William (Willie) McPheat (PhD MBA) has a wealth of pharmaceutical industry experience through 25 years with AstraZeneca (UK and Sweden) as a Principal Scientist, drug discovery Project Leader, and leader of multiple international academic/business collaborations. He co-founded (2009) the UVA-AstraZeneca collaboration in cardiovascular sciences. He retired and relocated to Norfolk, Virginia in December 2013. William’s PhD was in microbiology (Whooping Cough vaccine) from the University of Glasgow, UK (his hometown). At AstraZeneca, he led projects in areas as diverse as Chlamydia diagnostics; Host Defense vs Infection; atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; pulmonary hypertension; and diabetes.

William completed an Executive MBA from the College of William & Mary (2015) and has since established an extensive network across the healthcare ecosystem in Virginia. He is a member of the Review Boards of two intramural funds at UVA; the Commercialization Advisory Board of VCU’s Innovation Gateway; and the BioLife Investment Advisory Board of VIPC’s VVP seed fund. William combines biotech consultancy in Virginia (one company recently being awarded an SBIR grant) with teaching translational biology, research commercialization, and building effective teams to graduate and medical students at Eastern Virginia Medical School.