David Wells is Chief Executive and a lifelong member of IBMS. As Head of Pathology at NHS England, David lead NHS England’s testing response to COVID-19, liaising with ministers and senior health leaders as a subject matter expert and provided leadership for all of the 29 Pathology Networks, ensuring deployment of technology, staffing and IT resources into the NHS. He has also worked with senior leaders across the NHS, PHE, Test and Trace and the Department of Health and Social Care to inform strategy and policy to respond to the pandemic.

Session: Building a Brighter Future, while Making the Present Count

Dr (hc) Neil Bentley OBE is a multidisciplined chartered biomedical scientist with 40 years’ experience in delivering clinical and public health diagnostic laboratory services.

Neil commenced his scientific career within the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a biomedical scientist and spent 15 years working within the military laboratories around the globe. These ranged from one man field laboratories to large teaching hospital laboratories. He specialised in microbiology and public health and took an interest in providing pathology services in the field.

On leaving the RAMC Neil joined the Public Health Laboratory Service, more recently known as Health Protection Agency and Public health England, where he spent the next 25 years working. He had a number of positions from commencing as a senior biomedical scientist through to deputy director. During his 25 years he led the technical and scientific support for a number of public health outbreaks including the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone and latterly the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. He led the modernisation and transformation agenda for the PHE laboratories, which included automating bacteriology, moving the laboratories into molecular diagnostics, and more recently implementing genomic diagnostic services with PHE and COG UK.

Neil stood back from public sector in 2021 after 40 years’ service to have more time for family and to gain experience within the commercial and research environments within biomedical science. He is currently working on new and novel ways to improve diagnostics throughout the specimen journey from patient to result.

Neil was awarded an Officer of British Empire (OBE) for services to public health by Her Royal Highness in 2016 and was made Honorary Doctor of Health Sciences by Anglia Ruskin University in 2018.

Session: Building a Brighter Future, while Making the Present Count

Claire is the UK Sales Manager at Medical Wire (MWE) and has been with the company for more than 15 years.

She started her career as a Trainee Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer (MLSO) at Dorchester Public Health Laboratory Services (PHLS), qualifying 4 years later with an BSc Hons Degree in Biomedical Science, specialising in Microbiology and Virology. Her career progressed into the commercial sector where she utilised her passion for microbiology and her outgoing and enthusiastic personality to undertake a sales role at Pro-Lab Diagnostics, where she managed the Southwest Territory with great successes throughout her time there.

Several years later Claire relocated to the Northeast of England where she joined the Newcastle Health Protection Agency (HPA), a regional and specialist laboratory, where she gained new laboratory skills working with TB samples, both routine and reference work and also advanced her competencies in molecular techniques, as well as working closely with the infectious disease unit on blood borne virus samples.

Although Claire enjoyed many years at the HPA, her drive and passion for sales, helping customers with microbiology solutions was still an aspiration to her. She returned into the sales field having been approached by Medical Wire and commenced her position there as their Sales executive for UK North, progressing to Clinical Product Manager a few years later and then on to the UK Sales Manager.

During her time at MWE Claire has been key to educating and training end users on the MWE products, where she has successfully developed and delivered bespoke training programmes for numerous hospital Trusts, allowing them effective and efficient transitioning from one product type to another. Through regular visits to several Trusts, Claire is referred to by many as “The Swab Lady”!

With the arrival of challenging and unprecedented times brought about by the Pandemic, Claire ensured communications with customers remained a priority, trying where possible to ensure precious stock was delivered to those in desperate need of products key to the fight against Covid. Every day brought new challenges, but she worked to offer solutions as best she could, while the company worked relentlessly to increase stock levels quickly. While it has been an extremely difficult period for the diagnostic industry, with the investments made by MWE to increase manufacturing capabilities quickly, driven by high demand, Claire is extremely proud to be part of the MWE journey and the future this investment will bring for the organisation.

Session: COVID 19: A report from Malaysia and Singapore (One year on)

Session: COVID 19: A report from Malaysia and Singapore (One year on)

Session: Successful Mentoring

Professor Steve Myint is a medical academic turned businessman and entrepreneur. He is a former Professor & Chairman of Microbiology & Immunology in Leicester (UK) and Dean of Medicine & Head of the Health Schools at the University of Surrey (UK). He has been a FTSE 100 Board level executive and has been an entrepreneur for over 30 years with 5 successful exits. For the last two decades he has mentored many to high levels of success, whether as a career success or financial reward.

Session: Sustainability in Science

Martin started working as a technician and researcher before moving into sustainable labs at the University of Edinburgh in 2013. He works at King’s College London their Sustainable Research Manager, and also at UCL as their Sustainable Lab Advisor. He manages UCL’s LEAF programme. 

Session: Launching an Innovative Service

Richard Wardle is Lead Laboratory Manager – Blood Sciences (Automated and Specialist Services) Laboratory Medicine, at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. During the pandemic he was behind a new drive-through phlebotomy service and in his session he will talk about implementing innovative ideas.

Session: Going Paperless

Leah Riley is the histology manager at royal Devon and Exeter. Leah is committed to positive changes to reduce their environmental impact. Given all the PPE we are all continuing to use, as a team with Olly Gomme, they are working to offset their carbon footprint.

Session: Going Paperless

Olly Gomme is a medical technical officer and green champion. Olly is committed to positive changes to reduce their environmental impact. Given all the PPE we are all continuing to use, as a team with Leah Riley, they are working to offset their carbon footprint.