Pharmaceutical Engineering Committee

Europe EHS and Engineering Lead, Haleon Plc

Engineering Director with Operations, Outsourcing, Strategy, Supply Chain Management & Design, Manufacturing, Project Management, Environment, Health and Safety experience in the Steel, Pharmaceutical and Consumer Healthcare Industries

Head of Operational Engineering & Compliance, GSK

Chris is a chartered mechanical engineer who has worked for the GSK group of companies in a range of engineering roles for over 30 years.  He has worked at six pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the UK, Mexico and Spain and is currently Head of Operational Engineering & Compliance for the GSK manufacturing network of 70 sites in 30 countries.

Chris has a particular interest in manufacturing plant maintenance, reliability and equipment performance and has also led GSK’s engineering standards and compliance programme.

Compliance Officer, GSK

Karen has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years, across dosage forms, oral to sterile.  Holding roles across Engineering, Quality, Automated Systems, Process, Validation and more; in roles from GxP Auditor to Head of Department.

She is currently working for GSK within their Global Supply Chain Engineering and EHS compliance.

‘We must encourage the next generation, while valuing the contribution made by the last.  Knowledge sharing and networking is a part of this.  We have an open-door policy in this committee, and encourage those an interest in Engineering to become members of our friendly team.’

Karen was Chair of the Pharmaceutical TAC committee for 10 years and has been involved with the institution for over 15.

Lecturer, The University of Manchester

Process Manager, GSK

Aaron is a mechanical engineering graduate, from Queen’s University Belfast, with 7 years experience in the Pharmaceutical industry.

Having worked at a variety of manufacturing sites in the UK (Bulk API, Secondary Manufacture and Packing), Aaron’s main focuses have been in operations engineering with a passion for continuous improvement and reliability. Having upskilled Lean Six Sigma, data analysis and development of digital tools, he is now focusing on future ready solutions to improve efficiency and decision making while also deploying Industry 4.0 projects.

Senior Manufacturing Engineer, aVaxziPen Ltd

Chartered Engineer with experience in a variety of pharmaceutical engineering roles across R&D and manufacturing – with a focus on steriles manufacturing, process design and scale-up of novel processes, facility design, qualification and validation. Within team leader and technical lead roles, have acted as the primary engineering resource for addressing the engineering and manufacturing challenges which arise as candidates are taken from research and development, through the clinical phases and into commercial manufacture.

Principal Consultant, Protogen Ltd.

A Chartered Engineer, lead auditor and MHRA registered RP, Richard has over 40 years of engineering design and management experience in industries as diverse as agriculture and motorsport. 

He has spent the last 20 years exclusively in pharmaceutical management and consultancy positions, including validation, GMDP quality engineering, quality systems, lean compliance and risk-based GMDP sustainable policies, for companies such as Xellia, Novartis, Medimmune, Lonza, Pfizer, GSK, Alexion and Ipsen. 

Outside of RP and project duties, his interests include architectural design, house renovation, gardening and motorsport.

Fuji Film

Managing Director, Finpromach Ltd

I started working in the Pharmaceutical Industry over 25 years ago, designing and implementing custom designed machines to specifically solve challenges of Pharmaceutical production with regards to GMP regulations in clean production areas specifically relating to Materials Handling. I have travelled all over the world, visited many different production sites for different companies. I have a broad depth of knowledge of the different approaches by different companies and geographies. In the past few years I started my own company to promote innovative companies recognising those who are planning for the future and meeting the ever increasing demands placed on the manufacturing process.

CP Waites

Bob worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry for nearly forty years. His experience includes Production and Engineering Management, New Product Development, Factory Design, Supply Chain Management, Validation and a variety of support functions. He has a special interest in the use of risk management and modern quality methodologies in the various aspects of regulatory compliance. As well as his experience in the Pharmaceutical industry, Bob has also worked in a range of other industries, including: aerospace, precision engineering, FMCG, insurance and e-commerce.

Retired/consultant

Project Manager in the Ellipta expansion programme, GSK

Dan graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2014 with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering focusing on heat transfer, fluid flow and advance manufacturing including a dissertation in additive manufacturing.

