Prior to joining BioAscent as Chief Scientific Officer in 2018, Phil had over 30 years medicinal chemistry and drug discovery experience from Roche, Organon, Schering-Plough, Merck and the University of Dundee including senior roles as Executive Director, Acting Site Head and managing global project portfolios. Numerous clinical candidates, across a range of therapeutic areas and target families, resulted from groups for which he was responsible. He led the work establishing the European Screening Centre team at Biocity Glasgow in Newhouse; a group that has been instrumental in delivering validated hit series for SMEs and academics across Europe through collaborative programmes as part of the IMI-funded European Lead Factory. In 2020, Phil was seconded to establish the Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow, a key element in the UK Covid-19 testing network. In 2022, Phil stepped back from the CSO role to take up his current position as Chief Scientific Advisor at BioAscent. Phil’s postgraduate studies were carried out at the University of Manchester and Imperial College. Phil was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2005, he chaired the Medicinal Chemistry interest group of the Royal Society of Chemistry for 8 years, chaired the organising committee of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry – International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC-ISMC) in 2016 and sat on the Executive Committee of the EFMC for four years. He is a co-author on over 80 scientific papers and patents.