Alpamayo Coaching on Tour with James Richardson, Genemaker at Camena Bioscience

Today Alpamayo Coaching on Tour is going to Chesterford Science Park near Saffron Walden.  It’s something of a trip down memory lane for me as I visited here quite regularly to catch up with chemistry undergraduates on placement with Biofocus, an organisation now part of Charles River Laboratories. The very fact I remember the company as Biofocus locates my previous visits in the mists of time, at least 15 years ago probably!

On this occasion my destination was Camena Bioscience where I was to catch up with James Richardson, Genemaker.  I love this, James’ title, on LinkedIn.  It entirely and accurately describes what he does now, while also have a sense of drama about it!  The last time James and I had crossed paths would have been in 2012 while we were both at the University of Southampton.  Alpamayo Coaching on Tour was here because I was curious about James’ leadership journey.  I particularly reached out to him after he posted his news about moving to a new organisation in 2023, and sharing some of his experiences of leadership.  Obviously, I wanted to meet a Genemaker too!

The contemporary James looked very like James from student days.  That is to say that he had both aged well and carried an air of authority which I remember as being already in place when he was a student.  I had always experienced him as polite, self-contained, and focussed and I was really looking forward to hearing his story of the last 15 years.  What had he become?  I note my use of the words ‘already’ and ‘become’ in connection with James’ journey and make the link to the importance of self-awareness; ‘what we have already’ and ‘what we are becoming’ when it comes to decisions around career development.

James and I at Chesterford Science Park.

In fact, James present day journey is hard wired to his PhD experience in Southampton.  He worked in a group studying DNA, a group led by Professor Tom Brown.  The influence of Prof B is a common feature in both our careers.  While for James it was his start of a career involving DNA, for me, Prof B had a hand in my move from a job in the pharmaceutical industry into academia.  Meeting him while he was on a consultancy visit while I was a chemist at SmithKline Beecham (another historic company name) persuaded me to think about the job offer that the University of Southampton had made me.

James recalled how Tom stood apart from some of his academic colleagues in that he was both scholar and company owner, and both roles influenced how he ran his research group.  Looking back, I can certainly see this point of difference and realise it might have been part of the influence he had on me too.

James worked on DNA diagnostics and on the amplification of nucleic acids during his PhD.  I can remember the whole buzz around the work that Tom’s group did at the time.  It was a period of such rapid development in DNA sequencing, building on the recent completion of the Human Genome project.  Developments in the area were opening up unlimited possibilities in DNA diagnostics with applications in medicine, forensics and other areas.

James stayed on after his PhD in a number of positions in Tom’s research group and his company, ATD Bio.  He remembers particularly feeling like he had found his place during a project in which he worked at the interface of chemistry, biology, engineering, and software development.  There was something in the multidisciplinary nature of the work that really held his interest.  This ‘something’ included the need to be able to communicate effectively between different disciplines.  His ability to do that set him in good stead then, and remains a powerful motivation for him today.

Interestingly, James recalls the first time that he entered the job market.  He was unsuccessful and reflects that ‘back then my approach was too broad’.  I was interested in how this appeared to be at odds with his enjoyment of covering a broad range of disciplines and a comment he made later about the group he then ran being, in a positive sense, jack of all trades.  He also believes that if he had been offered one of the jobs he would have felt compelled to take it.  There was almost a shudder when he thought about the likely consequences of this. 

He remembered another life changing moment.  During the frustration of not being able to get a job he thought about emigrating.  His thoughts moved to action, starting with persuading Marta, then partner and now wife, to join him.  They both made their applications for a young researcher visa.  Marta was successful, he was not.  What’s more, his application was turned down because he had not signed one of the ‘forms within the form’.  He had a wry smile in narrating this episode, accepting responsibility for the error while, I suspect, looking back at the frustration and disappointment he had felt at the time.  There was a moment of quiet between us in which we most likely experienced a ‘what if’ moment, before returning to James’ ‘what is’ story which is a thing of beauty, even though it did not contain a chapter involving relocation to Canada!

He talked about how he used the time to develop his own ideas on gene amplification using his self-taught engineering and coding skills to build a prototype at home.  He was still thoughtful about the possibilities of his innovation, so best not talk about it anymore here!

The time came for a second attempt to enter the job market.  On this occasion he applied to Illumina.  Although some time ago, he has such a clear memory of his interview there, including the physical presence of his interviewer, and the lightly threatening observation he made on arrival at the interview ‘Frosty in here, perfect for an interview!’  James also remembers that the drilling he was given offered him the chance to showcase all that he could do, rather than highlight what he could not.  He got the job!

His journey in Illumina has been central to his development as a leader.  In the early stages of his time there he recalls feeling fortunate having leaders who were interested in what he was motivated by and good at.  Looking back, he realises how effective they were at finding him opportunities to do work that both motivated and stretched him.  I chose to share with James that perhaps his managers chose to do what they did for him because they experienced something within him which justified investment of their time.  We both noticed he squirmed a little, and later on it came up about how he is not particularly comfortable with direct appreciation!

James noticed that as he established his credibility he was gradually given more project work, connecting with clients who had specific needs they wanted to apply Illumina technology too.  He found himself in situations diagnosing the technical and scientific needs of those who were using Illumina equipment and approaches, most commonly for the purpose of some form of diagnosis themselves.  James and his colleagues were able to apply their multidisciplinary talents to hack (a permissive hack) their own systems to provide a bespoke client solution.  I said I thought this sounded something like a Special Ops team, and James agreed that it did have that sort of feel as the work was in service of Illumina and its customers, yet was done outside of the day to day procedures of doing Illumina business.

