Sir Harpal Kumar

Sir Harpal is the President of GRAIL Europe. He most recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of Innovation EMEA at Johnson & Johnson where he oversaw a portfolio of co-investments and collaborations across the region to grow Johnson & Johnson’s networks within the EMEA innovation community. Before joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Sir Harpal spent 15 years with Cancer Research UK and served as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer from April 2007 until June 2018. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer & Executive Director of Development at CRUK and served as Chief Executive of Cancer Research Technology (a subsidiary of CRUK). Before CRUK, he worked with McKinsey & Co, The Papworth Trust, and Nexan Group. Sir Harpal received a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Manchester, Newcastle, and Glasgow, and the Institute of Cancer Research, and he is a Fellow of The Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2016, he was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to cancer research.