Kate Bingham: the grande dame of venture capitalists
The success of Britain’s vaccine strategy is largely down to one woman – Kate Bingham, a biotech expert for a venture-capital firm. It’s not the first time she has thrown herself head first into a big challenge.

When Britain’s former vaccine tsar ran into trouble over the size of a PR bill last November, it was seized upon by critics as further evidence of the current government’s “chumocracy”. Kate Bingham is married to Treasury minister Jesse Norman, her links with Boris Johnson’s clan were shown to stretch back to Oxford (where she was a contemporary of the PM), and beyond. To the world-weary, a further allegation – that she had given away sensitive information to private investors at an investment conference – seemed par for the course.
Playing a blinder
It says something for Bingham, who has now returned to paid work in civvy street, that a legion of colleagues in finance and medicine sprang to her defence. But even detractors must now concede she has played a blinder in the race to secure the Covid-19 jab for the UK, says the Daily Mail – identifying the most promising candidates early on and then securing supplies. The current chaos in Europe is a reminder it could all have been very different. “It’s not a given that the UK – given its record – would have ended up where it is now without her,” Professor John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford, told the Financial Times. “She downed tools and did the due diligence and she was really effective and… ruthless and really tough.”
A biochemist and venture capitalist, Bingham, 55, has spent three decades honing her drug discovery skills, mostly at SV Health Investors, which was spun out of Schroders in 2001 and, as of 2017, had $2bn under investment. “Think of me as being a sort of grande dame of the biotech venture community,” she says. “My entire life is saying: ‘What great new ideas are there and how can we turn them into drugs that will have a really significant impact on patients?’ It’s the world’s most exciting job.” A woman of apparently irrepressible energy, for Bingham the glass is “always half-full”, notes The Times. When the health secretary, Matt Hancock, approached her in May to build “a portfolio of coronavirus vaccines”, she knew it was going to be “incredibly difficult” because 90% of all clinical trials fail. As things turned out, the hit rate for Covid-19 vaccines “surprised everybody”, she says. “It’s just been crazy hard work, absolutely round the clock, evenings, weekends...”.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
The world’s 19th-best bog snorkeller
Bingham arrived at Christ Church, Oxford, precociously early at 17, at a time when the male to female ratio was 5:1, says The Guardian. Part of a college clique known, semi-ironically, as “the mafia”, she played lacrosse and partied hard, before turning “almost overnight” from “a dozy layabout” to a “rather embarrassingly keen student” in the third year and taking a first. She completed her education at Harvard Business School.
In person, Bingham has “a no-nonsense manner and a straight-talking style…rattling off facts and figures, barely pausing for breath”, says The Times. But while her stamina has been known to test the less hardy, friends point out she is a great listener, kind and generous to a fault. And whatever the challenge, Bingham throws herself in head first. One of her prouder boasts is competing in the world bog-snorkelling championships and coming 19th. Forget conjuring one of the few UK success stories in this pandemic – that’s really something to be proud of.
Sign up for MoneyWeek's newsletters
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.
She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.
Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.
She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.
-
8 of the best lakeside properties for sale
The best lakeside properties – from a house on the southeastern shore of Loch Lomond, to a 15th-century hall overlooking a lake in King’s Lynn, Norfolk
-
Gold’s allure and why you should never 'pay a premium for graded coins'
It is easy to become distracted by the beauty of gold, but remember why you buy it, says Dominic Frisby
-
Greg Abel: Warren Buffett’s heir takes the throne
Greg Abel is considered a safe pair of hands as he takes centre stage at Berkshire Hathaway. But he arrives after one of the hardest acts to follow in investment history, Warren Buffett. Can he thrive?
-
Who will be the next Warren Buffett?
Opinion There won’t be another Warren Buffett. Times have changed, and the opportunities are no longer there, says Matthew Lynn.
-
Lorne Michaels: the ringmaster at Saturday Night Live
Lorne Michaels created Saturday Night Live, a cultural phenomenon that launched the careers of countless stars in America.
-
'Rachel Reeves' plan to force pension funds into UK assets won't work'
Opinion Hustling pension fund cash into British assets sounds like a good idea. It would be better to make Britain an attractive place to invest, says Matthew Lynn
-
Elliot Grainge: the music mogul of the TikTok age who will now helm Atlantic Records
Elliot Grainge, the entrepreneur behind the upstart music producer 10K Projects, has taken over the top job at Atlantic Records, the label synonymous with musical greats. Can he transform its prospects?
-
Supersonic travel: How China could 'leapfrog' US and Europe's commercial aviation industry
Opinion Innovation in commercial aviation has been stuck for 60 years. A commercial supersonic jet might be back on the market soon, but will China get there first?
-
How British businesses can tackle Trump's tariffs
The majority of British businesses are likely to take a hit from the chaos caused by Trump’s tariffs to reorder global trade. Companies in the firing line face some difficult decisions, says David Prosser
-
Ben Cohen: The Ben & Jerry’s co-founder who wants to break away from Unilever
Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is seeking to break away from Unilever, the conglomerate he sold out to in 2000. It’s a battle for the soul of the brand synonymous with corporate do-gooding.