Trustees

Chairman

Appointed 2010, b. 1946. Michael Pragnell was appointed a Trustee in March 2010 and Chairman in November 2010. He is a member of all Council Committees, except the Audit Committee, which he attends at the invitation of the committee chairman, and chairs the Chairman’s Committee, the Nomination and Governance Committee and the Remuneration Committee. He is currently a Director of Cancer Research Technology, a non-executive director of VINCI SA, Europe’s largest construction company and a member of the board of INSEAD. He was the founder Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta AG based in Switzerland from its public listing in 2000 until his retirement at the end of 2007; he was Chairman of the Executive Committee and member of the Board. He led the creation of Syngenta to become world leader in crop protection following the merger of the agrochemicals and plant bio-science businesses of AstraZeneca and Novartis. He was previously an Executive Director of AstraZeneca plc as CEO Crop Protection having joined Zeneca plc in 1995. He was a member of the supervisory board of the Anglo-Dutch joint-venture Advanta BV and a non-executive Director of David S Smith plc from 1996 to 2000. From1975 to 1995 he worked for Courtaulds plc and was appointed to the Board as CEO Courtaulds Coatings in 1990; he became Chief Financial Officer in 1992.

Appointed 2011. Anne is an experienced Partner at leading global law firm Allen & Overy LLP where she has played a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining the firm’s position at the top of the legal profession. Her career has progressed from Partner in 1990, to Managing Partner of the London Projects Group in 1999, Non-Executive Global Board Member in 2000 and Global Head of Projects, Energy and Infrastructure, a role to which she was appointed in 2007.
Anne is highly regarded for her work in the infrastructure sector in the UK, Europe and The Americas. Her practice remains diverse, advising on infrastructure, natural resource and petrochemical deals in numerous jurisdictions. She also holds a non-executive position at the Nuclear Liabilities Finance Assurance Board (NLFAB), providing impartial scrutiny and advice to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, on the adequacy of funding provisioning for new nuclear decommissioning programmes.

Wendy is COO of Jack Wills and a non-executive director of Whitbread plc. and was named one of the top 50 women to watch in International Business by the Financial Times in 2009. She has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Starting her career at Procter & Gamble, she then became a partner at McKinsey, followed by a career in consumer technology. Wendy joined Carphone Warehouse in 2008 where she built the TalkTalk Group. She then moved to Vodafone as Group Chief Marketing Officer helping to build the company’s leading international position. Wendy is also a Trustee of the Prince’s Trust and the English National Ballet.

Appointed 2010, b. 1945. Professor Doctor Anton Berns studied biochemistry at the University of Nijmegen receiving his Masters degree in 1969 (cum laude) and his PhD in 1972. He did his postdoctoral training in the group of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, where he studied the role of retroviruses in causing lymphomas in mice. In 1976 he returned to the University of Nijmegen where he became junior staff member. In 1985 he was appointed as staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and in 1986 he became head of the Division of Molecular Genetics of the Institute. Here his group did pioneering work to generate and utilise genetically modified mice as a tool to search for new cancer genes. Currently, his group focuses on the development and use of advanced mouse models for cancer. From 1992-94 Professor Berns served as VP of Research of one of the leading gene therapy companies in the US. In 1999, he was appointed as Director of Research and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Anton van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, a position he is still holding. Professor Berns is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1997 and a member of European Molecular Biology Organisation (EBMO) since 1990. He is a member of a number of scientific advisory boards of academic institutes such as CNIO Madrid, Genomic Institute Singapore, IMP Vienna, WEHI Melbourne and European Institute of Oncology in Milan. In 2010 he succeeded Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard as Secretary General of EMBO. Until 2010 Professor Berns was vice chair of the EMBO Council and colleague of Sir Tim Hunt (Chair of the EMBO Council and a Cancer Research UK Scientist) and Dr Harold Varmus (associate member of EMBO, a Member and both a former Trustee of Cancer Research UK and a member of the Council Research Strategy Committee (CRSC)). In 2008 Professor Berns was admitted as a Member of the Charity and became a non-Trustee member of the CRSC. Prior to this he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of both the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research and of the Cambridge Research Institute. From 1992-94 Professor Berns served as VP of Research of one of the leading gene therapy companies in the US. In 1999, he was appointed Director of Research and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Anton van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, a position he still holds. Professor Berns has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1997 and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EBMO) since 1990. He is a member of a number of scientific advisory boards of academic institutes such as CNIO Madrid, Genomic Institute Singapore, IMP Vienna, WEHI Melbourne and European Institute of Oncology in Milan. In 2010 he succeeded Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard as Secretary General of EMBO. Until 2010 Professor Berns was vice chair of the EMBO Council and a colleague of Sir Tim Hunt (Chair of the EMBO Council and a Cancer Research UK Scientist) and Dr Harold Varmus (associate member of EMBO, a Member and both a former Trustee of Cancer Research UK and a member of the Council Research Strategy Committee (CRSC)). In 2008 Professor Berns was admitted as a Member of the Charity and became a non-Trustee member of the CRSC. Prior to this he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of both the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research and of the Cambridge Research Institute.

