Giles Tully

Chief Executive Officer

Giles is an entrepreneur and angel investor with business interests ranging from industrial agriculture to viral marketing, music and film, FinTech, fundraising and crowdfunding. Having spent a decade in Beijing he is fluent in mandarin Chinese and is used to working with both major brands and startups. 

Inspired by his friend Dr. Savage’s scientific passion and the chance to make a difference Giles joined PinPoint as CFO in 2016 and then took over as CEO in 2017. Since then he has built the team, established essential partnerships and the necessary R&D pipelines, raised seed funds and secured grants.

Dr Richard Savage

Chief Scientist

Richard is a world-class expert in machine learning and its application to important problems in healthcare. An ex-astrophysicist, he has created data analysis pipelines for space telescopes, measured the age of the universe using the light from the Big Bang, and helped build a telescope on the side of a volcano.

For the past decade, he has used these techniques to develop statistical modelling approaches for complex high-dimensional biomedical data types, and the translation of those methods into clinical practice. In 2016 he co-founded PinPoint bringing in Giles Tully to help with the transition from academic theory to commercial reality.

Dr Nigel Sansom

Executive Chair

Originally trained in molecular pathology, Nigel has over twenty years experience of senior level roles in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, academia and the NHS. He has developed an international reputation for his involvement in innovation and the commercial development of medical technology and diagnostics having been one of the founding managers of the NHS National Innovation Centre.

His wealth of experience made him an obvious pick for Chair and enthused by both the science and the opportunity to have an impact on cancer, he joined PinPoint in mid 2017.

Dr Rosie Ferguson

Chief Operating Officer

Rosie’s previous role was as Programme Manager at the University of Leeds NIHR Medical In vitro Cooperative where she managed a large portfolio of projects within multidisciplinary programmes with various stakeholders including Industrial Partners. She has managed and coordinated translation research programmes and worked within the IVD validation pathway for many years. She has GCLP training and also has a wealth of experience in working within the appropriate ethical governance framework required for clinical sample and data use (HRA, CAG). She has been managing PinPoint’s projects in Leeds since the end of 2017 and became Chief Operating Officer in 2019.

Professor Sean Duffy

Chief Medical Officer

Sean is a former National Clinical Director for Cancer with NHS England and is considered one of the world’s leading oncologists. Previously the Programme Director for the Leeds Cancer Programme, Professor Duffy was also a Consultant Gynaecologist. Professor Duffy supports PinPoint’s program of research to develop tools that will actually get deployed to help doctors make better, faster decisions whilst simultaneously improving the patient journey.

Dr Matthew Neal

Chief Technology Officer

Matthew is a mathematician who develops software to stop bad things from happening to good people. After graduating with first class honours from Wadham College, Oxford, he joined BAE Systems’ Intelligence division where he built a range of data analysis software for a prominent UK government agency, including life-critical real-time analytics systems, large (200+TB) data warehouses, and groundbreaking data visualisation and exploration software. After leaving BAE, he studied for his PhD at the University of Warwick’s Statistics department with Dr Savage, developing machine learning techniques for the early detection of cancer by liquid biopsy

Patrick Whalen

Chief Communications Officer

Patrick is a specialist in cross-cultural communications and stakeholder management. He has over a decade’s experience in facilitating complex large-scale projects in areas as diverse as property development, exhibitions and content creation for advertising.

Patrick joins us from the University of Cambridge, where he worked as Programme Manager at Judge Business School. He is a China specialist who has spent 15 years in Mainland China and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese.

Dr Katherine Lloyd

Senior Data Scientist

A theoretical physicist with a PhD in the application of statistical modeling to survival prediction and early cancer detection, Katherine has worked previously for the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, as part of the team defining global tumour classification standards.

Dr Jim Skinner

Senior Data Scientist

Jim is a data scientist and software engineer interested in advancing medical technologies. He studied for his PhD in machine learning as applied to medical diagnostics, where he studied automated disease diagnosis using artificial olfaction (devices that can 'smell'), and produced a novel statistical algorithm for processing data from such devices. He then worked on a joint industry/academia study to validate the disease-predictive ability of a novel breath-analysis instrument.

Gareth Walley

Senior Python Developer

Gareth is a software engineer with a background in robotics and automation. After graduating with first class honours from Liverpool University, he joined Videojet Technologies in Nottingham where he worked as a firmware engineer carrying out R&D for a new range of printers for the packaging industry. After leaving Videojet, he joined the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry as a Research Engineer for the UK's high value manufacturing sector. Part of this work included developing robotic solutions for hazardous working environments, primarily in the handling of radioactive materials.

