Board of Directors 

The Board of Directors is the legally and financially responsible body that sets the strategic direction of TOPRA and makes sure that all is running smoothly. Board elections are held annually for Officers and every two years for Directors. Any member, wherever they live or whatever their regulatory experience, can stand for election.

TOPRA's president for 2024, Michael Kipping, lays out his plans for presidency at the 2023 TOPRA Symposium.

The members of the Board in 2024 are:

Office Term Name Career summary
 President  1 year
 

Michael Kipping MTOPRA
Michael is Director, Medical Technologies EMEAA for Element Materials Testing, which is a global testing, inspection, calibration and certification business. Previously, he worked for Innovate UK as a Health Innovation Lead managing a UK government grant funding programme (Biomedical Catalyst) that provided £30M per annum to support UK SMEs developing innovative health and life science products.
 President-Elect  1 year


 Aman Khera FTOPRA
Aman is Vice President, Regulatory Science, Strategy & Innovation at Worldwide Clinical Trials, a global  contract research organisation (CRO). Aman provides global strategic direction in regulatory affairs, having led a wide range of regulatory projects providing strategy and development services for a variety of client sponsor companies.
 Past-President  1 year   

Áine Kane MTOPRA

Áine Kane is a Senior Director in the Global Chemistry, Manufacturing, And Controls (CMC) team at Pfizer, UK and has worked as a CMC regulatory professional for the past 17 years. She currently supports global regulatory submissions across the product lifecycle for biological products and manages a team of colleagues based in Ireland and the US.

 

Directors

Office Term Name and professional position Career summary
Director 2 years 


Eva Kopecna FTOPRA
Eva works for Acino International as Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, Medical and Pharmacovigilance. She has over 35 years combined experience of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry in a range of positions. After spending 12 years as a medical doctor, Eva moved to research and development, and later regulatory affairs where she has built and lead different teams.
 
Director 2 years 


Steve Lee FTOPRA

Steve joined ABHI as Director of Diagnostics Regulation in 2020. After completing his degree in Biochemistry and Biology at Aston University, Steve trained as a Biomedical Scientist, working in hospital microbiology before moving to industry to work as company microbiologist. In 2019, Steve was presented with the TOPRA Award for Regulatory Excellence for Contribution.
Director 2 Years 

Abbie Lennox MTOPRA 

Abbie is Executive Board Member and Chief Regulatory, Medical, Safety & Product Compliance Officer at Bayer Consumer Health and leads end-to-end regulatory, medical affairs, safety, research and development, quality and product compliance. With over 20 years’ experience in regulatory affairs, she believes in the science of selfcare to empower people to transform their everyday health.

Director 2 years 


Sonja Morjaria MTOPRA

Sonja has over 15 years’ experience in regulatory affairs and is currently the Associate Director of Regulatory Strategy UK&IE at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Sonja leads the development of strategies for assets early in the pipeline, through to post marketing for cell and gene therapy products. She has been a TOPRA member since the start of her career and completed her MSc through TOPRA’s programme.
Director 2 years 

Abishek Sinha MTOPRA

Abhishek is Global Director for Regulatory Affairs at ADVANZ PHARMA, a global pharmaceutical company committed to improving patients’ lives by providing and enhancing the specialty, hospital and rare disease medicines. He has over 20 years’ experience in regulatory affairs, having led international teams while supporting research and development pipelines.
Director  2 years


 Alex Yates FTOPRA
Alex has been working in Regulatory Affairs since 2002, and is currently Vice President Regulatory Affairs at BicycleTx Ltd (Bicycle). Alex is responsible for the development and execution of the global regulatory strategy for the company’s portfolio. He is also responsible for the development of the global regulatory team, associated supporting systems and infrastructure.

Our 2024 Board co-optees are:


Office Term Name and professional position   Career summary
Co-optee 1 year   

Felicia Pinto MTOPRA

  Felicia is currently Head of Regulatory Affairs UK & Ireland at Sanofi. She has worked in regulatory affairs for nearly 20 years, during which she has gained an equal mix of industry and health authority experience. She is passionate about developing and mentoring colleagues and the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I). 
         
Co-optee  1 year  

Liam Spencer

  Liam is currently Senior Project Manager, Regulatory Consulting and Services at Lumis Life Science Consulting and his experience includes both pharmaceutical and medical device regulatory affairs. He enjoys combining his strong scientific background with his regulatory knowledge to optimise product development.