Shailen Rao

Managing Director

As the founding partner of Soar Beyond, Shailen has more than 30 years of experience working in, and with, the NHS. He has a passion for helping the NHS make the most out of their investment in medicines.

Shailen is a respected and trusted thought-leader and innovator in the field of medicines management and has always been a strong advocate of working in partnership and collaboration with industry.

Before this, Shailen worked as a pharmacist and as Head of Medicines Management and Diabetes Lead for Hillingdon PCT.

Shailen leads an active and colourful LinkedIn group with over 2,000 NHS Payers and industry members keen to understand and debate various policies that affect commissioning better outcomes for patients.

Shailen is a Trustee at the Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamstead, Shailen was appointed this position to apply his background and expertise in medicines, healthcare delivery and service redesign to further the fantastic work of this Hospice. Shailen will be focusing, in particular,on the Clinical Governance and Income Generation committee work

Shailen is passionate about self-development and is always striving to challenge Soar Beyond and its customers to reach above and beyond their known limits.

Tiba Rao

Director of Market Access & Change Management

Tiba heads up both the market access and the training services for Soar Beyond including the i2i Network for practice pharmacists.

Change management is, however, Tiba’s passion – both supporting the NHS and our industry partners to do this effectively at an individual and/or organisational level.

Tiba was previously a Change Management Consultant for Accenture where she successfully project-managed the first national programme for IT implementation into the ambulance service.

Prior to this, Tiba spent seven years with Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and has a cross-section of customer-facing experience in sales, NHS liaison, project management and training. Tiba was among the first-ever secondments from a pharmaceutical company to the NHS and therefore understands the need to work in an innovative and B2B relationship with the NHS and industry.

Tiba works closely with our customers to identify their needs and develop unique solutions to meet them.  Being the favourite part of her role, this is where many of the Soar Beyond innovative services and methodologies come from.

Anjna Sharma

Director of Pharmacist Services

Since joining Soar Beyond in 2009 as a practice pharmacist, Anjna has developed in a variety of roles and now leads our Pharmacist Service division. Her main focus and strengths revolve around in supporting our NHS partners to implement effective and sustainable change at organisational level.

Anjna has a wealth of experience from the variety of her previous roles in community, primary, secondary care and academia. Anjna began her career as a community pharmacist with Boots the Chemists, and has held various roles from managerial to clinical. Prior to this, she also held academic positions at Nottingham and Demonfort Universities.

Anjna is passionate about improving the outcomes for patients through medicines by developing pharmacists to achieve this. Her strong project management skills and attention to detail have allowed us to systematise delivery and ensure successful and timely implementation to an exceptional standard.

Kajal Mistry

Associate Director

Kajal leads and supports the overall design, deployment and management of a range of services provided by Soar Beyond to the NHS and Pharmaceutical Industry. She has a particular passion for ensuring services realise their benefits to patients in the leanest and most efficient way.

Kajal started her career as a community pharmacist and soon found her passion in developing scalable services to deliver positive change for patients and the wider healthcare system.

Prior to joining Soar Beyond, Kajal spent 8 years with McKesson (parent company for LloydsPharmacy, PSS and Optimed Healthcare) where she gained a wealth of experience in developing and mobilising primary, secondary care and integrated services. She has led on a number of successful projects during this time including the mobilisation of the LloydsPharmacy Flu vaccination and Travel Health services, as well as leading the pathway design of the first LloydsPharmacy Healthcare Centre in collaboration with their homecare division and a NHS trust. More recently, Kajal has been supporting GP practices, pharmacists, primary care networks in design and delivery of NHS and Pharmaceutical Industry funded services. This experience combined with the understanding of the NHS, ensures our services are of the highest standard for our NHS and Industry partners.

Andrew Sutherland

Associate Director of Market Access

Andrew’s role is to lead the operationalisation and management of Soar Beyond consultancy services to the Pharmaceutical Industry, working closely with the Managing Director. Keeping abreast of changes within the NHS and working closely with customers, Andrew will ensure that Soar Beyond’s Industry focused offerings are timely, relevant, and delivered to the highest standards.

Andrew has a wealth of experience within the Pharmaceutical Industry, starting as a sales representative in the 1990s and subsequently moving onto sales management, marketing, and market access positions within a number of different companies. Consequently, Andrew understands industry processes and requirements as well as numerous therapy areas including cardiovascular, dermatology, female healthcare, psychiatry, and pain management. Andrew has also undertaken training as a non-medical final signatory and brings his ABPI understanding to all Soar Beyond projects and services.

