Board of directors

Professor Sir John Bell

Chairman of the Board

Professor Sir John Bell was appointed to the Immunocore Board in March 2015. Professor Bell is the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and Chairman of the Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is regarded as one of the world’s most distinguished scientists in the fields of genomic and genetic research and immunology, also has significant experience in the Healthcare industry, having been a founding director at three biotechnology companies; Avidex Ltd (a precursor to Immunocore which was acquired by MediGene in 2006), Oxagen and PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc (acquired by Chiron Corporation in 2003). He currently also serves on the boards of Roche and Genentech and had a previous role on the scientific advisory board at AstraZeneca. Professor Bell was involved in the founding of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, now chairs the scientific committee of UK Biobank and the Global Health Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is one of three Life Science Champions for the UK, reporting to the UK Prime Minister. His research has contributed significantly to the understanding of immune activation in a number of auto-immune diseases.

Bahija Jallal, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Dr Bahija Jallal is Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Board of Immunocore. Prior to joining Immunocore in January 2019, she was President of MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development unit. She was also Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca and a member of its senior executive team.

Dr Jallal serves on the Board of Elevance, Inc. and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University.

Bahija has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and has more than 15 patents. She is also the immediate past president of the Association of Women in Science. Bahija was named the 2017 Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Bahija was Vice President, Drug Assessment and Development, at Chiron Corporation, where she successfully established the company’s translational medicine group. Prior to Chiron, she was part of the research team at Sugen, Inc.

Bahija received her PhD in Physiology from Université de Paris VI, France and conducted her post-doctorate work in molecular biology and oncology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany. 

Mr. Travis Coy

Non-Executive Director

Travis Coy is currently Vice President, Transactions - Oncology and Diagnostics, Corporate Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to this role, Mr. Coy was responsible for leading and managing business development transactions for Lilly’s cardiometabolic disease, drug delivery, and device efforts. He has had a variety of finance and business development experiences at Lilly, including positions as Finance Director of Lilly’s Oncology Business Unit, Director of Investor Relations, Director of Corporate Finance and Investment Banking, and other financial controllership roles. Travis’ business development experiences have encompassed responsibilities ranging from managing the strategic and economic analyses of transactions to leading contract negotiations to having financial leadership of alliances. Before transitioning to finance and business development, he was a chemist in Lilly’s research laboratories and a production manager for Milliken & Company.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD

Non-Executive Director

Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Professor of Pharmacology; Chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital; Associate Cancer Center Director for Translational Research, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT, USA

Siddharth (Sid) Kaul

Non-Executive Director

Sid Kaul was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in June 2022. Sid retired from Novartis as Group Treasurer and Head of Business Planning and Analysis in April 2021 after a 17 year career there. He led Novartis’s Strategic Review and Spin-Off for the Alcon (eye care) business. Sid joined Novartis as CFO Pharma Europe and subsequently served as CFO Pharma US following a 20-year career with Procter & Gamble in Financial Planning & Analysis, Strategic Planning, Accounting and Auditing in the US and Japan.

Ranjeev Krishana

Non-Executive Director

Ranjeev Krishana serves as a member of our Board of Directors. Mr. Krishana is a Partner at Baker Bros. Advisors LP. Prior to joining Baker Bros. in 2011, Mr. Krishana held a series of commercial, strategy, and business development leadership roles for Pfizer, Inc.’s pharmaceutical business across a variety of international regions and markets, including Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Mr. Krishana was at Pfizer from 2003 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2011. Mr. Krishana began his career as a strategy consultant at Accenture plc. Mr. Krishana currently serves on the boards of BeiGene (Lead Independent Director), Sironax, and ARTBio.

Mr. Krishana holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Brown University, and a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University.

Mr. Rob Perez

Non-Executive Director

Rob Perez is an Operating Partner and part of General Atlantic’s Operations Group, providing strategic support and advice to the firm’s investment team and portfolio companies with a particular focus on the biopharma and life sciences sectors. Before joining General Atlantic in 2019, he was Managing Director of Vineyard Sound Advisors, LLC, an advisory practice focused on growth companies in the biopharma industry. Prior to that, Rob was President and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. before its sale to Merck in 2015. Before joining Cubist in 2003, he served as Vice President of Biogen, Inc.’s CNS Business Unit.

Ms. Kristine Peterson

Non-Executive Director

Kristine Peterson was appointed to the Immunocore Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director in November 2017. Ms. Peterson has more than 30 years’ experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Her most recent role was as Chief Executive Officer for Valeritas, Inc., where she led the company’s development from early stage R&D through to commercialisation, achieving approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the company’s Type 2 diabetes drug-device. In addition, Kristine raised more than $200 million in equity financing and prepared the company for its public listing on NASDAQ. Prior to Valeritas, Kristine was Company Group Chair at Johnson & Johnson for their worldwide biotech and oncology groups, growing those businesses to more than $6 billion in sales, launching several new products, and re-establishing the foundation for oncology R&D. She was also President and Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Biovail Corporation with responsibility for the US and Canadian business units. Earlier in her career, Kristine spent 20 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb in a variety of senior roles, including running their cardiovascular and metabolics business unit.

Kristine continues to play a role on several other Boards of Directors at pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Amarin Corporation, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceutics, pSivida, and ImmunoGen. She is also a senior advisor to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and a former Member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization Board.

Peter J. Ratcliffe

Non-Executive Director

Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe has over 30 years’ experience as a clinically active physician scientist. He currently serves as Director of Clinical Research at The Francis Crick Institute in London and Director of the Target Discovery Institute and Distinguished Scholar of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research within the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. Sir Peter was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society and to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002. He is a member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy. His work has been recognised through a number of awards, including the Louis‐Jeantet Prize in Medicine, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research. In 2019, he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the key mechanisms that cells use to detect and respond to hypoxia (low oxygen levels), opening up promising new ways to tackle cancer, anaemia and many other diseases. He was knighted for services to medicine in 2014.