PeopleKhatereh Ahmadi has a PhD in immunology from King’s College London and held a post-doctoral position at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, UCL branch. Whilst at the Ludwig Institute, she managed a major collaboration with Astellas Pharma, focused on discovery and development of novel PI 3-kinase inhibitors for cancer therapy. The PI3-kinase program was consequently spun out to form Piramed Ltd. Khatereh, played a significant role in spinning out Piramed, including fundraising and operations. Piramed Ltd was launched in July 2003 backed by JP Morgan Partners and Merlin Bosciences and focused on discovery of PI3-kinase inhibitors for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Khatereh ‘s primary role at Piramed was to manage the company’s major program in oncology. She moved into a full time commercial role in 2004 and was subsequently appointed as Head of Business Development. The highlights of her commercial career at Piramed include a major alliance with Genentech established in 2005 worth $230M and being part of the deal team of the Roche acquisition in 2008. Piramed was a highly successful company within the UK biotech sector, winning awards from UKTI and Fiercebiotech. Khatereh has been awarded her MBA from Henley Management College in 2009. She is also a co-founder of Symansis, an antibody diagnostics company, set up in NZ and has consulted for a number of European biotechnology companies.