The University of Manchester Innovation Factory
Creating positive social, economic, and environmental impact through the commercialisation of the IP developed at The University of Manchester.
Catherine Headley, CEO
Catherine has many years of experience working at the interface between academia and the commercial world, building partnerships and programmes across that interface.
She has led and supported high-performing teams working in the knowledge exchange sphere, and is passionate about the impact that can be generated through external collaboration and commercialisation of research.
Prior to joining the University, Catherine worked in the pharmaceutical industry, initially for AstraZeneca in drug discovery and later moved into pharmaceutical development, leading programmes to develop and implement novel technologies for API synthesis and manufacture with Avecia. Her research training and background is in synthetic organic chemistry, where Catherine has delivered research projects at the universities of Manchester, Oxford, Nottingham and Leeds.
Paula Dhoot, Director of Corporate Services
Being a qualified accountant, with an extensive career as a finance professional and senior leader, Paula has managed finance and other key business functions including HR, legal, marketing, IT and procurement, within various sectors.
Roisin McCallion, Director of Business Development, Investment and Licensing
Roisin McCallion is Director of Business Development, Investment and Licensing at The University of Manchester Innovation Factory.
She holds a PhD in drug delivery, conducting postdoctoral research in cellular and molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis and wound healing before joining Smith & Nephew plc as a research scientist, then moving into Business Development.
Roisin has over 20 years of Corporate M&A and Licensing experience, prior to joining the Innovation Factory in 2017 to lead the commercialisation of The University of Manchester inventions.
Duncan Henderson, Head of Innovation Discovery
As Head of Innovation Discovery, Duncan's role is to lead a team of project managers whose remit is to reach out across the University to find new inventions and discoveries and to assess their commercial attractiveness.
Before joining the Innovation Factory, Duncan was the Chief Technical Officer for Microbiosensor, a University spinout aiming to commercialise In vitro diagnostic tests using tetrazolium chemistries to detect infections.
Prior to this Duncan was Research Manager and then CEO of another spinout, Ai2, which was focussed on commercialising a family of antimicrobial peptides, with its main area of interest being prevention of contact lens-related infections.
Duncan also worked in R&D at a large pharmaceutical company – AstraZeneca - for 20 years, leading teams identifying new targets, and managing drug discovery projects in respiratory, inflammation, infection and diabetes, as well as with novel types of therapeutics such as antibodies, siRNAs, antisense and aptamers.
Duncan’s PhD was on the molecular genetics of the antibiotic-producing bacteria Streptomyces.