08 Aug On the sofa with OVID Health: Introducing Rachael Stewart, Associate Director
In the second instalment of our ‘On the sofa with OVID Health’ series, we sit down with OVID Health’s Associate Director Rachael Stewart.
Rachael has over 10-years of policy and public affairs experience in the health and life sciences sectors. Prior to working in consultancy, Rachael held several in-house roles working with global pharmaceutical companies, biotech start-ups, medical research charities and academic organisations. During her time at the Bioindustry Association, Rachael managed public affairs activities during the fallout of the EU referendum and the development of the 2017 Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. She also led the organisation’s policy development on rare diseases, cell and gene therapies and genomics, including establishing the UK’s Rare Disease Industry Group – a coalition of pharmaceutical companies which continues to advocate for better access to orphan medicines.
In 2019, Rachael moved to the Francis Crick Institute, a world-renowned biomedical research centre, to take on the role of strategic adviser to the Institute’s Director and Nobel Laureate, Sir Paul Nurse. In 2021 Rachael moved over to consultancy. She particularly enjoys working with clients to make complex scientific topics easy for policymakers and members of the public to understand.
It’s almost been over month since you started at OVID. What’s your favourite thing about working here?
My wonderful colleagues of course, particularly Murray, the office dog! I really like OVID’s offices as well. Hammersmith is definitely growing on me. I’m also really enjoying the wide variety of projects we work on at OVID. Despite having worked in health policy for over a decade, I’m still learning lots of new stuff.
People come into our industry through many different routes and backgrounds. Tell us a bit more about your route into public affairs and policy?
Whilst at University, I had a chance to do an internship in the Drugs Policy Unit at the Home Office. That’s when I knew I wanted to work in policy and public affairs. After completing my undergraduate degree in History, I did a master’s degree in public policy and the rest as they say is… well, history! My first policy and public affairs role was at the Breast Cancer Now charity and I’ve stayed in the health and life science sector ever since.
You have a wide breadth of experience ranging from the charity sector, academia, and industry as well. Is there one campaign/project that you have worked on previously that you are most proud of?
At Breast Cancer Now, I worked on a campaign that secured additional funding for researchers funded by medical research charities. The campaign received a lot of support from breast cancer patients and George Osborne, the Chancellor at the time, who specifically mentioned it in the Government’s Spending Review. It was my first public affairs campaign, so it set the bar quite high.
Having a healthy life-work balance is key. What do you do to keep cool, calm, and collected?
Pilates! I’m completely obsessed with it. In fact, I like it so much I’ve turned it in to a side hustle, so it doesn’t really count as work-life balance, but I do go to classes in more free time too.
If you could have any superpower (besides being flexible because we know you already have that down as a Pilates instructor!) what would it be?
I’d like to be able to teleport. It would massively help with my commute to OVID’s offices, and it would mean I could go on holiday to far-flung destinations every weekend.
London is due for a heat wave this week at the end of the month. What’s your favourite thing to do on a warm summer’s day?
Hide in my house with the curtains shut, lol! I’m not a particular fan of the heat, especially in the UK. If it’s sunny but not too hot, I like to go for a walk in the countryside and finish with a G&T in a pub garden.