Overview

Gender

male

Simon Best is a seasoned global leader, both as a Founder, CEO and Chairman or Board Member of Life Science companies and as a Chairman or Trustee of major industry bodies and public sector institutions, in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America. He is also an experienced Angel, Venture Capital and Private Equity investor.

Through the 90’s, Dr. Best became a leading international figure – initially as a champion of GM Food technology and then as the CEO of the company formed at the Roslin Institute in 1998 to exploit medical applications of the technology that produced Dolly The Sheep. Simon Best is a past Vice-Chairman of the US Biotechnology Industry Organisation and Chairman of the UK BioIndustry Association.

He built 3 substantial Life Science ventures between 1991 and 2005 – Zeneca Plant Science (Delaware, USA), Roslin BioMed and Ardana (Edinburgh, UK), and between 2010 and 2012 refocused and rationalised a 4th – Aquapharm (Oban, UK), a pioneering marine biotechnology company. Between 2005 and 2010, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for TVM Capital’s MENA Fund in UAE and India and in 2008 co-founded PAR Equity LLP in Edinburgh.

In 1999 the World Economic Forum nominated him a Global Leader of Tomorrow and in 2000 a Technology Pioneer of the Year. In 1999, he was nominated as “Science and Technology Venturer of the Year” by the FT. He was awarded the London Business School Alumni Achievement Prize in 2007. He holds an MBA from London Business School and an Honorary Doctorate and B.Mus from York University. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2008, he was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II and appointed a Visiting Professor of Medicine by the University of Edinburgh.Simon Best is the Chairman of Edinburgh Bioquarter since 2009, a company in the business of formation, technology transfer.Simon Best held also the position of Chief Executive Officer at Aquapharm Biodiscovery Ltd. (a company in the sector of drug discovery) from May 2010 to November 2012.