Visiting Senior Fellow in Bioentrepreneurship
School of Science, Technology and Health
Dr Hugh Ilyine was born in Sydney Australia, and has more than 20 years of international experience in senior management and CEO roles requiring strong leadership, and has lived and worked in Australia, France, Asia and now the UK.
Dr Ilyine is recently a co-founder and CEO of DestiNA Genomics Ltd, a molecular diagnostic spin-out company from Edinburgh University, and has been an independent consultant to the Life Science industry since 2008.
Previously he was a Director and CO of Stem Cell Sciences Ltd for eight years, during which time he developed the company from its start-up in Melbourne Australia to become a biotech multi-national with business in the UK, Europe and America. During this time was the creation of a joint venture in Japan with laboratories in Kobe, and research laboratories in Melbourne, Edinburgh and Cambridge.
In 2005 the company was listed on AIM, and in 2007 on the Australian Stock Exchange. Prior to this Dr Ilyine worked for seventeen years with the Rhone Poulenc group in a variety of Managing Director roles, with five years based in Lyon in International Product Management, responsible for a business worth in excess of $100m, becoming bi-lingual and francophile as part of the experience.
In Indonesia, managing the company’s operations, as the only European in a joint-venture with a local Indonesian businessman, turned around a heavily indebted company back to financial health over four years. Under challenging circumstances he improved domestic operations, built an export business for the company, and lead new product introductions.
With a BSc (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and Marketing Diploma from Monash University, Dr Ilyine brings a wealth of experience covering entrepreneurial activities, large and small company management, marketing, negotiating of product and technology licences, fund raising and university biotech start-ups and technology transfers. He is passionate about assisting science students to consider careers in the biotech industry, and has contributed to the development of UK Regenerative Medicine industry through committee and advisory roles with the UK National Stem Cell Network and the Scottish Stem Cell Network.