZM), Imara, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMRA) and TESARO, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSRO) and as a director of Nightstar Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: NITE). He has also previously served on numerous public and private company boards. Mr. Mott received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and government from Dartmouth College.

Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D.

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Andrew Allen has served as a Non-Executive Director and a member of our Remuneration Committee since June 2023 following the merger of Adaptimmune with TCR² Therapeutics, Inc (“TCR²”). He also serves as a member of our R&D Committee. He formerly served as a board member of TCR² from December 2018 to June 2023.

Dr. Allen currently serves as Executive Chairman of Peptone, Inc. and Revitope Oncology, Inc, and as a director of Verge Genomics, Inc. (all private companies), and on the board of Health Innovation Manchester (UK). Previously, he was a co-founder of Gritstone bio, Inc., and served as its President, Chief Executive Officer, and board member from its inception in August 2015 until December 2024.

Prior to Gritstone, in April 2009, Dr. Allen co-founded Clovis Oncology, Inc., a public pharmaceutical development company, and served as Chief Medical Officer until July 2015. Prior to that, he was Chief Medical Officer at Pharmion Corporation from 2006 to 2008 (acquired by Celgene). Previously, Dr. Allen served in clinical development leadership roles at Chiron Corporation and Abbott Laboratories and worked at McKinsey & Company. He previously served on the board of directors of Sierra Oncology (acquired by GSK in 2022), Epizyme (acquired by Ipsen in 2022) and Cell Design Labs (acquired by Gilead in 2017). 

Dr. Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and received a Ph.D. in immunology from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London

Lawrence M. Alleva

Non-Executive Director

Lawrence (Larry) Alleva has served as a Non‑Executive Director since March 2015. Mr. Alleva is a former partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), where he worked for 39 years from 1971 until his retirement in June 2010, including 28 years’ service as a partner.

Mr. Alleva worked with numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as clients and, additionally, served PwC in a variety of office, regional and national practice leadership roles, most recently as the U.S. Ethics and Compliance Leader for the firm’s Assurance Practice from 2006 until 2010.

Mr. Alleva currently serves as a director for public companies Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BFAM), Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRSN) and Galera Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: GRTX) and chairs the audit committee for those companies. He previously served as a director of Mirna Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE: MIRN) and TESARO, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSRO), and of GlobalLogic, Inc. through the sale of the company in 2013 and chaired the audit committee for those companies. 

Mr. Alleva is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive). He received a B.S. degree in Accounting from Ithaca College and attended Columbia University’s Executive M.B.A. non-degree program.

Ali Behbahani, M.D.

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Ali Behbahani has served as a Non-Executive Director since February 2015 and formerly served as a Non-Executive Director of Adaptimmune Limited since September 2014, initially in a capacity as a nominee of New Enterprise Associates 14 LP, (NEA), one of our shareholders.

Dr. Behbahani is a Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare at NEA, having worked in various roles for the fund since 2007, specializing in investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is currently a board member of public companies Arcellx (Nasdaq: ACLX), Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc (Nasdaq: BDTX), CRISPR Therapeutics AG (Nasdaq: CRSP), Monte Rosa Therapeutics (Nasdaq: GLUE) and Nkarta (Nasdaq: NKTX) and formerly served as a director of CVRx (Nasdaq: CVRX), Genocea (Nasdaq: GNCA), Minerva Surgical (Nasdaq: UTRS), Nevro Corp (NYSE: NVRO) and Oyster Point Pharma, Inc (Nasdaq: OYST). He also serves as a director for several private companies, including 858 Therapeutics, Enceladus Bio, Korro Bio, Nexo Therapeutics, Revelio Therapeutics, Red Ridge Bio, Spyglass Pharma, Stablix and Tune Therapeutics. He has previously worked as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company and held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners from 2000 to 2002 and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers from 1998 to 2000.

Dr. Behbahani conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University. He holds an M.D. degree from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

John Furey

Non-Executive Director

John Furey has served as a Non-Executive Director since July 2018. He has over 30 years of experience of developing and implementing operational strategies and leading commercial and technical teams.

Mr. Furey has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Imvax, Inc since September 2019. He also serves as a board member  of Vaxcyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCVX) and formerly served as a board member of Sensorion (Euronext Growth: ALSEN. Prior to joining Imvax, Mr. Furey served as Chief Operating Officer at Spark Therapeutics, Inc from December 1, 2016 through December 31, 2018, where he was responsible for global commercial operations, medical affairs and technical operations.

