Karen Skinner, Chief Project & Portfolio Officer, LifeArc

Dr Karen Skinner is Chief Project and Portfolio Officer at the self-funding medical research organisation LifeArc. Here she is accountable for shaping and leading their portfolio of Translational Challenges, which are ambitious research programmes focused on solving complex healthcare problems. She is passionate about accelerating innovation to create medical breakthroughs for those living with disease.

Karen has more than 25 years’ experience within life sciences, from early exploratory to launch in a variety of therapeutic areas, having held numerous global leadership roles in portfolio management, clinical development, R&D operations, product development and alliance management.

Prior to LifeArc, Karen held the role of VP Immuno-Oncology at the high-growth biotech BTG, where she was accountable for building their immunotherapy research portfolio. She began her R&D career within the pharmaceutical industry at Merck where she gained a strong grounding in drug discovery and has a DPhil in Pharmacology from the University of Oxford.