Board of Directors 

The Board of Directors is the legally and financially responsible body that sets the strategic direction of TOPRA and makes sure that all is running smoothly. Board elections are held annually for Officers and every two years for Directors. Any member, wherever they live or whatever their regulatory experience, can stand for election.

TOPRA's president for 2023, Aine Kane, lays out her plans for presidency at the 2022 TOPRA Symposium.

The members of the Board in 2023 are:

Office Term Name and professional position Career summary
 President 1 year   

Áine Kane

 Áine Kane is a Senior Director in the Global Chemistry, Manufacturing, And Controls (CMC) team at Pfizer, UK and has worked as a CMC regulatory professional for the past 17 years. She currently supports global regulatory submissions across the product lifecycle for biological products and manages a team of colleagues based in Ireland and the US.
President-Elect  1 year  

Michael Kipping

Michael is Director, Medical Technologies EMEAA for Element Materials Testing, which is a global testing, inspection, calibration and certification business. Previously, he worked for Innovate UK as a Health Innovation Lead managing a UK government grant funding programme (Biomedical Catalyst) that provided £30M per annum to support UK SMEs developing innovative health and life science products.
Past-President 1 year

 

Elizabeth Madichie

Dr Elizabeth (Liz) Madichie is Executive Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs at Veristat. Liz has more than 25 years’ extensive operational, strategic and leadership experience in global regulatory, pharmacovigilance, market access and end-to-end product development strategies across the biopharmaceutical and contract research organisation (CRO) industry.

 

Directors without portfolio

Office Term Name and professional position Career summary
Director 2 years 

Mehryar Behizad PhD 

 Currently Regulatory Director at Endomag, Mehryar has worked in regulatory affairs with high technology biopharmaceutical and medical device industries as a TOPRA member for over 25 years. He hopes to help TOPRA achieve a holistic approach to regulatory education across the industry and to extend its international reach.
Director 2 years 

Solange Corriol-Rohou

 		 Solange Corriol-Rohou, a pulmonologist/immuno-allergist by training, joined AstraZeneca in 2004 and is currently Senior Global Policy Director, with responsibilities in the Respiratory/Infection and Vaccine/Immune franchise. Over the past 20 years, since moving from the French Medicines Agency/EMA and academia to the pharmaceutical industry, she has gained strategic experience in drug development.
Director 2 Years 

Abbie Lennox 

 Abbie is Executive Board Member and Chief Regulatory, Medical, Safety & Product Compliance Officer at Bayer Consumer Health and leads end-to-end regulatory, medical affairs, safety, research and development, quality and product compliance. With over 20 years’ experience in regulatory affairs, she believes in the science of selfcare to empower people to transform their everyday health.
Director 2 years   

Evgenia Mengou

 Evgenia (Evie) Mengou is a regulatory affairs professional with over 20 years’ experience in pharmaceutical drug development, in diverse business and cultural settings. Following leadership positions in pharma and several years consultancy experience, she established her own consultancy to provide strategic regulatory and development advice.
Director 2 years 

Fiona Reekie

 Fiona started her regulatory career at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in 1995. She has worked on drug development and policy and intelligence (Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Biogen and UCB Celltech). Fiona then founded Pintells Pharma Consulting providing strategic and policy advice to companies ranging from startups to a top five pharma company.
Director  2 years  

Abishek Sinha

Abhishek is Global Director for Regulatory Affairs at ADVANZ PHARMA, a global pharmaceutical company committed to improving patients’ lives by providing and enhancing the specialty, hospital and rare disease medicines. He has over 20 years’ experience in regulatory affairs, having led international teams while supporting research and development pipelines. 

Our 2023 Board co-optees are:

Office Term Name and professional position Career summary
Co-optee 1 year   

Jack Bacon

 Jack is a biomedical science graduate with over 12 years’ experience in healthcare. After graduating, he began his regulatory affairs career in the medical device industry. Following roles at Lloyds Pharmacy and as a Locum Dispenser, he is currently Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist and person responsible for regulatory compliance (PRRC) at Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD).
Co-optee  1 year  

 Brian Cleary

Brian is a senior manager with over 20 years’ experience in a wide range of business sectors. Following his role as Marketing Manager for Acorn Regulatory Consultancy Services, he is now Global Senior Marketing Manager at NSF where he is responsible for global marketing strategy in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology consulting sectors.