Sir Richard Sykes
Sir Richard Sykes joined Glaxo Research in 1972 as Head of its Antibiotic Research Unit. In 1977 he moved to the US to join the Squibb Institute for Medical Research where he progressed to Vice President, before rejoining Glaxo in the UK as Deputy Chief Executive in 1986.

At Glaxo Group he became Group R&D Director and was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Glaxo Group Research in 1987.

In March 1993 Sir Richard was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Glaxo, taking
on the same roles at Glaxo Wellcome in 1997 following the acquisition of Wellcome.
He subsequently led the company until 2002, through the formation of GlaxoSmithKline,
a world leading company with seven percent of the global pharmaceutical market.

Sir Richard became Rector of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in 2001.

Board Mandates
Sir Richard is currently Vice-Chairman at Swiss life sciences company Lonza Group,
Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest
mining and mineral concerns, and Senior Non-Executive Director of Eurasian National Resources Corporation.

He is Chairman of the Biosciences Leadership Council in the UK and Chairman of the Singapore Life Sciences Advisory Board.

He is also Chairman of Merlion Pharmaceuticals, of the Healthcare Advisory Group of
Apax Partners, Circassia, Metabometrix and the UK Stem Cell Research Foundation.

Formerly, he was member of the NHS Central R&D Committee, of the National Science
& Technology Board and Chairman of the Business Leader Group of the British Lung Foundation.

Sir Richard has also been Chairman of the British Pharma Group, Medeus Pharma, member of the President's Committee of the Confederation of British Industry, member of the UK Trade Policy Forum, Chairman of the Task Force for Inward Investment in the UK Pharmaceutical Industry, member of the Advisory Committee for Human Genome Research, member of the Council for Industry & Higher Education and member of DTI's Strategy Board.

Awards
Sir Richard was knighted in 1994, awarded Honorary Citizenship of Singapore in 2004 and holds 20 honorary doctorates.