Giles Spear  

Chief Financial Officer

Giles has more than 30 years of business advisory experience. After spending 12 years within the profession at PwC acting for a diverse range of clients and specialising within the private equity sector he chose to experience the other side of the fence in various Financial Director roles responsible for fund raising, public offerings, early-stage development and corporate transactions for a variety of companies. Returning to practice in 2005, he provides advisory services to meet the needs of start-up founders, fast growth entrepreneurs and SME’s. He regularly advises boards of directors on strategic and corporate transactions and is able to draw on years of experience at the sharp-end.

Robert Cain 

Chief Legal Officer

Robert is a practising solicitor in the UK specialising in advising technology businesses on their corporate and commercial legal needs. He has served as a non-exec on start up technology businesses and as well as his legal experience and expertise he brings substantial business acumen.  His role is to support the Board on their commercial decision making with particular emphasis on protecting and exploiting PinPoint’s intellectual property rights.

Professor Peter Selby

Honorary Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board

Professor Selby was a consultant physician at St James’s University Hospital, the Leeds Cancer Centre and Professor of Cancer Medicine from 1988 and Associate Dean and Pro Dean for research at the University of Leeds. He worked in cancer research and cancer care from 1976 to 2020. Director of the Leeds Biomedical and Health Research Centre (2008-2012) and was Director of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine (2002-2005 and 2010-2013). He was Consultant Advisor to the Chief Medical Officer on Cancer Services (1993-2000); National Clinical Research Director for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (1997-2001); Director of the National Cancer Research Network, UK Clinical Research Network and NIHR Clinical Research Network (2000-2010); Trustee of Cancer Research UK (2012-2016); President of the Association of Cancer Physicians (2007-2018) and President of the European Cancer Concord (2014-2017).

Professor James Covington

Professor Covington works in Electronic Engineering within the School of Engineering at Warwick University and has considerable experience in the field of electronic noses (e-noses). His lab investigates new and novel methods to use smell detection and smell creation in real applications to aid society. To this end, Professor Covington has developed chemical and biological sensors for detecting a variety of environmental pollutants and biological agents. He sits on the board of the Science & Technology for Health GRP and has also been involved in numerous public events, TV programmes, and in the media for his work on smell. An early contributor to PinPoint’s development, Professor Covington continues to advise on medical device technologies and their suitability for inclusion in PinPoint’s program of research.

Professor Ala Szczepura

Professor Szczepura is Professor of Health Technology Assessment at Coventry University. Her research interests focus on the evaluation of new and emerging technologies and models of care. She combines expertise in policy research and health economics with an academic interest in the organisation and management of health care, including evaluation of effectiveness, costs and broader social and ethical implications of new technologies.  Professor Szczepura has advised on PinPoint’s health technology strategy since the early days of the company.

Dr Mark Campbell

Dr Campbell is an independent consultant in evidence-focussed value demonstration of health technologies. From 2010 to 2019, he was responsible for the leadership and development of NICE’s devices, diagnostics and digital evaluation programmes. Prior to that he worked at Director level in a UK NHS payer organisation and was a member of NICE’s technology appraisal committee. He originally qualified as a pharmacist, with experience in drug and poisons information services, medicines management and medicines utilisation research. Current special interests include evidence development and evaluation of digital health technologies (DHTs) and he was part of the group which developed the NICE evidence standards framework for DHTs.

Professor Paul Townsend

Professor Townsend is the Associate Dean for Business Engagement & Innovation, and research professor, PI and member of the SLT of the Division of Cancer Sciences at the University of Manchester. He also holds the roles of: Industry and Innovation lead for the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre as part of Health Innovation Manchester; Manchester BRC lead; co-Director of the Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism; University lead for the Medicines Discovery Catapult and represents the University in many iUK and UKRI activities. In addition, he leads University interactions in South East Asia and is adjunct professor at A*STAR, Singapore as well as Honorary Research Professor at the University of Athens. His research interests lie in drug discovery, validation, cell stress and survival mechanisms, senescence, DNA damage, and the use of AI and multiple ‘omics in cancer, bone cell and cardiac biology, and apoptosis regulation. He also works with the NHS, NIHR, NHS England and the community via many outreach activities.

Professor David Hogg

Professor Hogg is Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence for Medical Diagnosis and Care at the University of Leeds. His research is on artificial intelligence and particularly in computer vision. He has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Leeds, visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab, chair of the EPSRC ICT Strategic Advisory Team, and chair of the Academic Advisory Group of the Worldwide Universities Network. He is a Turing Fellow, Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), a Distinguished Fellow of the British Machine Vision Association, and a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition.