Five-Minute Interview

Q    If I were not talking to you right now, what would you be doing?
A    Probably multitasking! Answering e-mails, wondering where current projects have progressed to, who I am likely to be meeting with next and what I need to do to prepare for that.

Q    How did you get in the industry?
A    I was an accountant on an audit in South Wales, sitting on a bus early in the morning reading the job adverts in the Daily Telegraph, and I saw that Pfizer Hospital Products Division was looking for a European financial controller.

Q    What is the best thing about your work?
A    It is involved with cutting edge technology in life sciences and involves working with innovative physicians, scientists and engineers, and is focussed on addressing unmet patient needs. This has often necessitated joining physicians and patients in the operating theatre and in the cath lab to observe procedures first hand.

Q    What is the biggest misconception people have about your work?
A    That it is something to do with numbers and finance, because of my early background and training in accountancy.

Q    What do you think is the most important medical device invention ever?
A    Having been involved with the introduction and commercialisation of the first coronary stent in the world, the Schneider Wallstent, I am somewhat biased in the direction of stents. The total market for coronary, peripheral, neural, abdominal and thoracic stents and stent grafts has grown from its beginnings in the 1980s to a US$10 billion world market in 2011. During this time, stent technology has saved countless millions of lives.

Q    What should people give more attention to?
A    To promoting innovation in life science. The UK has some of the most inventive physicians, engineers and scientists in the world, but we are not good at assisting them in realising their dreams and goals. I feel that we should be doing much more in the UK to encourage their endeavours.

Q    What is the most exciting development on the horizon?
A    I think that stem cell technology—although there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome—has enormous benefits for the future of healthcare, by way of organ and tissue repair, renewal or replacement. There also may be a role for cells in combination with medical devices, to render them more biocompatible with body tissue. Cell coating technology for coronary stents is one example.

Q    What do you want from your suppliers?
A    A can-do attitude relative to performance, quality and adaptability, particularly in challenging circumstances, not only in the realm of supply but also in problem-solving situations.