Programme Committee
David Secher
David Secher is an independent consultant in the area of research commercialisation – in the UK and internationally. He is based in the University of Cambridge. He is also a non-executive director of CellCentric Ltd; a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield; an advisor to the South Yorkshire Investment Fund; and the Chairman of Unico (the UK research commercialisation association). In 2002, together with Lita Nelsen of MIT – and with support from CMI - he founded Praxis, the leading UK technology transfer training company.
For his contributions to creating "environments that favour enterprise, specialising in the practical aspects of commercialising the results of academic research", he received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2007.
Previous roles include founding Chief Executive of the N8 Research Partnership, a collaboration of the eight most research-intensive universities in the North of England; Director of Research Services, University of Cambridge; College Lecturer in Cell Biology and Graduate Tutor, Gonville and Caius College; Director of Drug Development, Cancer Research Campaign (now Cancer Research UK); and Director of Monoclonal Therapeutics, Celltech Ltd. As a consultant, he has advised universities, governments and individuals on commercialisation of intellectual property and he has acted as non-executive director of high technology and investment companies.
David graduated from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College) with First Class Honours in biochemistry. His PhD work at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology was with the late César Milstein (Nobel Prize-winner for discovery of monoclonal antibodies). Together with Derek Burke, David made and patented the first monoclonal antibody to human interferon. This work led to an interest in technology transfer and appointment as the MRC's first Cambridge technology transfer officer.
Non-work interests include sailing, mountains, skiing and cooking.
