Gerry Skews

After graduating in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Gerry began his professional career with Philips Medical Systems in Cambridge, England designing and building optical scientific instruments and chromatography systems. In 1980 he moved into product management for laboratory pH and Ion Selective technology while studying for a post graduate diploma in business administration specializing in Marketing Analysis Planning & Control. In 1985 he moved to Joyce Loebl (Vickers Plc) in Newcastle, England as worldwide marketing manager for clinical and scientific imaging systems where he developed a number of technologies for medical imaging including genetics, biotechnology and proteomics. Moving to Paris, France in 1990 he managed the European business unit for bioscience imaging systems running both the business and the applications development teams for Millipore Corporation (NYSE:MIL). In 1997 he returned to the UK to focus on developing an emerging software and instrument technology for high throughput proteomics. He worked as deputy Managing Director and General Manager for a Cambridge University spin out and later sold that business to a life sciences development company which in turn was acquired by Perkin Elmer Life Sciences (NYSE:PKI). In 1999 he led the Management buyout team that acquired the intellectual property and assets of the medical imaging group that had developed specialized systems for clinical imaging.

As Managing Director and CEO of Digital healthcare he built the company into an international organization with offices and business in Europe, Asia and the United States. Gerry led the business development initiatives to collaborate and commercially align the company with some of the most prestigious clinical academic centers in the world and with several blue chip corporations. The company is now the leading supplier of population scale clinical risk assessment for blindness with approaching 2 million patients being screened annually using connected and distributed technology. Returning from the USA in January of 2008 he established a series of strategic partnerships in Asia and Europe.

Gerry now serves as Non Executive Director on the main board of several companies that are positioned for rapid growth in the clinical, life sciences and technology areas either through their technology transfer strategies, their product innovation, their market potential or their outstanding and gifted management.

Matthew Adams

After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, Matthew joined KPL Ltd where he cut his teeth as an R&D Manager, working in partnership with IBM to deliver image-based check and remittance processing software and services for the international banking industry, and sharing his time between the United States, UK and Europe.

In 1997 he returned to the UK and worked as a Senior Architect for a Cambridge University spin-out, bringing together novel software technology, chemistry and instrumentation for high-throughput proteomics applications – a technology that lead to the company being acquired by Perkin Elmer Life Sciences (NYSE:PKI). In 1999 he was a part of the MBO team that raised venture capital to acquire the IP and assets of the Medical Imaging division of PE, creating Digital Healthcare Ltd.

As CTO of Digital Healthcare he defined the technology vision that enabled the company to develop into a global organization with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States. Aligning the business and technology goals, he built a team that developed an award-winning service oriented architecture and workflow solution, bridging primary and secondary care to manage detection, diagnosis, care and outcome of chronic disease. In 2006-2007, he moved back to the United States and helped to recruit and establish the senior team of Digital Healthcare Inc, overseeing the operational set-up of a “Software as a Service” business model in that country. The company is now the leading supplier of population-scale clinical risk assessment for blindness, with approaching 2 million patients being screening every year.

Matthew is a regular author and speaker, including titles such as .NET Windows Forms In a Nutshell for O'Reilly and Image Analysis and Web Services for Intel Corp.

He feels that software technology has the potential to transform our business and our personal lives, rewarding entrepreneurs and improving opportunity and quality of life for everyone. He believes that it is important to hold the vision clearly in mind, to communicate effectively, and then to focus on the hard, detailed, step-wise work needed to realize that ambition.