Appointed 2010, b. 1947. Professor Bird is chairman of the Council Research Strategy Committee. He retired as Deputy Chairman of the Wellcome Trust on 31 October 2010, having been appointed a Governor in October 2000, and Deputy Chairman in April 2007.
He has held the Buchanan Chair of Genetics at the University of Edinburgh since 1990, and is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at the University. His research interests are the structure and function of the mammalian genome and in particular the role of DNA methylation.
Professor Bird was a member of the Science Planning Committee for the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI), a collaboration between Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and University College London (UCL). He is a member of the editorial board of the journal ‘Molecular Cell’. Awards include the 1999 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine and the 2008 Charles Léopold Mayer Prize of the French Academy of Sciences. He is a Trustee of the Kirkhouse Trust and of the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.

Helen has an MBA from London Business School. She started her career at AMV.BBDO, the UK’s largest advertising agency, working across a wide range of business over a decade including BT, Dulux and WHSmiths. In 1999 she co-founded Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, the advertising agency behind the ‘Go on lad’ Hovis advert (which was named ITV’s ad of the decade) as well as campaigns for Waitrose, Virgin and the Department of Health. From December 2009 to December 2012, in recognition of the changing communications landscape, Helen took over the chairmanship of Dare, an agency combining broadcast and digital expertise. Helen is a member of two of the advertising world’s most prestigious networking clubs - Women in Advertising and Communications (WACL) and the 30 Club. She was also non-executive director of Courtaulds, from 2006-2008. Helen has opted for an entrepreneurial path once more, and will launch her own agency in the Summer of 2013.

Appointed 2012, b. 1954. Specialising in radiotherapy, Dr Crellin is Vice-President of the Royal College of Radiologists and the Department of Health's National Clinical Lead on Proton Beam Therapy. This is a new radiotherapy treatment which targets cancer tumours more accurately while causing less damage to surrounding healthy tissue. In December 2011, the Government announced plans to introduce proton beam therapy for cancer patients in England. Dr Crellin's research expertise includes clinical trials and new treatments for pancreatic and oesophageal cancer, both priorities for Cancer Research UK. He studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and completed his medical training at three London Hospitals: St Bartholomew's. The Middlesex and Mount Vernon. He is a former Clinical Director at the St James' Institute of Oncology in Leeds.

Appointed 2008, b. 1956. He is Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of all other Council Committees except the Audit Committee, which he attends by invitation of the committee chairman. Sir James is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries. He was Chairman of Misys plc (from 30 September 2009 to 31 May 2012) and is the Senior Independent Director of Compass Group plc (February 2007 to present). He is also a member of the European Advisory Board of Bridgepoint Capital (September 2006 to present), and a member of the Finance Committee of the Delegacy of Oxford University Press (September 2006 to present). He previously served as a non executive director of ITV (2003-2009) and the FSA (2004-2009), following a thirty year executive career in fund management, insurance and banking, before retiring from HBOS in 2006.

