Oxford Science Enterprises bolsters investment teams

Oxford Science Enterprises, IP partner of the University of Oxford and a “science business builder”, has made two appointments to boost its life sciences and health tech expertise. 

Craig Fox joins as operating partner, life sciences, and Caroline Cake, as entrepreneur in residence, health tech.

Fox will work across Oxford Science Enterprises’ life sciences portfolio and apply his operating and scientific expertise to support the growth and development of early and late-stage companies. He will also help identify novel scientific opportunities leading to the formation of new spinouts.

As an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), Cake will lead the creation and development of a new Health Tech enterprise based on ground-breaking research from the University of Oxford.

The team will also benefit from her extensive network across government, the private healthcare sector and NHS as well as her deep understanding of health policy and data science.

The EIR model has been successfully deployed by Oxford Science Enterprises as exemplified by the creation of Base Genomics, led by former EIR Ollie Waterhouse and acquired by Exact Sciences in 2020, and the recently launched Salience Labs led by former EIR Vaysh Kewada.

Alexis Dormandy, CEO Oxford Science Enterprises, said: “I am delighted to welcome both Craig and Caroline to the team. Their operational expertise and highly relevant networks will be invaluable to our organisation, academic founders, and enterprises. The appointments of Craig and Caroline, two seasoned executives with impressive track records, builds on the recent strengthening of our senior leadership team. I am thrilled to have them both on board.”

Craig Fox brings over 20 years of drug discovery and development expertise to Oxford Science Enterprises, with experience as a research scientist managing initial target selection through to Phase 2 clinical studies.

He joins from C4X Discovery where he was chief scientific officer and an executive board member for more than six years, guiding its transition from a technology-based company to a therapeutics business. Craig has also worked at a number of biotechnology companies supporting multiple financing deals, the creation and management of strategic collaborations and licensing deals with pharma.

Caroline Cake has over 25 years’ experience working in commercial, government and charitable organisations and has a proven track record in delivering transformational health tech initiatives.

As CEO of Health Data Research UK, she established the company as the national institute for health data science and played a pivotal role in the UK’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

Under her leadership it created Health Data Research Hubs, which supported the RECOVERY Trial to identify dexamethasone as the first drug to be effective against COVID-19, the PRINCIPLE Trial to identify budesonide as the first treatment to shorten recovery time in patients not admitted to hospital, and the vaccine rollout by providing access to real-world data on vaccine effectiveness.

She also led the development of the Health Data Research Innovation Gateway, which aims to transform the scale and impact of UK health data research.