Sir Harpal Singh Kumar (born 1965) is a British medical researcher of Indian descent, who was the chief executive officer of

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

until June 2018, when he left the charity to become Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation EMEA.

Early life and education

Kumar's parents were refugees. As Sikhs, they chose to leave what was to become Pakistan and move to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during the Partition of India in 1947, where they ended up in refugee camps. Later they moved to England from India, where his father was employed sweeping factory floors, before eventually starting his own grocery store. Kumar attended

Latymer Upper School (Slowly Therefore Surely) , established = , closed = , sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , head_label = H ...

, Hammersmith, and

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, where he gained a

Master of Engineering A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, M.E. or M.Eng.) is either an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research de ...

degree and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree and won the Mobil Prize, Metal Box Prize, and Hughes Prize. He subsequently gained a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

degree with High Distinction as a

Baker Scholar Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

at Harvard Business School where he won the Ford Prize and the Wolfe Prize.

Career

After graduation, Kumar was employed by

McKinsey and Co. McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

as a healthcare consultant. In 1992 he was appointed chief executive of the disability charity the Papworth Trust. In 1997 he founded Nexan Group, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

-backed medical devices company. He joined Cancer Research Technology Limited as chief executive in 2002 and became chief operating officer of Cancer Research UK in 2004. He became chief executive officer in April 2007Chief Executive and Executive Board.
Cancer Research UK. Retrieved 11 January 2015. and led the charity for more than a decade before departing for Johnson & Johnson Innovation. Among his other roles, Kumar is a trustee of the Francis Crick Institute and the Institute for Cancer Research, and chairman of the Board of the

National Cancer Research Institute The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is a UK-wide partnership between cancer research funders, which promotes collaboration in cancer research. Its member organizations work together to maximize the value and benefit of cancer research fo ...

. He is also chairman of the Cancer Outcomes Strategy Advisory Group in England and co-chair of the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative, the senior Senior Independent Director of Innovate UK and a board member of

UK Research and Innovation UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Str ...

. On 10 April 2020 GRAIL Inc. announced Kumar's appointment as President of GRAIL Europe.

Awards and honours

Kumar was knighted in the

2016 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2016 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to cancer research.

Personal life

Kumar is a British-Indian, a British-Punjabi and a British-Sikh. Kumar lists his recreations as theatre, opera and football."Harpal Singh KUMAR"
''Debrett's People of Today''. Retrieved 11 January 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Harpal Living people 1965 births English people of Indian descent English people of Punjabi descent English Sikhs British people of Indian descent British people of Punjabi descent British Sikhs Harvard Business School alumni British chief executives Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Knights Bachelor