Prior to joining Spark Therapeutics, Mr. Furey was senior vice president and head of global operations for Baxalta, where he directed manufacturing, quality, engineering, and process development. He actively managed a $2.5 billion production budget across Baxalta’s global network and led a first-in-class supply chain organization for rare diseases. Mr. Furey led the team that coordinated and delivered the successful establishment of Baxalta through a spin out from Baxter and led the Baxter Vaccine inline business to realize significant top line and bottom line growth. He also spent two years in China as general manager of Pfizer’s vaccine business unit following a role with responsibility for global pricing and reimbursement at Pfizer Vaccines. In these roles, Mr. Furey gained extensive experience in pipeline development and global product launches. Earlier in his career, he held both commercial and operations positions of increasing scope and responsibility with Pfizer and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Furey has an executive M.B.A. from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, a B.S. degree from Trinity College, Dublin, and a diploma in Environmental Health from the Technology University, Dublin.

Priti Hegde, Ph.D.

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Priti Hegde has served as a Non-Executive Director since June 2023 following the merger of Adaptimmune with TCR² Therapeutics, Inc (TCR²). She formerly served as a board member of TCR² from August 2021 to June 2023.

Dr. Hegde is SVP and Global Head of Research of Kite, a Gilead company (Nasdaq: GILD). Previously, she served as Chief Scientific Officer of Foundation Medicine Inc., where she oversaw clinical product development, cancer genomics, regulatory and early stage research to advance their leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. Prior to Foundation Medicine, Dr. Hegde held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech for 12 years, where she served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy and was responsible for clinical translation strategies for more than 18 therapeutic programs in over 100 Phase I-III global clinical trials. Dr. Hegde was also instrumental in the approvals for Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), a PD-L1 immunotherapy, in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings. Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Hegde was the manager of disease and biomarker transcriptomics at GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr. Hegde completed her post-doctoral fellowship at The Institute for Genomic Research and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemical Pharmacology from SUNY Buffalo, as well as a B. Pharmacy degree from Mumbai University, India.

Kristen M. Hege, M.D.

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Kristen Hege has served as a Non-Executive Director since November 2023. She also serves as Chairman of our R&D Committee.

Dr. Hege has more than two decades of oncology clinical leadership experience. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President, Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) from November 2019, following BMS’ acquisition of Celgene, until her retirement in March 2023. She held a similar role at Celgene from 2010 to 2019. At both companies she was responsible for global early clinical development and oversight of their pipelines and partnered assets, including cell therapies, in all hematologic and solid tumor indications from first-in-human studies through human proof-of-concept. A highlight was leadership of the bluebird bio partnered BCMA CAR T cell (Abecma) product development from target identification to FDA approval.

In addition, Dr. Hege spent over two decades as a part time clinical faculty member in the division of hematology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), most recently as Clinical Professor of Medicine. Prior to Celgene, she was a senior medical advisor to development-stage biotech companies including Aragon, Cellerant and Theraclone. A pioneer in immuno-oncology, Dr. Hege began her career at Cell Genesys Inc. where she spent 14 years in various roles of increasing responsibility focused on cell and gene therapy development, including oversight of pioneering clinical studies of CAR T cells in HIV infection and cancer.

Dr. Hege holds a M.D. from the UCSF School of Medicine and a B.A. in biochemistry from Dartmouth College. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a subspecialty fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at UCSF.

Dr. Hege also serves as a board member of Mersana Therapeutics, Inc (Nasdaq: MRSN) and private companies, EvolveImmune Therapeutics, Inc., KSQ Therapeutics, Inc. and Kelonia Therapeutics, Inc. She formerly served as a board member of Graphite Bio, Inc. In 2022 she was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” in recognition of her leadership role in the development of Abecma.

Garry Menzel, Ph.D.

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Garry Menzel has served as a Non-Executive Director since June 2023 following the merger of Adaptimmune with TCR² Therapeutics. He formerly served as a board member and Chief Executive Officer of TCR² from 2016 to June 2023.

Dr. Menzel has over 25 years of experience in building healthcare businesses and leading high-performing teams of professionals. His versatile career has included operational roles covering drug development, manufacturing, commercialization, financing, and M&A. Prior to TCR², he was the Chief Financial Officer at DaVita Healthcare (NYSE: DVA), a kidney dialysis and primary care physician company, and the Chief Operating Officer at Regulus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RGLS), a microRNA therapy company. Dr. Menzel also had global leadership roles in running the biotechnology practices at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse where he advised on more than $100 billion in strategic transactions. In addition, he was a consultant with Bain & Company.

Dr. Menzel was a founding board member of Fierce 15 award winner Black Diamond Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BDTX), a clinical stage precision oncology company, and serves as chair of the audit committee. He also currently serves as a board member of Stoke Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STOK), a clinical stage biotechnology company using novel antisense oligonucleotide medicines to treat severe genetic diseases, as an operating partner of GHO Capital Partners LLP and as president of RoslinCT, a privately held contract development and manufacturing services organization focused on cell and gene therapies.

Dr. Menzel earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge for studying the regulation of oncogenes in immune cells. He also has a M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

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.