Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe

Chief Executive Officer

Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2019 and is a member of our Executive Team. Previously, he served as our Chief Financial Officer from March 2015 through September 2019.

Mr. Rawcliffe has over 20 years of experience within the biopharmaceutical industry and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Finance of GSK’s North American Pharmaceuticals business. He joined GSK in 1998 and his other senior roles at the company included Senior Vice President Worldwide Business Development and R&D Finance, where he was responsible for all business development and finance activities for GSK’s Pharmaceuticals R&D business and Managing Partner and President of SR One Ltd, GSK’s venture‑capital business. Mr. Rawcliffe currently serves as a non‑executive director of WAVE Life Sciences (NASDAQ: WVE).

Mr. Rawcliffe qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and holds a B.Sc. degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham, UK.

William (Bill) Bertrand

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Compliance Officer

William (Bill) Bertrand has served as our Chief Operating Officer since March 2017 and is responsible for operational functions including business operations, legal/IP,  compliance, human resources, quality, corporate affairs (including communications and investor relations) and IM.  He is a member of our Executive Team and also serves as the company’s Chief Compliance Officer.

Mr. Bertrand’s prior experience includes a 12 year tenure at MedImmune, where he served as its first General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, along with holding a variety of operational and corporate strategy roles. He has also formerly served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel for Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and as Senior Vice President, Acting Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for Salix Pharmaceuticals, where he remained as General Manager to help finalize the integration of the company’s $14 billion acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals in April 2015. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Ardelyx, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARDX) and has served as a member of the board of directors of several private companies including Trustwave and Inotek Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Bertrand received a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin and a B.S. in biology from Wayne State University.

Joanna (Jo) Brewer, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Jo Brewer has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since May 4, 2022 and is a member of our Executive Team.

Most recently, Dr. Brewer served as Senior Vice President, Allogeneic Research at Adaptimmune since December 2019. In this role, she built the Allogeneic Research organization from the ground up and took the concept of iPSC-derived allogeneic T-cell therapies from an idea into the potential for an allogeneic candidate in the clinic. Prior to her SVP role, Dr. Brewer held a series of senior managerial roles within Adaptimmune’s research organization. Her experience in immunotherapy and cell therapy at Adaptimmune and its predecessor companies spans more than 20 years and includes roles across the breadth of discovery. Before focusing solely on the allogeneic platform, Dr. Brewer was one of the founding scientists at Adaptimmune who built multiple research teams working on the development of SPEAR T-cell therapies including NY-ESO (transitioned to GSK in 2018), ADP-A2M4 and ADP-A2AFP, as well as early next-generation approaches including the ADP-A2M4CD8 construct.

Prior to joining Adaptimmune in 2009, Dr. Brewer held positions at Avidex, Medigene and Immunocore. She holds a master’s degree in Natural Sciences, and a Ph.D. in cellular signalling, both from the University of Cambridge, U.K.

Karen Chagin, M.D.

SVP Early-Stage Development

Karen joined Adaptimmune in September 2023 as the Senior Vice President of Early-Stage Development and is responsible for overseeing our early-stage pipeline activities from pre-IND and IND activities through Phase 1 clinical trials.

Karen most recently served as Chief Medical Officer at Tmunity. She led and was accountable for the development strategy, planning, and execution of Tmunity’s CAR T-cell therapies in multiple solid tumor indications. Subsequently, she became the Head of Kite Philadelphia following Kite’s acquisition of Tmunity.

From 2015 to 2019, Karen served as our Vice President of Clinical Development and was the clinical lead for the afami-cel and lete-cel programs. Prior to joining Adaptimmune in 2015, she served as a Scientific Director in Oncology Early Development at Janssen leading development activities for Phase 1 assets.

Karen began her career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2009 at GSK and served as a Safety Development leader before transitioning to clinical development. As a Medical Director for Promacta®/Revolade®, she was responsible for the development and execution of multiple Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. In her roles in safety and clinical development, Karen led and contributed to the registration of several products and indications globally.

Dr. Chagin holds a B.A from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine. She performed her residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and her fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

John Lunger

Chief Patient Supply Officer

John Lunger has served as our Chief Patient Supply Officer since August 2019 and is a member of our Executive Team. John leads the teams responsible for producing and delivering products to patients, accelerating supply execution, and optimizing the supply chain to be ready for commercialization. Prior to joining our Executive Team, he was Senior Vice President, Manufacturing and Supply Chain at Adaptimmune, having joined the Company in March of 2017. In this role, he was responsible for clinical manufacturing and global supply of Adaptimmune’s autologous T-cell therapy products.

Previously, John was Head of Supply Chain and Commercial Product Supply at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where he led clinical and commercial supply chain as well as the cross functional supply team for Merrimack’s first commercial product launched in October of 2015. Earlier in his career, he held various senior manufacturing, operational, and strategy roles with VWR International, Pfizer, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In his nearly 10 years with Wyeth he held a number of leadership positions, including operations and supply chain strategy, supply management, procurement and strategic sourcing, business systems implementation, generic pharmaceutical business management, and site operations management in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Ireland. John began his career serving as a nuclear trained officer on a U.S. Navy submarine followed by strategic consulting with Accenture. He currently serves as a consultant and Technical Advisory Board member of Nkarta, Inc. (Nasdaq: NKTX). He previously served as a non-executive director of Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNCA).

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree (with distinction) in Ocean Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA in economics and operations management from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Elliot Norry, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Elliot Norry has served as our Chief Medical Officer (CMO) since January 2020 after having served as our acting CMO since August 2019. He is a member of our Executive Team.

Previously, Dr. Norry was Vice President and Head of Clinical Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Adaptimmune, and leader of our ADP-A2AFP program, having joined the company in July 2015.

