About us

Edward Hodgkin is the Executive Chair of Slingshot and a Managing Partner of Syncona.

Alongside these roles he is currently the Chair of Mosaic Therapeutics and a Board member of Resolution Therapeutics and OMass Therapeutics. He was also previously the first CEO and a board member of Autolus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AUTL), and the former CEO of Resolution Therapeutics. Within the Syncona life science team, he is involved in creation of new businesses and then fills executive roles within those companies to make them operational.

Prior to Syncona, he was CEO of Biotica Ltd (Cambridge, UK), President & Chief Business Officer of BrainCells Inc (San Diego, CA), and VP, Business Development & Marketing at Tripos Inc (St Louis, MO). Ed’s early career was spent in research and management positions with Wyeth-Ayerst Inc and British Biotech.

He holds a degree and DPhil in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and is a former Chairman of the BIA, the UK’s trade association for innovative life science companies.

Richard Wooster is a Board Member and Chief Scientific Officer of Slingshot. He is also an Executive Partner of Syncona.

Dr. Wooster brings extensive experience of creating drug discovery strategies and leading discovery teams at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He most recently served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Translate Bio, which was acquired by Sanofi in September 2021. Dr. Wooster joined Translate Bio from Tarveda Therapeutics where he was Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D. In addition to advancing multiple programs from early-stage discovery into the clinic, Dr. Wooster helped the company raise multiple rounds of private funding to advance the business. Prior to Tarveda, he was Vice President and Discovery Performance Unit Head in Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr. Wooster began his career in academia at the Institute of Cancer Research where he discovered the BRCA2 gene and as a founder of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where mutations in BRAF were first discovered. He received his PhD from the University of Dundee and has co-authored over 100 publications, book chapters, and patents.

Kate Butler is a Board Director of Slingshot and is Syncona’s Chief Financial Officer.

She joined Syncona Investment Management Ltd. in 2022 as Group Finance Director, and subsequently was promoted to CFO. She is a senior finance leader with over 20 years’ experience in finance and a wealth of experience across multiple roles in the life sciences sector.

Kate joined Syncona from Awakn, a Canadian listed biotech start up where she was CFO. Prior to that she held senior roles in the finance teams at Vectura plc, Gilead Sciences Inc, and Kite Europe. Kate also has FTSE 100 experience working with Anglo American plc and spent nine years at Ernst & Young LLP, where she qualified as a chartered accountant.

Nathaniel Dahan is the Director of Search and Evaluation at Slingshot and an Associate Partner of Syncona.

Before joining Slingshot and Syncona, Nathaniel was part of the Life Sciences M&A Consulting team at Deloitte, focusing on preparation and execution of large pharma and medtech acquisitions and separations. His background includes strategy execution consulting in pharma, healthcare, and other industries, as well as strategic communications for biotech and medtech start-ups.

Nathaniel has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University College London and was also a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and King’s College London.

Ben Woolven is the Head of Portfolio Management at Slingshot and a Business Strategy and Operations Partner of Syncona.

Ben joined Syncona from GlaxoSmithKline where he has over a decade of strategy development and R&D portfolio management experience; establishing Project Management and Transformation offices.

Prior to joining Slingshot and Syncona, Ben worked with GlaxoSmithKline’s Chief Medical Officer, where he led reconfiguration of global and regional medical functions in anticipation of their evolving pharma portfolio. Prior to this, Ben held various strategy and project management roles building scientific teams and developing justifications for new scientific investments. Prior to joining GlaxoSmithKline Ben played a key role in the success of Domantis, an antibody fragment start-up, sold to GlaxoSmithKline for £230 million.

Ben holds a PhD in Immunology.

Shaun Mullen is a Chartered Accountant and joined Slingshot in 2024 as Head of Finance & Operations.

Shaun trained at a top 10 accountancy firm within Audit and then joined PwC’s Advisory team focusing on Corporate Finance and Restructuring, both in the UK and Hong Kong. Shaun was most recently CFO of an AIM listed software business, Crimson Tide PLC, and has been Finance Director of listed, owner managed and private equity backed businesses including Kesslers International, the BVCA and Coffee Planet (Dubai).

Shaun has international experience in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Helen D’Silva is an Executive Assistant at Slingshot and at Syncona.

Prior to joining Slingshot Helen held various senior support roles, most recently as Senior Executive Assistant at Gardiner and Theobald supporting one of the Board-level equity partners.

Previously, Helen worked as Executive Assistant to the Senior Head of Knowledge and Learning at The Big Lottery Fund and EA to the Head of Corporate Communications at Land Securities.