Dr Mark Payton joined as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer in July 2002. He was previously Vice President, Gene and Target Portfolio, Genetics Research with GlaxoSmithKline, where he had responsibility for all early phase project management worldwide.

With a degree in Genetics and Microbiology from Sheffield University and PhD in Genetics from Leicester, Mark spent six years in post-doctoral research at Imperial College, London, before joining Biogen, SA in Switzerland. Following Biogen’s acquisition by Glaxo, Dr Payton spent some 14 years with Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome and GSK appointed to increasingly senior roles in drug discovery. Through this experience, Mark has driven a number of discovery programs through drug discovery and into pre-clinical and clinical development across a broad range of therapeutic areas.