Board of Directors

Aidan Courtney (Chief Executive Officer)

Aidan is the Chief Executive Officer of Roslin Cells. Since moving to Scotland fifteen years ago, Aidan has worked with a wide variety of high technology start-ups and early stage companies. In each case his role has been to help the core scientists and engineers transform their novel technology into a strong business proposition. Most recently co-founding Roslin Cells Ltd and initiating the creation of Roslin Cellab Ltd.

After graduating in Economics, Aidan qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked for eight years in property finance, before moving over to the high tech sector. He holds a masters degree in law specialising in Intellectual Property law and is a visiting fellow at the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of the BIA RegMed Industry Group Advisory Committee and the Scottish Stem Cell Network Advisory Board.

Paul De Sousa (Chief Scientific Officer)

Dr. Paul De Sousa has trained as a developmental and reproductive biologist, with a specific interest in mechanisms controlling the creation of developmentally competent eggs and embryos and cell regeneration. In 1998 he joined the Roslin Institute in Scotland where he began applying his basic research interests to animal biotechnology. In 2002 his group began focusing on the derivation of new human embryonic stem cells in accordance with emerging regulatory standards for therapeutic use. In 2005 he joined the University of Edinburgh as a Senior Research Fellow establishing a laboratory focused on the use of human embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine and underpinning egg and embryo biotechnology. In concert with this he co-founded Roslin Cells Ltd.

Dr. De Sousa is the Person Responsible named on our HFEA licence and acts as the Designated Individual named on our HTA licence.

Malcolm Bateman (Chairman)

Malcolm is a Chartered Management Accountant who spent around 30 years working in different parts of the UK and overseas with UK, US and German multinationals in the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. He held a variety of financial posts but was latterly the Managing Director of a major automotive component manufacturer. In recent years he has worked with and maintains directorships in a number of innovative emerging companies. Formerly the Director of Finance for the Roslin Institute, Malcolm is currently the CEO of the Roslin Foundation, a role that includes being the CEO for its science park, the Roslin BioCentre, and a Director with its four spin outs Roslin Cells, Well Cow, Roslin Eggs and Roslin Cellab. He is also a Director of Roslin Developments which is currently building a new research facility located at the University of Edinburgh's Easter Bush campus. He also holds directorships with organisations in the public and voluntary sectors.

Professor Marc Turner (Director)

Marc Turner is Professor of Cellular Therapy at the University of Edinburgh, Clinical Director and Consultant Haematologist in the Edinburgh and Aberdeen Blood Transfusion Centres and honorary Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He qualified in Medicine from the University of Manchester in 1982 and trained in General Medicine and Haematology before moving into Transfusion Medicine. He obtained his PhD in human haematopoietic stem cell biology from the University of Edinburgh in 1995. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His research interests include immunohaematology, variant CJD transmission by blood and tissues and translational research in stem cell and regenerative medicine. His more general interests lie in managing the sometimes challenging interface between science, medicine and public health policy and in this regard he has provided specialist opinion to a number of national and international advisory committees and regulatory bodies. He is Associate Director of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine and a non-executive Director of the Scottish Stem Cell Network and Roslin Cells.

Professor Charles ffrench-Constant (Director)

Charles ffrench-Constant graduated with a MA in Physiology from the University of Cambridge and an MB, BChir in Medicine from Middlesex Hospital, London in 1980. He gained a MRCP in Internal Medicine from Hammersmith/University College Hospital in 1984 and received a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London in 1986. He worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at MIT, Boston from 1987 – 1989 and in Zoology, Cambridge from 1989-1991, before being awarded a Junior Group Leader position in the Wellcome/CRC Institute at Cambridge from 1991-1996. He became a University Lecturer/Consultant at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge from 1996 and was promoted to Chair in Neurological Genetics at the University of Cambridge in 1999. During this time he was funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Senior Fellowship and then a Research Leave Fellowship.

He took up his present appointment as Chair of Medical Neurology at the University of Edinburgh in 2007. He is Director of the University of Edinburgh/Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Director of the University of Edinburgh/Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre, and Co-Director of the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic.

His research focuses on the biology of myelin formation and repair in the brain with the aim of discovering novel therapies in multiple sclerosis.