Chancellor, it is my great pleasure to present Chris Watt for the award of Doctor of Science in recognition of his extraordinary achievements towards business, innovation and civic service.

Chris comes from the village of East Noyle on the Somerset–Wiltshire border, where he was born one of six children. His early education was as mobile as the farm-working families among whom he grew up—attending seven schools in total—each move shaping a young man who learned quickly to adapt, to observe, and to persevere. He left school with a single A-level, but as we know, qualifications alone do not define potential.

Following school, Chris chose the path of service and discipline, joining the Army in 1988. His five years in the armed forces, included a year at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he earned his Commission as an Officer in Military and Strategic Leadership. After leaving the Army, he pursued an MBA at Cranfield School of Management—another bold step toward a life defined by curiosity and ambition.

Chris’s professional career began at Olivetti in 1996, where he worked as a BRP Change Consultant. It was during his time at there that Chris started to consider himself a bit of an entrepreneur, and in 1999, he founded his first company, Cognisant Research, which he has led for more than two decades. But this was only the beginning.

In 2006, Chris co-founded Pharmaxo Ltd. through a buy-out from the University of Bath. Under Chris’s leadership, what began as a small teaching unit in our Department of Pharmacy with just 14 employees, has now grown into one of the largest independent aseptic compounding units in Europe. Pharmaxo now employs around 450 full-time staff locally and prepares life-changing medicines for more than 200,000 NHS patients every year. Pharmaxo’s excellence has been recognised repeatedly, notably three consecutive years as the UK’s fastest-growing pharmaceutical business in the Alantra Pharma Fast 50, from 2017 to 2019.

But numbers alone cannot capture the true weight of Chris’s impact. In 2011, the company saw that the arrival of a new class of drug, monoclonal antibodies, would soon present unprecedented challenges to the health service. These medicines were powerful, but fragile; being limited by short shelf-lives that made widescale delivery to the NHS impractical.

So Chris acted. He built an internal R&D unit, forged a longstanding partnership with researchers at the University of Bath, and invested in developing bespoke testing methodologies to extend the shelf-life of these medicines Under Chris’s direction, Pharmaxo has become a world leader in understanding the stability of ready-to-use antibody medicines, and in 2019 was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Research and Innovation.

Yet Chris’s contributions extend far beyond business and science. For two decades, he served his community as an elected member of the Bath & North East Somerset Council. As a Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, he led the reorganisation of local secondary schools, established one of the nation’s first virtual schools for looked-after children, and championed some of society’s most vulnerable young people through his long-standing leadership in corporate parenting.

Chris has always believed in the power of opportunity—especially for those who seldom receive it— In 2006 he was a founding director of Somer Valley FM, a community radio station that has since welcomed more than a thousand volunteers, many from disadvantaged backgrounds. Under his continued guidance as a Director, the station has become a beacon of youth development, creativity, and community spirit, earning multiple accolades including the 2018 Princess Royal Award for Training and the 2025 King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

From a childhood shaped by movement and change, to a career defined by foresight and leadership, Chris has never stopped seeking ways to make things better.

Chancellor, I present to you Chris Watt who is eminently worthy to receive the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.