Dr. Chris Foley is Chief Scientist and Managing Director at Optima Partners. With a proven track record in building world-class teams and driving successful commercial outcomes, Chris brings a unique combination of scientific expertise and leadership to the table. He received a First in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews, an MSc with Distinction and the annual Prize in Statistics from the University of Manchester, and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh (2013). Chris Foley, awarded a National Institute of Health Research Fellowship in 2014, served as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge from 2015 to 2021, specialising in developing customised machine learning tools to study the genetic basis of diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, and identifying genetic drug targets. With internationally recognised expertise in causal inference, human genetic studies, gene identification, and disease clustering, he has developed popular open-source ML software and published research in leading journals such as Nature and NeurIPS. Throughout his career, Chris has worked closely with diverse teams of biological and computational scientists, consistently delivering on complex scientific goals. His leadership continues to drive success both in research and in commercial settings.