Basma Jeelani

Basma joined the Francis Crick Institute in 2025 as the Head of Commercial Strategy and Portfolio. In this new role, Basma is responsible for building partnerships that align the Crick’s cutting-edge science, expertise and infrastructure with industry needs to deliver real world impact.

With over 20 years of experience spanning healthcare, management consulting at EY, entrepreneurship and business development, Basma brings both strategic insight and practical experience into developing sustainable pathways for collaboration, ensuring the institute’s research excellence is matched by a strong, future-focused commercial offering.

Prior to the Crick, Basma served as the Head of the Business and Innovation at UCL, focussing on driving the organisation’s Life and Medical Science’s strategic thinking and approach to working with international big pharma, technology and biotech companies. As an experienced healthcare management leader, Basma brings a strong track record in healthcare delivery and service transformation and has worked alongside a vast range of healthcare organisations including NHS, commissioning organisations, Department of Health, regulators and emerging healthcare systems, successfully delivering strategic and operational agendas.

Basma holds a joint honours in Computer Science and Business Studies from the University of Warwick and qualified as a Behavioural Scientist from UCL with distinction in 2021.