Discovery Park, near Sandwich, has appointed its first chief business officer ahead of further expansion of the site's facilities.

Jane Kennedy, who has more than a decade's experience of building life sciences communities and business incubators in Scotland, will take on responsibility for attracting new companies to the site.

Discovery Park currently hosts 160 companies employing some 3,500 staff.

She will work alongside the park's CEO, Mayer Schreiber, and chairman, Martino Picardo.

Following her appointment, she said: “Later this year work will get under way on a multi-million pound incubator offering 50,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space for start-ups and early stage companies, including drug discovery, cell and gene therapy, digital health, manufacturing and medtech firms.

“This will add another exciting dimension to our offering which, along with the park’s vision for a manufacturing village, will strengthen the Kent economy.”

She was previously involved in the UK BioIncubator Forum, the Glasgow BioCorridor, Glasgow’s Clinical Innovation Zone and the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre.

Mayer Schreiber added: “Jane’s extensive experience will be invaluable in helping us continue to develop a world class, world leading science park, building on our already excellent community of innovative companies."

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