Dr Suki Balendra

Suki has a wide range of leadership experience with a 20-year background facilitating, growing, and promoting health research in the UK across sectors including industry, academia, NHS, and central government. She is currently Director of Strategic Partnerships for Paddington Life Sciences.

Suki is also life sciences lead for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network North West London, and was recently appointed director of the North West London Clinical Trials Alliance which aims to improve access to and the quality of clinical research in the region.

Suki joined Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in 2014 and has since worked across several operational and leadership positions in the clinical research sector. Prior to joining the Trust, Suki started her career in the Biotechnology Industry at Abbott Diagnostics Ltd. Within a Good manufacturing practice (GMP) environment she worked on several operational projects to improve efficiency, cost, and reproducibility. In 2018 she was seconded to the Office of Life Sciences within the Department of Business and Industrial Strategy where she attracted and negotiated new business to increase the UK’s market share of health and care research activity. During the pandemic she provided operational leadership to the NHS covid vaccine research response in Northwest London.

Suki has a PhD from the University of Warwick, and she is a passionate advocate for UK PLC as the number one destination to conduct clinical trial, in a way that they are open to everyone within the communities we serve.

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