Our Team

We are connected, trusted and respected within the science, technology and investment community in the UK and globally. We welcome the support of AstraZeneca.

Meet our team

At Sana Capital, our founding team combines decades of experience across public and private capital, deep tech, and ecosystem development. While some members operate in stealth mode, each brings a proven track record in deploying capital, building ventures, and shifting the investment landscape toward greater equity and innovation.

Hanadi Jabado DL

Founding Partner

Hanadi Jabado DL

Founding Partner

Hanadi Jabado is a start-up advisor, angel investor and non-executive who is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. She supports early-stage businesses across a range of sectors with a focus on healthcare and deep-tech. Her ability to act as a technology translator and to align vision and strategy with operational constraints are key to her high success rate. Hanadi’s experience in developing innovation clusters is globally recognised. She has helped set-up entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Middle East, Russia and China.

In 2012, Hanadi was the driving force behind the creation of Accelerate Cambridge, which contributed to the Cambridge entrepreneurial cluster by providing help and support to innovators and entrepreneurs. Hanadi has supported the creation and scale-up of over 180 early stage ventures, building a portfolio of an estimated collective value of £1.5bn and over £300m of risk capital raised. In early 2016, Hanadi was appointed Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre at the Cambridge Judge Business School.Since January 2019, Hanadi has centred her work around the investment needs of early stage ventures and more specifically, the funding gap in the UK for ambitious life-sciences and biotech businesses. This led to the creation of CMS Ventures, and Hanadi’s appointment as its managing director. CMS Ventures is an early-stage investor based in Cambridge investing in Biotech; Life Sciences start-ups in the UK with a focus on the 4Ds (Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics, and Digital) and privileged access to international markets, in particular China. In September 2021 Hanadi was appointed to the Innovate UK innovation loans Credit Committee as an external member. Her stakeholder management skills and her clear leadership make her an effective Chair allowing her to develop a portfolio of non-executive directorships alongside her executive roles. She is a seasoned start-up advisor, angel investor and non-exec.

Hanadi is the Founding Partner of Sana Capital Limited, an investment adviser dedicated to unlocking innovation in deep tech to drive scalable, positive change and build a more equitable future. Born in Lebanon and raised in France, she is fluent in English, French and Arabic and speaks another four languages. She lives in Cambridge with her four children.

Testimonials for Hanadi

“I worked with Hanadi from the very inception of our company. She helped as a mentor in guiding me through being a first time CEO, understanding the fundraising process with Venture Capital partners and ensuring good governance structures at the very early stages. As we grew the company she became instrumental in helping me create our strategic vision and understanding our ability to scale our platform. I would highly recommend her as someone with clarity of thought and the ability to assist companies in the deep tech sector.”

Dr Muhunthan Thillai(CEO, Qureight)

“I worked with Hanadi for a number of years as part of the board of Cambridge Spark where she was the chair person. She’s supported me in introducing appropriate governance, hiring a CFO, navigating difficult economical climates and developing a winning go-to-market strategy. Her support has enabled Cambridge Spark to accelerate its growth, scale and reach profitability.”

Dr Raoul-Gabriel Urma(CEO, Cambridge Spark)

Anonymous

Partner

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Anonymous

Partner

With a decade of experience leading large-scale public investment initiatives, Sana's Partner has deployed over £260m to UK startups and developed one of the country's most impactful innovation pipelines. They currently advise on capital strategy and investment execution at Sana Capital while remaining anonymous for strategic reasons.

Anonymous

Partner

Anonymous

Partner

Sana's Partner is an experienced investor and operator with a strong track record in deep tech commercialisation and fund management. They bring deep domain expertise in scaling science-led businesses and are currently operating in stealth while contributing to Sana Capital’s strategy and diligence efforts.

Tahani Anne Carruthers

Investor Relations & Strategy Lead

It’s time to back the future.

