David Wright, PSI Chair

After studying for a MSc in Medical Statistics at the University of Leicester and a PhD in Statistics at QMW, University of London, David did a Post Doc at the University of Warwick on risk scores and became a Lecturer in Medical Statistics at UCL working on risk factors associated with neonatal arterial switch operations.

David has more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. The first 16 years as a statistical assessor at the MHRA where he went on to Chair the Biostatistics Working Party at the EMA from 2011-2016. Since 2016 David has worked for AstraZeneca as Head of Statistical Innovation leading a team working on methodological issues associated with the design and analysis of clinical trials.

David co-authored the revision to the CHMP guideline on missing data and is a member of the EFPSI/EFPIA Estimands Implementation Working Group and a member of the EFSPI Scientific Committee.

Naomi Givens, Vice Chair and Secretary

Naomi is a Statistics Director with a career spanning more than 24 years’ in the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive experience of cross functional leadership on project teams from phase II through to submission and beyond. Naomi currently has accountability for the late-stage HIV portfolio at GSK and leads an internal Biostatistics Safety Working Group.

Naomi sat on the PSI Board as Contracts and Partnerships Director (2015 to 2019) during which time she oversaw contract renewal for the PSI secretariat and utilised her skills of diplomacy facilitating the RSS merger discussions. In 2020, she led an initiative focusing on how PSI could better support members as they move through their careers into leadership positions, which subsequently led to the expansion of the Careers Committee remit.

Naomi is passionate about PSI, the network it provides the community of statisticians and its aim of building the technical and non-technical capabilities of the members.

Kimberley Hacquoil, Careers Director

Kim has over 15 years’ of experience in the pharmaceutical industry working as a statistician. She has worked in a number of different therapeutic areas, mainly in early development. She has championed new approaches to decision making in clinical development through initiatives developing and promoting innovative/novel designs, and statistical methodology including futility and predictive inference, prior elicitation, assurance and quantitative decision making. She has also worked in strategy and portfolio management as a Statistics & Mathematical Modelling Director. Kim has recently taken on a new role as the Chief Data Scientific Officer at Exploristics.

Kim has been an active member of PSI for many years and has previously been part of the New Starters SIG and the Careers and Academic Liaison Committee (CALC).

Kim received her BSc in Mathematics from Bath University and MPhil in Statistical Sciences from Cambridge University.

Aiden Flynn, Commercial Director

Dr Aiden Flynn has over 25 years’ experience in drug discovery and clinical development, with ten years at GlaxoSmithKline as a Director of Statistical Support for Biomarker Studies across R&D.  There he was responsible for developing and implementing the company’s Pharmacogenetics strategy enabling the use of genetics data in clinical studies.  This involved the development and integration of new analysis tools and methods, data standards, processes and training.  Aiden has in-depth experience in developing computer simulation tools for the design and analysis of complex trials and has worked closely with the FDA and EMA to develop tools and guidelines that support the use of biomarkers in clinical studies. 

In 2009, he set up Exploristics, a privately owned, commercial company providing statistical products and services in support of clinical trial design and analysis.  Since it was founded, Aiden has overseen the consistent growth in the company.

Alun Bedding, Communications Committee and External Affairs (and EFSPI) Chair 

Alun is the current Global Head of Methods, Collaboration and Outreach in the Statistics department at Roche. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and been a member of PSI for all that time having also served on the Board of Directors twice previously, first as Secretary and latterly as Treasurer. Alun also worked as editor on the SPIN newsletter in the past. Alun is currently involved with the PSI mentor program and has been the internal auditor for PSI. 

Alun is a member of the DIA Innovative Design Working Group and Bayesian Methods Working Group and also a statistical member of the UK Medical Research Council Experimental Medicine funding panel and the Great Ormond Street Hospital funding panel. 

Kate Taylor, Events Director

Kate has been an active member of PSI for 10 years. Kate sat on CALC from 2013-2016, helping the group to organise many successful events and promoting the industry to school age and university students.

Since 2016, Kate has been a part of the Scientific Committee, acting as vice-chair for the 2018, 2021 and 2022 conferences and Chair for the 2019 and 2020 conferences, which were held in London and online. She has loved playing a part in PSI’s largest annual event each year.

As part of being the Conference Chair, Kate has also sat on the PSI Board before, from 2018-2020 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If elected again, she hopes to continue working to provide a comprehensive, exciting and coordinated set of events for the PSI community alongside other committee members, as well as playing an active role in all areas of PSI that the board discusses.

Alicia Aylott, Membership Chair

Alicia has worked as a statistician at GSK for almost 20 years, working on late phase trials and regulatory submissions in HIV, Oncology and COVID-19. She completed her BSc Mathematics and Statistics degree and MSc in Biometry at the University of Reading.

During her career in the pharmaceutical industry, Alicia has volunteered with PSI in a number of capacities. Her most significant contribution was as the Deputy Editor, then Editor, of SPIN (the former PSI newsletter) for six years and she oversaw the notable transition from paper to electronic editions. Alicia currently sits on the PSI Careers committee and has successfully implemented a bi-annual newsletter for students and academic organisations, to increase awareness of PSI and promote the benefits of PSI Student Membership.

Alicia has two children (with her fellow statistician husband Mike), who keep her busy outside of work, and she enjoys exploring different parts of the UK with them.

Angela McPartlane, Special Interest Group (SIG) Director

Angela is a Masters level Biostatistician with over 25 years of experience including large pharma (Astra Zeneca) and contract research organisations (PPD and ICON). During this time, she has held multiple positions, including individual contributor/technical biostatistics roles, management positions and also a short (but educational) period within project management.

Angela has been with her current employer (ICON, formerly PRA) for over 16 years and her position is Vice President of Biostatistics & Programming, responsible for a team of almost 700 staff. She is a people person and loves to meet new people, connect people, and help people to grow.

During her career, Angela has been a long term PSI member, having been a member of various committees, including publications and membership, and had the pleasure of attending a PSI strategy day as well as hosting one of the recent PSI ITIT events at the ICON office in Swansea.

Jennifer Gilbride, Contracts and Finance Director