James is a highly experienced medicinal chemist and life sciences executive with a strong scientific background in drug discovery and development, combined with many years of strategic leadership experience as a board member and company director. James has a strong track record for building high-performing scientific teams and scaling drug discovery businesses through a mixture of organic growth and targeted acquisition. James has worked across a range of different modalities and target classes, enjoying a career that has spanned CROs, CDMOs, Research Institutes and Big Pharma companies, giving him a broad range of experience and understanding of the drug discovery process. Prior to joining BioAscent, James was Chief Operating Officer at Charnwood Discovery, where he led the successful expansion and integration of the company’s bioscience, chemistry, and ADME teams – working at the client interface to ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality, creative solutions and the development of new opportunities for growth. James was also initially responsible for the Chemistry Business Unit at Charnwood and led the expansion of its service offering and client base. James also spent seven years as a Principal Chemist at Cancer Research UK’s Manchester Institute, where he successfully led several oncology projects. At BioAscent, James works at the client interface in collaboration with key stakeholders across all aspects of the business to further differentiate our value proposition – creating new opportunities for growth through the introduction of new clients and services.