Swansea University has awarded an honorary degree to top R&D innovator Dr Sharon James.

Dr James was presented with the honorary award today (26 July) during the degree ceremony for the Faculty of Medicine, Health & Life Sciences.    

Originally from the Cardigan area, Sharon James currently sits on the Board of Healthcare and Biotechnology companies in Sweden (Molnlycke), Denmark (Novozymes) and Canada (Algae-C) where she is relentless in her pursuit of innovation and delivering quality of life improvements to consumers and patients. She also believes strongly in that we have an absolute duty to care for the environment and has become a strong influencer and champion of her Board companies’ Sustainability agendas.

She has many years of international experience at the Chief Technology Officer/Board level in global, blue-chip companies (Bayer, Reckitts, PepsiCo) where she led and transformed large global Research & Development teams in the Household & Healthcare sectors.  Her personal mission has always been to empower consumers and patients to make choices that support their personal health - strongly believing that the ability to control your own health and wellness is a basic human right for all.  To that end, she has delivered transformative and consumer-loved health innovation internationally.

She is a strong and vocal advocate for women in science and acts as a mentor for many female young professionals. She is committed to opening the doors to science education for young girls through STEM programmes and initiated the ‘Making Sense of Science’ movement for Bayer USA to encourage children to study and embrace science.

Sharon James is a Welsh speaker.  She still has family in west Wales and visits often to practice her Welsh.

On receiving her honorary award, Dr James said: “Science and technology has always been my gateway to opportunity and to receive this award from such an innovative and purposeful university makes me both proud and grateful.”