Emma is the Global CEO of the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation (FLF), bringing over 20 years of experience in non-profit leadership, growth, and global health.
Before joining the FLF in February 2025, she was Chief Growth Officer at mothers2mothers, driving international expansion, establishing high-impact partnerships, and creating award-winning campaigns. Emma also has extensive governance experience, having served as Vice-Chair of Amnesty International UK, is a trustee of CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), and sits on Gucci’s Chime Advisory Board.
At the heart of Emma’s career is a deep belief in preventing the preventable – but also pushing beyond survival. “Why would we not do everything in our power to enable people affected by cancer to thrive?” She believes healthcare should be shaped by those who rely on it, advocating for user-led services that harness the knowledge and experience of those directly affected. Her leadership at the FLF is focused on scaling impact, growing FLF’s global presence, and driving meaningful collaborations.
Beyond her work, Emma is a mother of three boys and a devoted cocker spaniel owner. She spends her spare time enjoying cake and cold-water swimming.
Dr Smith earned his Medical Degree and PhD at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at the Long Island Jewish Hospital, NY, spent 3 years as a Resident in Pathology at Washington University – Barnes Hospital, in St. Louis, MO, then another year as a Resident in Internal Medicine at the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, MO. His Fellowship in Medical Oncology was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, NY where he also was a Fellow in Biomedical Research in the Clinical Scholars Program. He is Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Haematology and Medical Oncology.
Dr Smith’s experience is broad and spans a number of years. After serving as Assistant Professor in Medical Oncology at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, he joined Fox Chase Cancer Centre in 1993, where he remained as Director of the Lymphoma Program and Professor of Medicine until 2012. He served as the Director of the Lymphoid Malignancy Program at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH from 2012 to 2017, when he joined the GW Cancer Centre in Washington DC as Associate Cancer Centre Director for Clinical Investigations, as well as Chief of the Division of Oncology & Blood Disorders. His clinical and laboratory interests have focused on targeted approaches to improve therapy of lymphoid malignancies. He has been involved in numerous clinical trials of targeted therapies, including CART cells, in lymphoma, leukaemia and myeloma.
Dr Smith’s honours include a lifetime achievement award from the Delaware chapter of the LLS. He is an active member of the ASCO, AACR, ASH and ECOG. He has served on the NCCN lymphoma and myeloma guideline committees and chaired the Mantle Cell Lymphoma subcommittee of the NCTN lymphoma planning committee.
Julie is Senior Director of Patient & Research Programmes at the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, where she leads the delivery and integration of the Foundation’s patient and research programmes, working with scientific, patient and industry partners to ensure patient insight meaningfully informs research priorities and programme impact.
Previously, Julie was a Senior Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), where she completed a PhD in HIV epidemiology. She also worked in women’s health research at Queen Mary University of London and has experience in grant development, multi-centre clinical trials and patient and public involvement.
Outside of work, Julie enjoys running, travelling and exploring new places, with a particular love for Japan.
Kirsty is the Chief of Staff at the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, bringing extensive experience in strategic planning, organizational leadership, and operational delivery. With more than ten years of experience supporting senior executives and cross-functional teams, Kirsty excels at driving alignment, optimizing workflows, and enabling high-impact decision-making.
Before joining the foundation, Kirsty worked in the legal and insurance sectors, gaining strong expertise in stakeholder engagement, project management, and business transformation. Known for a solutions-driven approach and exceptional communication skills, Kirsty leads key initiatives, manages executive priorities, and ensures effective execution across the organization.
Kirsty holds a degree in Law and Criminology, as well as a Project Fundamentals Qualification. Driven by continuous improvement, Kirsty is committed to fostering operational clarity, accountability, and a culture of innovation.
Tanya brings over 20 years of experience in nonprofit fund development to the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, where she leads global philanthropic strategy to accelerate research and bring the world closer to a cure for follicular lymphoma.
She has built and scaled high‑performing development programmes across scientific, research‑driven and rare disease organisations. Before joining FLF, Tanya served as Executive Director of Development at the Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation, leading enterprise‑wide strategy and securing transformational support. Her earlier roles include senior positions at the Lymphoma Research Foundation and the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
Her work is guided by a belief in the power of philanthropy to bring researchers, clinicians and patients together to accelerate progress towards a cure.
Seán brings over a decade of experience leading and transforming finance functions across charities and commercial SMEs. His expertise spans charity accounting and governance, multi-entity and multi-currency finance, treasury, systems transformation and financial reporting.
Following more than ten years at a charity-specialist accountancy practice, where he ran outsourced finance functions across a charity-focused portfolio, he moved in-house. Now leading the Foundation’s finance function across its international entities, Seán focuses on ensuring that finance supports efficient and effective decision-making, enabling colleagues to concentrate on what really matters: helping patients and progressing research.
Away from the numbers, Seán is a music producer who founded and ran a recording studio, a self-taught coder and a fan of almost any sport going – especially Arsenal!
Emilie is a translational scientist with over 10 years’ experience in academic research and biotechnology, specialising in oncology, immuno-oncology, haematological malignancies and rare diseases. She holds a PhD in Biology, Health and Biotechnologies, specialising in Oncology, from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France.
Before joining the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, Emilie held senior scientific roles in biotechnology, including Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Development Officer. She led multidisciplinary teams and advanced biologics, therapeutic enzyme and nanomedicine programmes from early research to preclinical development and partnering, working with academic, industry and scientific partners.
