Paul Cobb

After leaving Erith Grammar School, Paul Cobb worked as a laboratory technician for the Wellcome Foundation at Dartford, Kent. Through part-time and full-time study, he graduated from the Royal Institute of Chemistry. He is now a Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He re-joined the Wellcome Foundation in 1970 as a Research Analyst, initially to study the decomposition pathways of drugs to improve the stability testing of medicines.

Paul became an early exponent of the technique of high-performance liquid chromatography, which he applied to a wide range of natural sources of drugs, from foxgloves to South American arrow poisons. During his laboratory career, he also worked on some important new medicines including an artificial muscle relaxant for use in surgery, the first antiviral drug and the first drug to treat HIV patients. He had several publications at this time in respected scientific journals and served on governmental committees in the UK and Europe to set quality standards for medicines.

His career progressed from the laboratory into senior Research and Development management, and he eventually became the Director of Technical Development (UK) for the Wellcome Foundation. When Wellcome was bought by Glaxo, he became Director of Development Operations Strategy for the new company. When the company was once again undergoing a merger, this time to create GSK, he took the opportunity to seek an early retirement in order to fulfil a desire to study his Christian faith.

He joined the St Albans and Oxford Ministry course, where he studied for three years for a diploma awarded by Oxford University. He was licensed as a Reader in 2003 and became involved in the training, review and support of Readers in the diocese of St Albans. He also served as a Diocesan Vocations Adviser for seven years. He is now a Reader Emeritus, helping out where he can in his local Church near his new home in a retirement village in Kent. Paul is married to Jennifer, formerly a headteacher in Special Education. They met at school and have three sons and seven grandchildren.