Adaptimmune announced the appointments of Dr. Rafael Amado as Chief Medical Officer and Adrian (Ad) Rawcliffe as Chief Financial Officer, with effect of March 16, 2015.

Dr. Amado will lead Adaptimmune's clinical strategy and assume responsibility for the company's clinical trials across the US and Europe under its strategic collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He will also lead the development of the company's pipeline of wholly-owned research programs. Prior to joining Adaptimmune, Dr. Amado served as Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology R&D at GSK. He joined GSK in 2008 as Vice President of Clinical Development, and served in positions of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President and Head of Oncology Clinical Development. Before his time at GSK, Dr. Amado was Executive Director of Therapeutic Oncology at Amgen. He trained as a Hematologist/Oncologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Adrian Rawcliffe will lead Adaptimmune's financial management and operations functions including compliance and risk management. He joins from GSK where he was Senior Vice President, Finance of its North American Pharmaceuticals business. Prior to this, Rawcliffe held a variety of senior finance and business development roles at GSK, including Senior Vice President Worldwide Business Development and R&D Finance, and Managing Partner and President of SR One, GSK's venture-capital business. He joined GSK in 1998 and holds a BSc degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham, UK. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand.