Our Trustees

Lord Stevens of Birmingham, Kt (Chair)

Appointed 2023. Simon is Chair of Cancer Research UK. He is an independent member of the House of Lords and was Chief Executive of NHS England for seven years before that. He is also Chair of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and the incoming Chair of Council of King's College London. He previously led health services in a number of countries internationally and was the UK Government's Health Adviser at the Department of Health and 10 Downing Street. Simon is also a director of the Commonwealth Fund of New York and has been a trustee of the Kings Fund and the Nuffield Trust. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and of Balliol College Oxford, with honorary doctorates from the universities of Birmingham and Strathclyde. He was educated at Oxford and Strathclyde universities, was a Harkness Fellow at Columbia University, and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. In 2020 he was knighted for services to health and the NHS and became a crossbench peer in 2021.

Professor Doreen Cantrell CBE, FRS, FRSE, FMedSci

Appointed 2022. Doreen Cantrell is Professor of Cellular Immunology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. Her research interests are in the molecular mechanisms that control the function of lymphocytes and between 1987-2002 she led an immunology research group at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute. In 2002 she moved to the University of Dundee as a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. She was Head of the College of Life Sciences and Vice Principal of the University of Dundee from 2010 to 2016. Past roles include being a member of MRC Council and being Chair of the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship Committee and Chair of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Early Fellowship Committee. She was also Chair of the Biological Sciences Sub-panel for the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 and was appointed CBE in 2014 for services to Life Sciences

Peter Chambré

Appointed 2016. Peter Chambré is a Trustee of Cancer Research UK and Chair of Cancer Research Horizons, the commercialisation arm of Cancer Research UK. He is also Chair of Immatics N.V., a company developing new cancer immunotherapy treatments. He has been a director of a number of public and private healthcare and life science companies and was Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Antibody Technology plc from 2002 until its acquisition by AstraZeneca in 2006. Peter is a Director of Our Future Health.

Dr Robert Easton BSc ARCS DPhil FCGI (Treasurer)

Appointed 2020. Dr Robert Easton is a former Partner of Carlyle, the global alternative asset management company. During his 19 years at the firm he performed a number of roles as an investment professional, being a fund head in buyout and technology investing, while serving on multiple portfolio company boards. Robert is a past Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a serial investor in technology driven, small and start-up businesses. He’s had a variety of engagements with the higher education sector at Oxford University, where he served as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor 2017-2020, as well as at Imperial College’s Business School. In addition to being a Trustee of CRUK, Robert is a Fellow of the British Heart Foundation and a Trustee of the Young Vic Theatre and funds causes in science, sport, music, higher education, conservation and sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Gerard Evan PhD, FRS, FMedSci, FAACR

Appointed 2022. Gerard gained his BA in Biochemistry at Oxford, his PhD in Molecular Immunology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and then an MRC post-doctoral Fellow at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he developed his abiding interest in the molecular biology of cancer. He returned to the UK to take up a Research Fellowship at Downing College, Cambridge and an Assistant Professorship at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

In 1988, he joined the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London as a Senior, then Principal Scientist, and from 1996-9 concurrently held the Royal Society’s Napier Research Professorship in Cancer Biology at UCL. In 1999, he relocated to San Francisco as a Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research at UCSF, returning to Cambridge UK in 2009 as Sir William Dunn Chair of Biochemistry. In May 2022 he moved to the Francis Crick Institute as a Principal Group Leader and appointed Professor of Cancer Biology at Kings College, London.

Gerard’s research focuses on defining the molecular aberrations that underpin genesis and maintenance of cancers, with particular (although not exclusive) emphasis on cancers of pancreas, lung and liver.

Mark Evans

Appointed 2024. Mark is an Executive level marketer of 27 years across Direct Line Group, HSBC and Mars, now pursuing a portfolio career. Mark combines Executive coaching with a number of non-exec, advisory and trustee roles including the Marketing Society, Accenture, The Marketing Academy, HMRC, The Institute for Customer Services, The UK Sepsis Trust, Save the Children, The School of Marketing, Vitality, Nottingham University Business School, EMMa3D, OnSide and The GoodNet.

Mark founded the “Sprintathon” in 2016 which is a mass-relay marathon charity event that has so far raised £960k for Stand Up To Cancer to #beatcancerfaster. He was also recognised as the Marketing Society Leader of the Year in 2018, and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2023.

Professor Nic Jones PhD FMedSci

Appointed 2020. Professor Nic Jones is currently Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC), a partnership between Cancer Research UK, the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester. He was Director of the MCRC for 12 years from its inception in 2006 and oversaw its development into one of the foremost comprehensive cancer centres in Europe. In addition, from 2011-2016, Nic was the CRUK Chief Scientist with responsibility for overseeing the scientific strategy of the organisation. Nic was also previously the Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute and led a research team investigating specific signalling pathways implicated in cancer development and growth.