Straight from university he joined GSK on their graduate programme which has given him a breath of experience across consumer healthcare, primary and secondary pharmaceutical manufacturing. His roles have included Project Manager/Engineer, Reliability Engineer and Site Physical Contamination Programme Lead.

Dan is also progressing through the IMechE MPDS scheme.

Founder & CEO, The Care Machine Ltd

Dr Helen Meese is an award-winning chartered mechanical engineer with over 20 years’ experience in industry and academia. She is CEO of The Care Machine, an engineering consultancy that works with early-stage innovators to develop medical technology and services. Helen is an accomplished public affairs and policy specialist; providing consultation and thought leadership to Government, industry, and the public sector on engineering and its contribution to health & care. She is passionate about all aspects of STEM and provides mentoring and coaching to young engineers as well as being the host of the IMechE’s engineering podcast, Impulse to Innovation. She is Chair of the IMechE’s Biomedical Engineering Division and a past Trustee, member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Healthcare Policy Topic Group, Vice-Chair of the SBRI healthcare panel and a Health Foundation Q Community member.

Vice President Technical, Parexel Consulting

A chartered chemist and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry with over 30 years of experience in manufacturing, quality assurance and information management in the pharmaceutical industry.

Siegfried previously worked for Roche and GE Healthcare, and in consulting roles for Raytheon and ABB. 

The last 16 years he has been with Parexel providing regulatory, compliance and industry-best-practices consulting services globally, covering the entire life cycle.

He is a thought leader on data integrity and supply chain.

Skinner Associates
A mechanical building services engineer by training with more than 35 years of experience designing and developing the engineering services systems to provide closely controlled environments in the science, health and research facilities.

Ian’s experience includes many and varied projects requiring highly resilient and closely controlled conditions ranging from clean and ultra-clean environments - pharmaceutical, research, medical etc., to ultra-dirty - biological, chemical, radiation containment etc. and high stability/resilience facilities.

His aim is to provide the strategic and technical support required during the planning, design, procurement/construction, testing/commissioning and ongoing operation of each building/facility in support of achieving successful and optimum outcomes for their successful and profitable operation.

Platforms Engineering Manager, GSK

Zhiru is a chartered mechanical engineer who has worked for GSK for over 10 years, since graduated with MSc and BEng (Honours) degrees in Operations and Mechanical Engineering.

He has worked at three pharmaceutical manufacturing sites across the country, where oral solid dose products, sterile injection products, and inhaler devices are produced. He has also managed utilities and facilities at a Pharmaceutical R&D (Research & Development) site.

Zhiru’s roles have included Engineer, Senior Engineer and Engineering Department Manager. The roles involved equipment and facilities maintenance, equipment performance improvement as well as capital project delivery. More recently he has been focusing on asset lifecycle management. By doing so he is working to influence strategic planning, design, construction, testing & commissioning through to maintenance and decommission. He has also gained some interesting experience in third-party engineering service contract management. 

Chas is a Chartered mechanical engineer with over 35 years experience both in the UK and overseas. He has been involved with, and in many cases lead, a wide range of pharmaceutical and bio-containment projects as well as nuclear and microelectronics projects in the past.

Chas is experienced in the design, construction, commissioning validation and licensing of such facilities and takes great interest in robust solutions for their related HVAC systems and process utilities, including purified water, WFI and pure steam systems, process temperature control systems, compressed air, gas and vacuum systems, thermal effluent treatment plant and process control.

Chartered mechanical engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Member of the Energy Institute with over 35 years experience in project, mechanical and process engineering mainly in the pharmaceutical industry.

Maurice’s previous experience as a project manager for an engineering design and consultancy company included various assignments, covering project engineering and validation work for pharmaceutical industry clients.

Previously employed by a major United States pharmaceutical manufacturer as a lead project engineer, and Head of Engineering in the Maintenance Department for the Mechanical Workshop, Planning, Fermentation and Recovery, Pharmaceutical Engineering.