The Team
Dr Linda Magee
NWDA Biotechnology Sector Head/Head of Bionow
Linda set up Bionow in March 2000 when she joined the NWDA and it
was officially launched in November of that year. Prior to this
Linda was General Manager of Manchester Biotech Ltd, having been
co-founder in 1997 and executive project manager, raising £15M
for the UK\'s first dedicated biotechnology incubator while
Development Manager for the School of Biological Sciences at the
University of Manchester. During this time she also helped develop
the £6M Manchester Technology Fund. Before entering the
technology transfer and biotechnology start-up arena, Linda was
Technical and Marketing Manager for the UK & Europe at Pall
Biomedical, one of the US-based Pall Group of Companies.
Linda has a PhD in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Southampton and has written several articles, consulted, and spoken widely on various aspects of bioincubation, start-up requirements for biotech companies and biotechnology clustering. More recently she has become involved in various biomanufacturing forums and initiatives through her role as Project Director for the National Biomanufacturing Centre. Linda is a member of the UK\'s Bioscience Leadership Council chaired by Sir Richard Sykes.
Dr Diane Cresswell
Business Development Manager
Diane joined the team in February 2006 as Business Development Manager with a particular responsibility for healthcare and integrative technologies with applications in the biomedical sector eg nanotechnology. The focus for healthcare in Bionow is devices and diagnostics and includes working with companies involved in orthopaedics, implantable devices, woundcare, diagnostics, imaging and radiography.
Diane has a PhD in Experimental Nuclear Structure Physics from the University of Liverpool. She began her working life at UKAEA, then moved to ILFORD Limited as a Process Development Physicist, supporting both batch and continuous production processes. Throughout her career in manufacturing, Diane held several positions in technical and operations management at ILFORD Imaging. Diane is a member of the Institute of Physics and the Chartered Management Institute.
Dr Geoff Davison
Sector Development Manager
Geoff joined the Bionow team in July 2007 as Sector Development
Manager for the biomedical cluster. Geoff's remit is support of
cluster projects and information gathering with a focus on biotech
SME development in the sector. Prior to this Geoff was founder of
Biorite Ltd., a spin-out company from the University of Manchester,
which merged to form Advanced Biomedical Ltd. in 2003 where he was
Technical Director.
Geoff has a PhD from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manchester University and a BSc (Hons.) degree in Biochemistry. He began his career as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University for 4 years prior to forming and running Biorite and Advanced Biomedical in order to commercialise intellectual property developed during his research.
Helen Williams
Biotechnology Membership & Events
Co-ordinator
Helen has qualifications in business management and joined the team in October 2006, as Biotechnology Membership and Events Co-ordinator. In her previous roles Helen has worked for Pirelli Cables as Sales Support to the Middle East market, compiling reports and tenders to the region. She was most recently Office Manager/PA for several years for an events company and this experience is extremely valuable for her work in the Bionow team.
Please contact any of us at bionow@nwda.co.uk
Telephone: 01925 400100
Fax: 01925 400400
Address: Northwest Regional Development Agency
Renaissance House
PO Box 37
Centre Park
Warrington
Cheshire
WA1 1XB
