Andrew is an experienced operational manager with particular skills in change management and process improvement. Andrew’s background includes senior roles with Blue chip Pharma and UK Government research organisations undergoing significant change. Andrew was trained by GSK Pharma to expert level in their own Lean Six Sigma programme both in the UK and US.
Andrew’s significant achievements since 2000 include:
- Oversight and delivery of multimillion £ facilities in Philadelphia and Harlow
- Changing work practices to match new environments e.g. open design laboratories and office spaces
- Delivery of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Drug Testing facility in Harlow on the premises of GSK with the assistance of personnel from King’s College London
- Acting as temporary COO at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (MRC) as occupants adapted to new facilities.
- Overseeing the closure of the MRC ‘flagship’ research site in Mill Hill as operations were moved to the Crick Laboratory under the leadership of Prof Paul Nurse. This activity was particularly challenging due to legacy thinking at Mill Hill and the dramatic change involved in the relocation to Camden. The site was sold to developers and I liaised significantly with Barratts London to return funds to the tax payer.
At GSK as a Director Andrew’s role largely involved the delivery and anticipation of change such as to minimise impact on the development of life saving medicines. One of the major achievements during this period was the move to very large-scale facilities for research which was novel within the company. New processes and ways of working were established using ‘industrialised’ tactics to deliver efficiencies required by a changing technological landscape. Substantial operational savings were achieved by adoption of Kanban and similar paradigms.
Since leaving GSK Andrew has had positions as Interim Chief Operating Office for the renowned Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Site Director for the Medical Research Council at their Mill Hill Laboratory as it moved to the Francis Crick Institute in London. In the latter role Andrew had to work with extreme sensitivity as many of the scientists were reluctant to relocate and the site had a significant legacy of achievement. Andrew has operated as an independent consultant since April 2015. Andrew has experience of having multiple lines of management under his control whilst at the LMB in Cambridge. He is comfortable with large budget operational and capital projects within the UK and beyond. Capital projects at GSK were in the range £50-100M and his last operational budget was approx. £70M delivering lab equipment support globally through an outsourced third-party organisation. Andrew has a record of quickly establishing productive relationships with staff across a broad range of responsibilities from the lab bench to senior or governmental committees. He worked alongside colleagues to deliver the transition to the Crick in London against extreme pressures of timescale.
Andrew has a blend of experience from both private and public sector roles and has absorbed the differing cultures within those environments. His background as a research scientist gives him insight into the drivers of innovators that enables him to deliver projects to strategic benefit.
Andrew has 29 years experience in blue chip Pharma (SB and GSK). As a global Operational Director he was responsible for change management around the introduction of automation in the arena of synthesis, screening, analysis and compound management. He is comfortable operating on senior committees (SVP and VP) and being given insight to sensitive information. Several new facilities were delivered whilst he was in this role. Andrew is also familiar with site moves and close down – his division of GSK at Harlow was moved to new facilities in seven months from announcement with 250 scientists relocated – Andrew was lead coordinator.
As an innovator Andrew was a primary inventor of a novel multiplex mass spectrometer for high throughput analysis. More recently he was responsible for the budget and implementation of the instrumental workstream of the London 2012 drug testing laboratory provided by GSK to the IOC. This involved persuading senior scientists outside his reporting line to adopt new approaches to analysis which had cost and speed benefits for the entire process.
Andrew was trained in lean Sigma by GSK to help deliver change and process analysis for R&D. One of the major successes was the simplification of the supply chain (e.g. Kanban) as applied to research materials.
In summary, Andrew has worked in organisations experiencing significant upheaval (mergers of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline) and knows how to apply change management tools selectively to a variety of challenges. He taught this to Masters students at the Univ of Herts in 2018.
If you would like to speak to Galvin you can contact andrew.burns@georgejamesltd.com
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