One such ‘special op’ was in support of work been done by Dr Stephen Kingsmore who was a lead in genomics in children’s medicine in the US.  For so long the speed with which a patient could have their genome sequenced had meant that diagnosis through evaluation of a genetic sequence was a pipe dream.  The collaboration between James and Illumina with Kingsmore’s team lead to genetic sequencing being completed in less than 26 hours, opening the door for diagnosis and treatment of acute illness which had a genetic origin for the first time.  The collaboration was recognised as the world’s fastest genome decoding at the time, leading to diagnosis and lifesaving treatment for otherwise terminally ill children, all in a matter of hours.  Hearing James describe this story it was clear he connected with the extraordinary achievement in pushing back scientific boundaries as well as the impact the work had in the real world.  I referred to James’ comment about himself and his team being thought of as a jack of all trades and how grateful many fit-again children must be that they were.

Up to this point James’ experience of people management had been within a matrix model in which he managed their work but not their development.  En route from Integration Scientist to Assoc Director (a transition involving 5 promotions which, sorry to appreciate you again James, seems pretty good going to me!) he picked up line management responsibility, starting with a team of one and growing to a team of twelve!  At the same time, his responsibilities took on an international dimension, managing teams in the UK, US, and Singapore.  In what sounded like a significant understatement, he noted that ‘leading these groups extended my day somewhat, early morning being for Singapore, later afternoon for San Diego, the rest for the UK’.  That’s quite a schedule however good you are at taking a longer lunch and gym breaks!

At some point I asked James who or what had been inspirational to him.  He talked about how he had been really helped by establishing his Personal Board of Directors.  It is a model that I have heard of but had forgotten about.  It encourages individuals to seek to create their very own Personal Board, from the people around them.  Each member of the Personal Board might contribute a different expertise from which the individual draws inspiration.  James has found this approach useful as he has progressed through to senior leadership.  Of course, the fascinating thing about a Personal Board is how each of us can formulate them in different ways.  It could be made up of people who are overtly recruited to the Board, or those who are co-opted onto it for their skills, without them necessarily being aware of the role they are playing.  I reflected on my own Personal Board and also how many Personal Boards I sat on.  Perhaps a bit of ego in the latter of those!?

The next step in James Illumina journey was to mainstream the ‘Special Ops’ team into Illumina’s day to day business, with its own budgets, deliverables, and organisational presence.  James was asked to help establish the group although in the first instance with a staff of three.  At this point in the narrative he reported on some indirect appreciation that he had enjoyed – the fact that most of his team of 12 applied for the three new positions.  A great validation, albeit one that created its own challenges!

His new team became established in Illumina and the work provided James both challenge and satisfaction.  His expertise in the field meant that he was fairly regularly approached by recruitment consultants seeking to encourage his interest in this or that organisation.  For years these overtures held no interest to him.  Then, when approaching 10 years at Illumina, an approach landed that hit its mark.  Looking back, he thinks his interest stemmed from a hankering to return to a role in DNA synthesis.  At the same time his experience of the ‘normalisation’ of the Special Ops work he enjoyed so much was that he had less decision-making freedom and a sense of being less agile in responding to client need. 

He found himself following up on this latest headhunting enquiry, meeting the leadership of a smaller organisation with the ‘mission to be the leading provider of synthetic DNA’.  Those meetings encouraged him to accept the position on offer at Camena Biosciences, which at the time had a staff of eight, as VP Research and Development…..and Genemaker.  He reflected on how any major change is ideally supported by a new vision that you are drawn towards, and a reason to leave what is well known to you behind.  Some refer to the second of these as ‘setting fire to the platform that you are standing on’; an inducement to jump to something new.  James remembers that this was to a degree true as Illumina went through a period of downsizing just as he was considering whether to push the button on his decision to leave.  In the end he thinks of his departure from Illumina as a graceful exit and is proud the special ops group he was instrumental in establishing, continues to thrive.

I spotted some posts from James on LinkedIn at the time in moved to Camena Biosciences and both his career move and his comments on leadership prompted me to reach out to see if he was up to be a stop on Alpamayo Coaching on Tour.  His thinking about leadership was supercharged by the needs of his new role.  In the year since he started in post the organisation has grown by 200%.  With the rest of the senior team, he has played a part in creating an environment in which differences are celebrated and where innovation is considered to be something that everyone contributes to.  He talked about enjoying the development of everyone in the organisation.  As a whole group they have leadership discussions based on a chosen book, recently including Amy Edmondson’s Right Kind of Wrong.  An example of a practice they have introduced on the back of these leadership discussions is around how they challenge ideas positively.  When faced with key decisions they now allocate some of the team to be challengers to the preferred way forward, and everyone pays attention to what is emerging for them during these challenges.

There was more to our discussion, yet I think that I will draw this to a close.  I am pleased to have met James the Genemaker.  Such has been the progress in his area of science this title would not have been credible at the start of his journey.  Now it is an accurate description of what he and his organisation do.  I find myself with much to reflect on from our conversation.  How leadership approaches shift and change depending on scale and context.  How leadership plays out in running a team and in managing the needs of sophisticated stakeholder.  Yet the thing that I am left thinking about most is the notion of a Personal Board.  Perhaps what is happening with Alpamayo Coaching on Tour is I am inviting my past chemistry students, now experienced leaders, to my Personal Board.  Maybe in our conversations we serve temporarily on each other’s Personal Board.  That’s quite a pleasing notion to close on!