Andrew’s key passions are improving project efficiency and collaborative working and he has been involved in setting up numerous successful NHS / Industry partnership projects as well as a track record in streamlining internal services to achieve better turnaround times for projects with increased compliance.

Anna Prescott

Clinical Services Manager

Anna joined Soar Beyond in 2016 with over 10 years of post-graduate pharmacy experience in the NHS predominantly as a hospital pharmacist, where she held both operational and clinical roles. She made the transition to primary care as a prescribing advisor in southwest London in 2014, sparking her passion for really growing and shaping the role of pharmacists in this ever-changing and high-pressured environment.

Whilst at the CCG, Anna completed both her independent prescribing qualification and became a PRINCE2 practitioner. These have both proven invaluable to the many projects she works on, and where she continually delivers to a high standard.

Anna’s roles in Soar Beyond have covered everything from clinical pharmacist services management, deployment of therapy reviews, design and delivery of i2i Network training programmes and projects to the NHS, pharmaceutical industry, and healthcare systems globally.

Ziad Laklouk

Clinical Pharmacist

Ziad joined Soar Beyond as a part-time Clinical Services Pharmacist in April 2021 whilst retaining his role as Lead Clinical Pharmacist for Didcot PCN in South Oxfordshire. This live connection and core skillset mean that Ziad can ensure our products and services are relevant to the expanding Clinical Pharmacist role and PCN organisational needs.

In his role, Ziad will be coaching and supervising GP Clinical Pharmacists through our SMART platform and ACCELERATOR sessions whilst writing and delivering online clinical resources and training content as part of the i2i Network.

In his other NHS role, Ziad leads and develops the role of PCN Clinical Pharmacists working across Didcot’s three GP practices while working closely with the PCN Clinical Director, PCN management team, and prescribing leads in each practice to provide high-quality primary care through medicines optimisation services to 45,000 patients across Didcot and surrounding villages. In his capacity as an independent prescribing practitioner, Ziad retains sessional clinics with a focus on medicines optimisation for patients with multimorbidity and complex polypharmacy.

Ziad is passionate about integrated clinical academic research in the context of primary care and has a special interest in pharmacogenetics and stratified medicine. He is currently undertaking an MSc in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London as part of HEE’s Genomics Education Programme.

Shivangee Maurya

Clinical Services Pharmacist

Riad Choudhury

Clinical Services Pharmacist

Riad supports the Soar Beyond business at a clinical and project management level. He develops and delivers written resources, e-Learning, and service tools for our NHS and pharmaceutical industry commissioned services such as i2i Network and SMART.

Riad began his career in community pharmacy and soon took on a more clinical role working at Interface Clinical Services. There, Riad delivered long-term condition reviews and clinical audits as a clinical pharmacist in primary care, before assuming the role of regional lead pharmacist. He was responsible for 12 clinical pharmacists who he trained and developed clinically and ensured service delivery standards and operational excellence were maintained across his region. His role involved ensuring compliance with industry regulatory standards and the ABPI code of conduct, in which Riad is fully trained and qualified. His most recent position was working for Bayer Pharmaceuticals, as a pharmacist territory manager and focused on educating and up-skilling PCN, practice-based, and CCG pharmacists on anticoagulation use in AF. He was the main point of contact clinically for the region and worked at a regional leadership level, ensuring that a scientifically clinical strategy was in place.

Riad is passionate about the well-being of patients. This, coupled with his thirst for science and its impact on the lives of many, attracted him to an endeavoring career in healthcare. Riad is driven by self-development and obtaining new skills and he is currently looking to obtain his PRINCE2 qualification.

Puja Vyas

Clinical Services Pharmacist

As Clinical Services Pharmacist, Puja supports the development of our clinical resources and regulatory documents as part of the Pharmacist Services Division at Soar Beyond.

Puja, an independent prescriber; started her career with Boots Pharmacy, taking on various roles including store manager and led on the training and development of the health care team. She went on to work for the NHS; as part of the medicine optimisation team of a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), working as a Practice Pharmacist.

Prior to joining Soar Beyond, Puja was a senior member of the East and North Hertfordshire Care Home Pharmacy Team (1 of 6 national Vanguard sites for ‘Enhanced health in Care homes’) – Puja led the way forward with personalised and outcome-focused care, by optimising medications, wider use of technology and reducing Polypharmacy.   The project was upscaled nationally in care homes in the NHS.  Winning a PrescQIPP Award for Polypharmacy Reduction in care homes and was on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the importance of medicines optimisation in care homes.

