Health Innovation East announces new board appointments

Bilal Mateen is a physician by training and a leader in digital health. He currently serves as PATH’s inaugural Chief AI Officer, where he leads the organisation’s AI strategy and the development of solutions to address key healthcare challenges. Bilal has previously held senior roles at Digital Square and Wellcome, and has led over $250 million in grants and contracts focused on digital health transformation and AI in low-resource settings. He holds professorial appointments at UCL and the University of Birmingham and serves on the UK’s National Commission on the Regulation of AI in healthcare, he was also was recently appointed to the United Nations’ first Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.

Verena Stocker brings extensive leadership experience across health and life sciences. She leads European Lilly Gateway Labs and has held a number of national roles at NHS England, including Managing Director of the Accelerated Access Collaboration and Director of Innovation. In these roles, Verena oversaw a broad and high-impact portfolio spanning clinical research, secure data environments, horizon scanning, strategic industry partnerships, digital therapeutics, and the adoption of innovative medicines and medtech. She also held national commissioning responsibility for key components of the NHS innovation ecosystem. Her career has focused on accelerating the adoption of innovation, driving system reform, and strengthening partnerships across the health ecosystem.

Rebecca Cosgriff is a health data and translational research leader with over 15 years’ experience. She currently directs health data strategy at LifeArc and previously held a national leadership role at NHS England, where she oversaw a £200 million cross-government  investment to transform access to NHS data for research. She has also led major data and research programmes at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and holds advisory roles with organisations including UK MS Register.