Earlier in her career, Emilie researched tumour biology, immune responses and treatment response and resistance, including therapeutic antibodies and cytokine biology in haematological malignancies. Her work contributed to peer-reviewed publications and patent applications.
Emilie joined the FLF as Head of Scientific Innovation to translate emerging science into progress for people living with follicular lymphoma.
Zoe’s background is in laboratory-based translational biomedical research, having previously worked at Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna, Austria, the Cambridge Institute of Cancer Research UK and at the Centre for Cell Biology and Cutaneous Research Queen Mary University of London, as part of her PhD studies.
More recently, Zoe has worked for several years as a senior trials co-ordinator at the Centre for Women’s Health at Queen Mary University of London. In her last role, Zoe was closely involved with Katie’s Team (a women’s health patient and public involvement advisory group based in East London), ensuring women’s voices were represented in the research being carried out.
Zoe has joined the FLF team to support the development of the FLF research programme.
Naomi began her career in the charity sector 25 years ago working in social inclusion. Doing this work she was struck that the people the charities engaged held unique insights into how charities could more effectively meet their aims. Since then she has dedicated her career to involving people affected by health issues transform the work of charities.
This has included setting up the patient involvement team at Cancer Research UK and designing frameworks to ensure patient voice shapes research at the British Heart Foundation and Arthritis UK.
Naomi joins the FLF to lead our work providing people affected by Follicular Lymphoma (FL) with information about FL the vital role research plays in finding a cure.
Eleanor is Grants & Programmes Manager at the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, supporting its research funding programmes.
Originally from Chicago, Eleanor recently moved to London. She brings several years’ experience managing complex, multi-million-dollar public health grants at the Chicago Department of Public Health, coordinating healthcare and government partnerships and supporting system preparedness and community resilience. She has also reviewed grant applications and helped charities strengthen project design, evaluation and long-term impact.
Eleanor holds a Master of Public Health and has built her career improving health and strengthening communities. She is excited to apply this experience to FLF’s mission to accelerate a cure for follicular lymphoma. Outside work, she enjoys reading, travelling, exploring London, running and horseback riding.
Julia leads global marketing and communications in support of FLF’s mission to find a cure for follicular lymphoma and improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
She brings over 18 years’ experience across healthcare and heritage charities, most recently as Director of Strategy & Communications at Thames Valley Air Ambulance, working closely with clinicians, patients and frontline teams. Julia has led organisational strategies, award‑winning campaigns, patient storytelling and digital transformation that increased reach, understanding and income.
Her earlier roles focused on health education, public engagement and partnership‑led change.
Julia believes the most powerful healthcare communications are shaped by the lived experiences of patients and developed in close partnership with the clinicians and professionals who support them.
Paul has worked in the charity and not-for-profit sector for over 15 years. He joined the FLF as Head of Philanthropy in 2025 following roles at the University of Oxford and British Heart Foundation.
Over his career Paul has worked on record-breaking philanthropic initiatives, including the Oxford Thinking Campaign and BHF’s Big Beat Challenge.
Paul enjoys helping donors to achieve lasting impact. He is especially interested in what motivates people to give their time, expertise and financial support to causes close to their hearts.
As Head of Philanthropy, Paul works with partnering trusts, charitable foundations and the FLF’s global community of visionary donors.
Philippa brings experience across executive support, operations, and people-focused roles. She keeps things running smoothly; whether that’s coordinating leadership, organising events, or supporting internal culture and wellbeing.
At the FLF, Philippa supports the Global CEO, helps keep the team on track, and contributes to a collaborative environment for both staff and the wider community.
Outside of work, Philippa enjoys travelling, illustrating, and getting stuck into a good book.
David has worked across the pharmaceutical industry for three decades and has been advising the FLF since February 2019.
From 2017-2018, David advised Cancer Research UK on re-structuring and implementing change within the Commercial Partnerships division. He also headed up the Opportunity Sourcing and Translation group through formation and recruitment of a team of 15 practitioners. He led on elements of CRUK’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship agenda.
For 4 years previously, David was Senior Advisor within the Corporate Development group at Gilead Sciences. Dr Kennard was also VP, Strategic Alliances YM BioSciences Inc. prior to its acquisition by Gilead Sciences in February 2013. Before joining YM, he was CEO of NeuroTargets, and prior to that he was COO of SR Pharma Plc, a UK-based biotechnology company which developed therapeutic vaccines. He was also with GlaxoSmithKline in development and then strategic planning roles.
Jessica Okosun is Professor of Translational Cancer Research and Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist at the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.
She is a Consultant Haematologist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London UK specialising in lymphomas.
Her research interests are focused on understanding how lymphomas initiate, diversify and evolve, particularly follicular lymphoma in a bid to define novel biomarkers and improve treatment. She serves as a member of the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Low Grade and High Grade Lymphoma subgroups. She also serves on a number of Scientific Advisory Committees. She chairs the Barts Cancer Centre’s Patient and Public Involvement Research Advisory Group. Jessica has been advising the FLF since February 2019.
M is a follicular lymphoma survivor, entrepreneur and investor. He built his career in commodities and energy trading at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, then founded his own trading company, Mandara Capital, which he ran for 13 years.
He now invests in healthcare through several medical funds. His focus is where technology and medicine meet, and in particular how data, AI and closer links between researchers and patients can bring better treatments to people sooner. His interest also extends to rare cancers, after a family member was diagnosed with one.
M volunteers with the FLF on research acceleration and brings his own experience of living with FL to that work. He is based in Singapore.
