Professor Simon Best FRSE

Chairman, Edinburgh BioQuarter

Simon focussed on music from his mid-teens to mid-20s when he studied composition at York University whilst in parallel playing jazz keyboards and punk drums. In the music world he is best remembered as :-
• a founder of Delta 5 for whom he co-composed “Mind Your Own Business” in 1978 – recently used by Apple as the soundtrack for their “Privacy Button” TV Ad campaign in 2021 – see :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjf7c-O5GyQ&t=3s – and
• a partner in Fast Products – the independent record-label which launched the Human League whose tours he managed in the early 80’s
He then switched to an entrepreneurial career in the fledgling biotechnology industry in which he became a leading international figure – initially as a champion of GM Food technology and then as the CEO of the company formed at the Roslin Institute in 1998 to exploit medical applications of the technology that produced Dolly The Sheep.
He is a past Vice-Chairman of the US Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) and Chairman of the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) and is currently a portfolio director, investor and advisor to Lifescience Companies including as Chairman of MiAlgae and as a Board member of Roslin Technologies, and to Investment Funds including Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s internal Fund of which he is General Partner and Member of the Investment Committee.
He previously built 3 substantial ventures as founding CEO between 1991 and 2005 – Zeneca Plant Science, Roslin BioMed and Ardana. Between 2005 and 2010, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in TVM Capital’s MENA Fund in UAE and India and in 2008 co-funded PAR Equity LLP in Edinburgh.
In 1999 the World Economic Forum nominated him a Global Leader of Tomorrow and in 2000 a Technology Pioneer of the Year. In 1999, he was nominated as “Science and Technology Venturer of the Year” by the FT. He was awarded the London Business School Alumni Achievement Prize in 2007.
He holds an MBA from London Business School and an Honorary Doctorate and B.Mus from York University. In 2007, he was elected an RSE Fellow. In 2008, he was awarded an OBE and appointed a Visiting Professor by the University of Edinburgh.
Simon likes to keep a direct involvement in supporting music and fostering talent and served as a Trustee of the Edinburgh International Festival for 2007-2014 and continues to serve on the Board of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) of which he became the Chair in Autumn 2022.

Fellowship list