ELRIG, a not-for-profit, volunteer-led organisation dedicated to the drug discovery community, has appointed Dr Del Trezise as Chair of the Board. In this role, he will lead ELRIG’s mission to foster collaboration, innovation, and knowledge-sharing through scientific conferences, networking events, webinars, and digital content. Dr Del Trezise succeeds Melanie Leveridge, who successfully completed her four-year term as Chair.
With over 30 years’ experience in academic, biotech, and biopharma settings, Dr Trezise brings a wealth of expertise to ELRIG. He currently holds leadership, non-executive director, and advisory roles at Sartorius, Axol Bioscience, Semarion, and Refeyn. In 2009, he co-founded the European arm of Essen BioScience, playing a pivotal role in developing industrial-scale, live-cell imaging technology for drug discovery. Previously, he held senior director positions at GlaxoSmithKline R&D, leading teams in biological reagents, assay development, and compound profiling.
A long-time supporter of ELRIG, Dr Trezise has been an active volunteer since 2013, contributing as Scientific Programme Chair, Early Career Professionals Work Group Leader, and Head of the Innovation Work Group. He joined the ELRIG Board in 2017 and remains dedicated to driving scientific innovation and industry engagement. As Chair, Dr Trezise’s first major role will be to host Drug Discovery 2025 in Liverpool, UK, from 21–22 October.
Melanie Leveridge, Outgoing Chair of ELRIG, and Vice President of Assays, Profiling & Cell Sciences at AstraZeneca, commented: “Del is widely respected for his scientific and business leadership across biotech and pharmaceutical R&D. Over the past decade, he has helped shape ELRIG, particularly in supporting early-career professionals and startups. It has been an honour to serve as Chair, and I look forward to seeing ELRIG continue to grow under Del’s guidance.”
Dr Del Trezise, Chair of ELRIG, and Strategy Development, Laboratory Products and Services at Sartorius, said: “Mel has been an outstanding leader, guiding ELRIG through significant growth, including navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding the professional team, and embedding meaningful EDI principles. I’m excited to build on this foundation by further strengthening collaboration between our community partners through our world-class conferences and events. I look forward to working with the highly talented ELRIG Board, leadership team and volunteer network in fulfilling this ambition.”
ELRIG serves a global network of over 22,000 life science professionals from biopharma, biotech, contract research organisations (CROs), academia, and industry vendors. The Board, composed of experts from across the ELRIG community, sets the organisation’s strategy and delegates initiatives to dedicated work groups. Dr Trezise’s appointment follows several recent additions to the Board, including:
- Dr Laura Ajram, Chief Executive, British Neuroscience Association – Awards Work Group Leader
- Dr Lisa Mohamet, Senior Scientific Director, GSK – Innovation Work Group Leader
- Dr Rob Howes, Senior Director, Charles River Laboratories – Sustainability Work Group Leader
- Alison Leightley, Event Marketing Manager, Redgate Software – Engagement Strategy Work Group Leader
