Technology Strategy Board: CEO appointed at Stevenage bioscience incubator

Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, a bioincubator that is being set up by the Technology Strategy Board in partnership with the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, GlaxoSmithKline, the Wellcome Trust, and the East of England Development Agency, has appointed Martino Picardo as its first Chief Executive Officer. Picardo joins from the University of Manchester Incubator Company (UMIC) and will take up his new post in February 2011. 

Construction of the £38 million development, an independent bioscience facility, has started on a site next to Glaxo’s Research and Development campus in Stevenage. 

Picardo has been Managing Director of UMIC since 2003, overseeing the incubation of more than 60 start-ups, attracting significant venture capital and generating more than 500 jobs.