Joanne Morgan

Immunologist, Technology Transfer Professional and Entrepreneur

Joanne describes herself as always having had two jobs – one in academia and the other in business, and it’s keeping these parallel strands going that’s excited and motivated her throughout her career.

Joanne has always loved inventing things and doing experiments.

She remembers as a child taking her friends’ blood and examining it under a microscope!

Early on she decided that she wanted to be a scientist (although admittedly with no idea of what this might mean career-wise), and to this end did a first degree in genetics. Upon completion of her degree she knew she loved lab work but felt that before launching herself onto a particular career path, she needed to develop some life skills. She got a job selling double glazing, thinking ‘if I can do this, I can do anything’.

During that time Joanne began looking around for graduate programmes to pursue her science. What she learned from her sales experience, though, was that it was not enough to simply follow your passion in science, and that such a naïve approach could all too easily lead to a career dead-end: little funding, poor remuneration and limited prospects. Rather, what was important was to see where the markets were – and at that time they weren’t in biology. From this commercial perspective, Joanne decided on a Masters in oncology: ‘They’re always going to want cancer researchers because obviously cancer is a big killer. They do a lot of research and so therefore there should be jobs for me’. From her Masters, Joanne continued on to do a PhD in the same university department.

She was passionate about her research, and felt that with the rapid developments in information technology, it was a very exciting time for science: ‘Because of all the techniques that came out scientifically just at the time that I was doing my PhD I could see that science today is not what it’s going to be like tomorrow’. With her business head on, Joanne began to consider the ways in which her science could be developed commercially.

During her PhD Joanne also became aware of the dominance of white, middle class men in academic science, with few women in positions of influence or power: ‘There were no female professors, no female vice chancellors, nobody in charge who’s on the board who’s a woman who’ll give you a grant’.

Joanne felt that in order to succeed in academia, you had to be good at getting research funding. Because within the university setting this was bound to be difficult, especially for a woman, she thought that if she could use her science to make money, she could then go back into academia, develop a research team and pursue the science she loved.

With this in mind, after her PhD Joanne embarked on a fellowship programme which aimed to develop entrepreneurial skills amongst scientists. There Joanne became interested in the emerging field of technology transfer – a profession which encapsulated her twin interests in science and business.
What still excites her about tech transfer is its emphasis on the whole process,- on seeing an idea through to its application, seeing results and having success in the market. At the end of the fellowship Joanne took a post in the NHS where she was responsible for commercialising inventions developed through clinical practice.

Whilst running the NHS tech transfer programme, Joanne embarked on her own entrepreneurial venture. Having bought a backless ball gown with inadequate breast support, Joanne used her knowledge of physics to invent a new concept in backless bras. Some years earlier Joanne had worked at a lingerie shop and gained some expertise in contour fashion. Having tested out her invention at the ball itself, Joanne went back to that shop and started with with the owner, together with designers and manufacturers, to develop and commercialise the idea. She describes it as a ‘massive fusion between science and business’.

After two years Joanne left the NHS and to join a company that manages a university’s intellectual property - focusing on particular on biosciences and biotechnology. From the outset the agreement was that she would work four days a week for them, and devote the rest of her week on the business. In 2005 she won a prize for the industry’s innovative new business. Less than a year later, Joanne left this company, having successfully raised venture capital investment for her own business. Faveo launched its first new product in February 2007 – the world’s first backless and strapless bra for larger sizes.