Appointed 2011, b. 1947. Professor Knowles, former Head of Group Research and Member of the Executive Committee at Roche up to 2009, is a global opinion leader in personalised medicine. He was the chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Board at Genentech for the last 12 years as well as a member of the Chugai Pharmaceuticals Board for seven years. Jonathan Knowles was recently appointed Professor of Translational Medicine at EPFL in Switzerland, holds a Distinguished Professorship in Personalised Health Care at FIMM (Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine) at the University of Helsinki, and has been appointed to a visiting chair at the University of Oxford. At the beginning of 2010, Professor Knowles joined the Board of Caris Life Sciences, an international cutting edge molecular diagnostics company based in Irving, Texas. In May 2010 Professor Knowles also assumed the role of Caris’ Chief Scientific Officer. He received a first class honours degree in Molecular Genetics from the University of East Anglia. He received his PhD in Genetics of Mitochondria with Professor G. H. Beale FRS from the University of Edinburgh.

Appointed 2008, b. 1954. Roger Matthews is chairman of the Audit Committee. He is a Chartered Accountant and is currently non executive Chairman of MITIE Group plc and LSL Property Services plc and is non executive Director of Zetar plc. He previously held the roles of Group Finance Director of J. Sainsbury PLC (from 1999-2005), Managing Director and Group Finance Director of Compass Group plc (1991-1999), and worked for Grand Metropolitan plc, Cadbury Schweppes plc and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He is a Director of Cancer Research UK Trading Limited and a Trustee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Appointed 2012, b. 1950. Peter Selby is a consultant physician at St James’ University Hospital, the St James’ Institute of Oncology and Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Leeds.  He has worked in cancer research and cancer care since 1976.
After completing a Natural Sciences degree at the University of Cambridge in 1971, he undertook undergraduate medical training at King’s College Hospital in London and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and in the Princess Margaret Hospital and Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto.  He was a clinical research fellow at the Institute for Cancer Research and Royal Marsden and became a Consultant and Senior Lecturer there in 1984.
His early clinical research work was initially in haematological malignancies, stem cell biology, bone marrow transplantation and antiviral therapy and included the introduction of acyclovir into clinical practice.  He now works mainly with patients and urological cancers.  
is current research programmes are in biotherapy and in clinical cancer proteomics and a long term research programme in psychosocial oncology and was made a life member of the British Psychosocial Oncology Society in 2004.  
From 1993 to 2000 he was Consultant Advisor to the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman, on cancer services in England and Wales and undertook the evidence analysis that supported the Expert Advisory Group (Calman/Hine) report on cancer care which developed proposals for specialised multidisciplinary care in Cancer Centres, Cancer Units and Cancer Networks.  In 2000 Professor Selby was appointed as Director of the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN), which was charged with providing a world class infrastructure, established Cancer Research Networks and was successful in increasing the clinical trials activity in the UK in cancer four-fold and providing a model which substantially influenced developments for other aspects of health care in the UK and in many other countries across the world.  
In 2005-2010 he was joint Director of the UK Clinical Research Network (UKCRN), responsible for overseeing the support of clinical trials within the NHS across all of healthcare.  He was appointed Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998, and was awarded a CBE in 2001 for services to cancer research and cancer care.  In 2011 he was awarded a DSc.  
In 2007 Peter became President of the Association of Cancer Physicians and also won the Pfizer Excellence in Oncology Lifetime Achievement award.  In 2010 he was appointed a Senior Investigator of the National Institute for Health Research.  
Peter has been Director of the Leeds Biomedical and Health Research Centre since 2008 which links basic science with translational and clinical research in Leeds and Director of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (LIMM) since 2010.