Meet our Advisory Board

Jackie Ashley

National political journalist and Chair, National Brain Appeal

Jackie Ashley

National political journalist and Chair, National Brain Appeal

Jackie Ashley was a national political journalist for more than thirty years, working for the BBC, ITN, Channel 4 News, the Statesman and the Guardian. She was President of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge from 2015 – 2018 and is now an Honorary Fellow of the College and Chair of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. During her time at Cambridge, Jackie put in place several initiatives to encourage young women to consider a career in tech. She now chairs the National Brain Appeal, supporting research into all aspects of brain disease; is an Ambassador for the Carers Trust; a trustee of the Hansard Society and a member of the Royal Television Society News and Current Affairs awards Committee. Jackie also works as a media consultant.

Dr Dave Brown

Co-Founder & Chair, Healx

Dr Dave Brown

Co-Founder & Chair, Healx

Dr David Brown is Co-founder and Chair of the Board of Healx Ltd, a Cambridge University spinout company which uses Machine Learning to find treatments for children with rare diseases. He was also co-founder of the antibody company Crescendo Biologics. He was listed in the Maserati 100 UK Innovators/ Entrepreneurs list for 2019.

Earlier in his career he pursued medical research in the pharmaceutical industry. Whilst at Pfizer he was named co-inventor on the patent for Viagra, and for 8 years he led the team developed Viagra through to proof of clinical efficacy in male impotence. Relpax (migraine) and Revatio (Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension) also came from his team and together these drugs have sales of over $40bn. While at Roche in Switzerland, he was a Director of the company and, as Global Head of Drug Discovery, he had responsibility for productivity of over 2000 scientists at Roche’s five research sites in the USA, Europe and Asia.

Shaun Grady

Senior Vice President, Business Development Operations, AstraZeneca

Shaun Grady

Senior Vice President, Business Development Operations, AstraZeneca

Shaun Grady has global responsibility for Business Development Operations at AstraZeneca, leading the company’s transaction execution, due diligence and Alliance and Integration Management function including licensing and partnering, M&A, externalisation and divestments. Shaun was appointed to his current role in 2013. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Strategic Partnering & Business Development (2010 – 13) and Vice President, Corporate Business Development (2006 – 10). Shaun originally joined ICI as an attorney and held positions in the pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and legal departments. Following the demerger from ICI, he was appointed Assistant General Counsel, Corporate for Zeneca Group PLC. Shaun worked on the merger of Astra and Zeneca, the merger of Zeneca Agrochemicals with Novartis Agribusiness to form Syngenta, and the creation of Avecia. Shaun also worked on the acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) and later MedImmune and led the acquisition of Amylin, and subsequent buy-out of Bristol-Myers’ Squibb’s interest in the AZ – BMS Diabetes Alliance. More recently Shaun led the transaction team for AZ’s global ADC collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo for DS 8201. Shaun has led AZ’s recent externalisation and divestment programme involving transactions with Aspen, Grunenthal, Cheplapharm, Recordati and Covis. Shaun is a Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University Judge Business School, a Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College and is a member of the Board of Cambridge United Football Club, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Healx and Prostate Cancer Research Centre. Based in Cambridge, Shaun enjoys rugby and soccer, and occasionally turns his hand to sports writing.