Puja strongly believes in that delivering excellent support to Pharmacists, will provide the perfect platform to empower pharmacists.

Ruth Booth

Finance Manager

With over 30 years of finance experience in many different business environments, Ruth is instrumental in helping our finance department run smoothly and efficiently. She is highly skilled in numerous accounting and financial fields.

Having previously worked for both large multi-national corporations and SMEs, Ruth has significant knowledge and expertise in financial accounting and business planning.

Ruth’s friendly and positive nature, coupled with her meticulous attention to detail and exceptional organisation skills, makes her a valuable member of our team.

Imogen Toyer

Project Manager

With a passion for supporting the delivery of high-quality projects and exceeding customer expectations, Imogen is an integral part of the Soar Beyond team.

Imogen joined Soar Beyond in 2016 and works across multiple areas of the business as a Project Manager, including pharmacist services, PNAs, events, operations and administrative support.

She graduated as a business student studying Hospitality Management at the University of Portsmouth, where she received a first-class honours degree. Imogen has also recently achieved her Prince 2 qualification.

Karen Taylor

PA / Project Executive

Karen joined the Soar Beyond team in March 2020, bringing over 25 years’ experience from a wide variety of business sectors, including previously working within the pharmaceutical industry.

As well as being a key member of the project executive team, Karen also acts as Shailen’s PA.

Expertly blending her exceptional organisation and multi-tasking skills to work across the Pharma Consultancy division, she supports Shailen and the team in delivering high quality customer service to our clients. Whilst never hesitating to offer support and encouragement to the internal team, Karen is an integral part of the Soar Beyond family.

Siobhan Hall

Project Executive

Siobhan joined Soar Beyond in February 2020 as a project executive. She works across both i2i and SMART divisions in a variety of roles which shows off her flair for technical support, marketing and recently supporting with project management. She is excellent at liaising with clients to ensure their needs are not just met but exceeded.

Siobhan has a degree in photography which enables her creative approach to solving any and all problems – no challenge is too big or too small for Siobhan to take whilst she continues her search to be challenged and grow within her role.

Ana Hartup

Project Executive

Ana initially joined the team in 2017 and after a small break re-joined to support Soar Beyond as a project executive mainly supporting the production of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments. Ana has a can-do attitude and a very high level of attention to detail which makes her a trusted pair of hands within the business coordinating large volumes of information and data which forms the backbone of many regulatory reports.

Ana has a Masters in Archives and File Management and has held various roles from Personal Assistant to director level, events, and project management.

Tracy Dixon

Marketing Executive

Tracy joined the Soar Beyond team in April 2021 bringing vast experience within Sales and Marketing in several industries including Medical, Oil & Gas and Aerospace.

Tracy recently completed her CIM Level 3 Certificate in Professional Marketing with Distinction, which she believes will go hand in hand with her ability to increase visibility of Soar Beyond services to both Pharma and NHS customers.

Tracy has a passion for learning and a happy & positive outlook on life.

Christina Wells

Senior Project Executive

Christina joined Soar Beyond in Sept 2021 to support the team in delivering quality projects and operations.

As a qualified marketing professional Christina’s career has encompassed a variety of different commercial disciplines including Programme Management, Marketing, and Sales within both B2B and B2C market sectors for a range of companies from leading global organisations to newly acquired start-ups.

Christina’s collaborative approach has enabled her to work with cross-functional stakeholders to fulfill, execute and drive enhanced customer satisfaction.   With the revised submission date for Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA’s) to Oct 2021, Christina will be supporting the team to deliver fit for purpose PNAs to time and budget.

Sara Dokhan

Project Executive

Sara joined the Projects Executive team in September 2021 to help support the marketing and the online & future live events for i2i, at Soar Beyond.

Sara has worked in live large events, marketing, and project administration since gaining her degree in Events Management. Over the years, she has worked for a number of charities and businesses across the UK in both the private and public sectors. Sara loves a challenge, learning new skills, and believes in quality over quantity. Sara is looking forward to an exciting prosperous career with Soar Beyond.

Umar Sabat

Data Protection Officer

Umar is a well-respected Information Governance subject matter expert across the NHS. He has worked across Information Governance within commissioning, provider and within private healthcare environments. He joined Soar Beyond in 2020 and works independently assuring our Information Governance processes and overseeing compliance for Data Protection activities.

Umar also holds several international appointments for providing Data Protection specialist support for several Multinational companies operating in the UK against legal frameworks.