David Roberts CPA, EPA

Independent Member of Steering Board

Also sits on Audit Committee.

Appointed: 16 April 2007

David Roberts was Senior Vice President of Intellectual Property at GlaxoSmithKline plc, with offices in London and Philadelphia, until June 2007 and Global Head of Intellectual Property at GlaxoSmithKline plc and its legacy companies, SmithKline Beecham plc and Beecham Pharmaceuticals Ltd, for 27 years. During this time David had executive responsibility for 250 staff including some 120 patent and trade mark attorneys based in Europe, USA and Japan. David has a BSc (Hons) degree in chemistry from the University of Liverpool and an LLB (Hons) from the University of London and is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and a European Patent Attorney.

In addition to David's position on the Steering Board, he is a non-executive Chairman of Stratagem IPM Ltd, a Cambridge based firm specialising in providing strategic IP advice to clients, and he also acts as an IP consultant particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

During his career, David has sat on many professional committees, including most recently, Chair of the IP Policy Committee of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), President of Interpat (the international organisation of the heads of Intellectual Property departments of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies worldwide) and a Board member of EFPIA and the Intellectual Property Institute.

Progressively over my long career in IP the Intellectual Property Office has earnt a well deserved international reputation for excellence in everything it does. It is accordingly a privilege to be associated with such a prestigious organisation