Prior to joining Adaptimmune, Dr. Norry served as Safety Development Leader at GSK from 2009, where he managed clinical safety for a broad range of early and late stage products, including approval activities for pazopanib for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. He was also Chair of GSK’s Hepatic Safety Panel.

Prior to his roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Norry practiced adult internal medicine at Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pennsylvania for 13 years. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Wistar Institute.

He holds a B.A. from Columbia College and an M.D. from New York University. He performed his residency in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and his fellowship in gastroenterology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Cintia Piccina

Chief Commercial Officer

Cintia Piccina has served as our Chief Commercial Officer since March 18, 2024, having previously served in this role from January 2022 to March 2023, and is a member of our Executive Team.

Most recently, Cintia served as the Chief Commercial Officer at AlloVir (Nasdaq: ALVR) helping to build the company’s commercialization capabilities and team to support the launch of the first allogeneic multi Viral Specific T-cell (VST) therapy, which was AlloVir’s anticipated first commercial product at that time. Prior to her time at Adaptimmune, Cintia served as the Head of Commercial at 2Seventy Bio (Nasdaq:TSVT) and as SVP Commercial Oncology and US General Manager, leading the launch of the first cell therapy product in multiple myeloma, Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel), for bluebird bio (Nasdaq:BLUE). Before that she spent over 20 years at Novartis (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS) from 1997 to April 2020, first in Brazil then in the United States, where she held a series of commercial, marketing and sales roles across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology. In her final role at Novartis, Cintia was VP, Global Oncology Cell and Gene Strategy & Program Management Office, for Kymriah and the CAR-T pipeline, leading the cross-functional leadership teams for business (marketing, medical affairs, market access), manufacturing, and pipeline.

Cintia holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and an M.B.A. from the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing, Sao Paulo.

Kerry Sharp

SVP General Counsel

Kerry has served as our General Counsel since October 2015. She heads up the teams in legal, intellectual property, corporate compliance and clinical compliance, COSHH/Biological Safety (BioCOSHH) and HTA Compliance teams.

She graduated from Imperial College with a Bsc. Hons in Biotechnology before qualifying as an English solicitor. Having over 20 years of experience, she started her legal career at magic circle firm, Linklaters before moving to IP niche firm Bird and Bird. From there, Kerry became sole counsel at Innovision, Research and Technology plc and then Regional Counsel, Europe at Broadcom Inc. Subsequently, Kerry was a commercial IP partner and co-head of the life sciences practice area at Pennington’s Manches LLP advising on a wide variety of life sciences transactions including licensing, collaboration and research, IP exploitation and strategy, life sciences regulatory advice, manufacturing, clinical trial agreements, technology transfer and supply and distribution agreements.

Helen Tayton-Martin, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Chief Business & Strategy Officer

Dr. Helen Tayton-Martin has served as our Chief Business & Strategy Officer since October 2022 and is a member of our Executive Team. She formerly served as our Chief Business Officer since 2017 and as our Chief Operating Officer since 2008, a role in which she oversaw the transition of all operations in the company from five to 300 staff, through transatlantic growth, multiple clinical, academic and commercial collaborations and private and public financing through to its Nasdaq IPO.

As our CBSO, Dr. Tayton-Martin is responsible for optimizing the strategic and commercial opportunity for Adaptimmune’s assets, leading on business development, competitive intelligence and alliance management. Her role encompasses all aspects of pipeline and technology assessment, strategic portfolio analysis and partnerships, including the company’s strategic partnerships with Astellas, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE/NYSE: GSK).

Dr. Tayton‑Martin has 30 years of experience working within the pharma, biotech and consulting environment in disciplines across preclinical and clinical development, outsourcing, strategic planning, due diligence, business development and company operations. She co‑founded Adaptimmune from the former company, Avidex Limited, where she had been responsible for business development of the soluble TCR program in cancer and HIV from 2005 to 2008.

Dr. Tayton‑Martin previously served as a non‑executive director of Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq and TSX: TRIL) from October 2017 through the sale of the company in November 2021 to Pfizer Inc. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular immunology from the University of Bristol, U.K. and an M.B.A. from London Business School.

Dennis Williams, Pharm.D.

Senior Vice President, Late Stage Development

Dennis Williams has served as Senior Vice President, Late Stage Development since December 2019 and is responsible for overseeing our late stage pipeline activities, including Phase 2/3 clinical trials through market application submission and approval.

Dr. Williams joined Adaptimmune in 2015 and served as Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs. He has also led our ADP-A2M4 development program and previously led the NY-ESO development program prior to the transition of NY-ESO to GSK. 

Prior to joining Adaptimmune, Dr. Williams served as Director and Global Regulatory Lead at GSK Oncology, where he was instrumental in the development and approval of innovative products such as PROMACTA®/REVOLADE®. 

Dr. Williams has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2000 at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Williams holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Temple University.

Gavin Wood

Chief Financial Officer

Gavin Wood has served as our Chief Financial Officer since April 2020 and is a member of our Executive Team. He leads our financial operations and strategy and investor relations.  

Mr. Wood has held CFO and senior management roles in public companies in the life sciences sector since 2006. Before joining Adaptimmune, he served as the Chief Financial Officer and a director of Abcam plc (LSE: ABC) from September 2016 through February 3, 2020, working as part of the executive team that led the company through a period of significant growth and change. Before that, he held a series of roles at Affymetrix Inc, (Nasdaq: AFFX) from 2006 to 2016, including serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from May 2013 through March 2016, and managing the global finance, IT, internal audit and facilities functions, until the company was acquired by ThermoFisher Scientific. Mr. Wood is currently a member of the board of directors of Atlas Antibodies AB.

Mr. Wood is a Chartered Accountant and holds a B.A. degree in Archaeology from the University of Durham, U.K.