Rakshit Kapoor

Appointed 2023. Rakshit is currently the Global Chief Data Officer for Chubb Insurance, one of the largest Property and Casualty insurance companies in the world. He is leading the charge on being committed to enabling digital businesses, as well as advancing the management of and availability of data to the businesses.

Rakshit was previously at Santander UK Bank in London, where he was their Chief Data Officer, responsible for data strategy, management, infrastructure, and architecture, as well as Santander's Europe data transformation plan. Before joining Santander, Rakshit was seconded to NHS England as their Interim National Director of Data supporting them on their long term Data Strategy and Data Architecture agenda.

Prior to NHS England, Rakshit served as the Group Chief Data Officer for HSBC from 2017-2020 in London. His previous data expertise includes assignments with Travelers, JP Morgan Chase, and TIAA in the USA where he spent 22 years in various Data, Digital and Technology leadership roles.

Professor Pamela Kearns PhD FRCPCH

Appointed 2021. Professor Pam Kearns is Chair of Clinical Paediatric Oncology at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital. She is Director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and was Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) from 2011-2023.

Pam was President of the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe) from 2019 -2021 and continues to serve on the SIOP Europe Board. She is currently President of the academic consortium ‘Innovative Therapeutics in Childhood Cancer’ (ITCC) and is a Board and Steering Committee member of the International multi-stakeholder platform ‘ACCELERATE’. Her research interests are focussed of drug development and innovation of design and delivery of clinical trials for childhood cancers.

Pam was also a Senior Clinical Advisor to Cancer Research UK from 2015 to 2020 and is Chair of the Board of Trustees of a Child of Mine, a charity dedicated to supporting bereaved parents. She Chairs both the Research Assessment Panel for GOSH Charity and the Independent Scientific Advisory Panel for Bone Cancer Research Trust. She is also a Scientific Advisor to Children with Cancer UK and a Trusted Advisor to the Little Princess Trust.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell

Appointed 2024. Nancy was President & Vice-Chancellor of the Manchester University from July 2010 to July 2024, the first woman to lead the University. She is also Professor of Physiology, and has previously held an MRC Research Chair, as well as holding University positions as Vice-President for Research and as Deputy President & Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Nancy’s research in the field of neuroscience has contributed towards major advances in the understanding and treatment of brain damage in stroke and head injury. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in June 2004 and made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 2005, in recognition of her services to science. She was the founding President of the Royal Society of Biology, and is currently a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester, and a member of the Oxford Road Corridor Board, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Board, the UK Biobank Board and the Innovation Greater Manchester Board.

Nancy takes a strong and active interest in public communication of science and regularly gives talks to schools and the public and contributes to television, radio and press, particularly on sensitive issues in science

Joanne Shaw

Appointed 2020. Joanne Shaw is a qualified accountant with a broad commercial, public and third sector background. As past Chair of NHS Direct, she has a particular interest in the use of mobile and digital channels for health and medicines, and the changing relationship between individuals, their own health and their health care providers. She is currently Deputy Chair of Vitality UK, the shared value insurance provider and Chair of Trustees at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She is a non-executive director of CVS Group plc, the international veterinary services group. She has chaired the Audit and Risk Committees of NHS England, the National Audit Office and the Money Advice Service. Past non-executive positions include Deputy Chair of Nuffield Health and Chair of the British Equestrian Federation.

Kate Smaje

Appointed 2024. Kate is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she has dedicated over two decades to guiding consumer-focused enterprises through digitally enabled strategies, marketing, operational, and organisational transformations. She was the global co-head of McKinsey Digital and the co-author of WSJ-bestseller Rewired, a guide to outcompeting in the age of digital and AI; and as a member of our McKinsey's global board she chairs the technology, knowledge and capabilities committee. Prior to joining McKinsey, Kate worked in the investment-banking division of a Chase Manhattan and latterly JP Morgan, advising on mergers, acquisitions, and debt restructuring in the technology sector.

A polymath at heart, Kate initially pursued her academic interests in history, earning her degree from the University of Durham. Over the last decade she has also been a passionate trustee of Tommy’s, the children’s charity, at the heart of scientific research into baby loss.

Hitesh Thakrar

Appointed 2023. Hitesh Thakrar is a partner at Syncona venture fund, sits on various boards including Alan Turing Institute and UKRI-STFC Council, chairing the STFC Innovation Board. He is also Chair of the Health Innovation Network AHSN for South London. He brings over two decades of experience in global public equities, including managing innovation funds for asset management companies Aviva and ADIA. Hitesh has a degree in chemistry from King’s College London and is interested in the convergence of life science with other innovation led sectors.

Professor Dame Moira Whyte OBE PhD FRCP FRCPE FMedSci FRSE

Appointed 2020. Professor Dame Moira Whyte is the Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and from 2017-2023 Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Her research interests are in basic mechanisms of immunology, including innate immunity in the context of chronic lung diseases. She was formerly Director of the MRC/University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research and Head of Edinburgh Medical School. She was a member of MRC Strategy Board (2017-2023) and Chair of the MRC Training and Careers Group. She was Chair of Sub-panel 1 (Clinical Medicine) for the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.