Dr Darrin Disley, OBE

CEO & Director, Mogrify

Dr Darrin Disley, OBE

CEO & Director, Mogrify

Darrin has built an international reputation as a scientific and business innovator across the life sciences sector. With 30 years of experience in the translation of science into industrial application and commercial success, Darrin has grown, or invested in many enterprises and helped to secure significant sums of private and public funding and commercial deals. Darrin is currently CEO, Investor and Director of Mogrify a UK biotechnology company that has developed a revolutionary direct cell conversion and maintenance platform technology that aims to transform the development of ex vivo cell therapies and pioneer a new class of in vivo regenerative therapies. In parallel, he is Chairman of CELIXIR PLC a regenerative medicine company founded by Nobel Prize winner Sir Martin Evans, whose lead product HeartCel has begun a Phase 2 clinical trial to improve the outcomes of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Prior to this Darrin led Horizon Discovery Group Plc, a gene-editing market leader, from a $200k seed funding in March 2008 to an IPO of $113 million on AIM in March 2014. Darrin has won numerous awards and accolades in recognition of his industry, enterprise and philanthropic efforts including a Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2016 and in 2018 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He is an active and passionate philanthropist. Darrin has established a 10-year endowment of the Professor Christopher R Lowe Carpe Diem Enterprise Fund that supports hundreds of young students, entrepreneurs, and businesses with mentoring and financial help. He also hold several honorary and academic positions including Enterprise Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Honorary Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School and Honorary Visiting Fellow at the School of Environmental and Life Science at the University of Salford.

Meet our Venture Partners

Amali de Alwis

ClimateTech Figurehead

Amali de Alwis

ClimateTech Figurehead

Amali de Alwis is CEO at Subak. Subak’s mission is to accelerate climate action by funding and scaling a global ecosystem of organisations and individuals that use data and tech to create systemic change in policy and behaviour.

Outside of the day job, Amali is a Board member at Ada National College for Digital Skills, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Unboxed 2022, and the abrdn Foundation. She is a venture partner at Sana Capital Management, was a founding member at Tech Talent Charter, and was named as ‘The most Influential woman in UK IT’ by Computer Weekly. She was awarded an MBE in 2019 in the New Year’s Honours list for Services to Diversity and Training in the Tech Industry.

Jeanette Carlsson

Nordics Specialist

Jeanette Carlsson

Nordics Specialist

Jeanette is a tech sector CEO, blue-chip business leader, digital Innovation and transformation executive. She is the founder and CEO of Tech Nordic Advocates, Northern Europe’s largest and only pan-Nordic/Baltic (not-for-profit) tech/start-up ecosystem network. Additionally, she works as business, government and diplomatic advisor, NED, mentor, innovation lecturer, conference chair/keynote as well as fintech and start-up investor and landscape expert. She has a 25-year track record of building, growing & advising start-ups to PLCs in the fast-paced digital, tech and innovation space. Jeanette is passionate about what tech can do for businesses and people, she thrives on challenges, high-speed, complex environments and bringing the best people together to make things happen. She was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for her contribution to London’s start-up ecosystem and voted ‘Inspirational Woman’, City of London, in 2018.

Roger Assaker

Technology Entrepreneur

Roger Assaker

Technology Entrepreneur

Roger completed his education in Belgium, with an MS in Aerospace Engineering from University of Liège and a PhD in Computational Mechanics from University of Louvain. He then transitioned to business taking an MBA in International Business from Sacred Heart University, CT, USA and complementing his base education with multiple executive courses in Entrepreneurship and business at MIT and Harvard.
BR Roger is a serial entrepreneur: he co-founded e-Xstream engineering in 2003 and grew it to become a leader in advanced material modeling, staying on as the CEO until 2020. In 2012, the company exited to MSC Software, which Roger was the president of in 2020 and 2021. He also co-founded a new startup focusing on In-Silico Medicine in October 2022.
BR Roger is an active business angel with several investments in Start-ups and scale-ups in Health Tech and other tech areas. He also serves as a board member in a variety of companies.
BR In his free time, Roger enjoys various outdoor sports, such as scuba diving, sailing, snowboarding, swimming and cycling.

Our Team

We are connected, trusted and respected within the science, technology and investment community in the UK and globally. We welcome the support of AstraZeneca.

Meet our team

Hanadi Jabado DL

Testimonials for Hanadi

Anonymous

Anonymous

Tahani Anne Carruthers

It’s time to back the future.

Meet our Advisory Board

Jackie Ashley

Dr Dave Brown

Shaun Grady

Dr Darrin Disley, OBE

Meet our Venture Partners

Amali de Alwis

Jeanette Carlsson

Roger Assaker

Contact

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Get in touch

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