COO of Deep Tech Innovator Chemify Recruited by Occam
Occam's deep tech practice grows with the placement of Alastair Leighton, PhD as Chemify's Chief Operating Officer (COO). Founded by Lee Cronin, Chemify is a deep tech chemical science innovator that combines chemistry, robotics, and AI to digitally design, discover, and make novel molecules for medicines and advanced materials.
Alastair joins Chemify from MeiraGTx, a gene therapy biotech, where he played a crucial role in transforming the company into a clinical and commercial stage organization. He has previously held leadership positions at GSK, Crucell, and Novartis. With 25 years of experience building and scaling end-to-end manufacturing capabilities within the biopharmaceutical industry across various modalities, he is exceptionally qualified to lead Chemify's ambitious goal of digitizing chemistry.
Alastair holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Sheffield and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manchester.
About Chemify’s Technology
The core of Chemify’s technology is a chemical programming language that allows for the automatic generation and synthesis of molecules based on computational designs. This enables the rapid and reproducible creation of complex molecules that were previously challenging to access at scale. Chemify’s robotic synthesis cluster translates chemical code into physical molecules, supporting high throughput discovery, optimization, and purification of compounds with precision.
Chemify’s approach leverages its programmable chemistry platform, which automates the entire chemical development cycle—from design to execution—enhancing the discovery process. By utilizing AI to predict molecular properties and drive iterative cycles of design, make, test, and analyze, Chemify can rapidly generate large, bespoke chemical libraries for diverse applications, such as drug discovery and materials science.
This platform not only accelerates the pace of research but also ensures reproducibility and scalability, significantly reducing bottlenecks in traditional chemical synthesis. Chemify’s automation and AI-powered workflows are transforming the landscape of chemical research, offering novel pathways for drug development and material innovation
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Occam Global is a biotech executive search, recruiting, and leadership advisory firm with specialties across technological fields, including Biotech, TechBio, AI-ML, Cell/Gene Therapy, Diagnostics/Genomics, Medical Devices, Research Tools, Digital Health, Alternative Energy, AgTech, EdTech, Robotics as well as adjacencies within Venture Capital and Private Equity. Occam helps build biotech executive leadership teams that meet the demands of the rapidly developing, competitive, and challenging industries it serves. Occam Global recruits leading C-Suite executives and board members for the most exciting and innovative clients across the world with a specific focus on the UK, Continental Europe, the US, and Asia.