Ben Adams

What is your career and/or educational background? 

I’ve always been very applied academically.  I graduated with Honours in Virology but, after a year working at H&M (!) I entered the Clinical Scientist training pathway.  Between 2005 and 2017 I worked in Cardiff and Manchester to progress from a Trainee to a Senior Clinical Scientist role – and still maintain my Clinical Scientist registration today.  Postgraduate I’ve gained certification from the Royal College of Pathologists and a few diplomas (British Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, and Management and Leadership in the Healthcare Sciences).  Right now I’m taking a break from education (although learning Spanish!) and have enjoyed working with VH Bio since 2017. 

Describe what your job entails. 

A lot!  As Manager of Transplant Products I guide a small team in the sales and technical support of One Lambda (ThermoFisher Scientific) products.  We support approximately 25 labs across the UK and Ireland and, more recently, in Barbados!  I still get to keep my hand in with understanding the transplant diagnostic products, software and instruments, but now have a more strategic role to promote newer products that can add value to our clinical colleagues and their patients.  I also have some company-level commitments e.g. within the management team and considering Regulatory and Quality Management.  And I’m often found at the business end working on submissions for Tenders, contracts etc.!  

Oh, and I’ve helped build a Laboratory Services business alongside our Managing Director where we perform mainly HLA genotyping for research. 

What is your favourite part of the job? 

The variety.  I manage to maintain an in-depth clinical understanding of transplant diagnostics whilst understanding new products in-depth.  Some elements of the job are more strategic (e.g. developing sales opportunities), throw in some marketing and people management / development.  It’s very fulfilling and every day is different.