Garry Pairaudeau is currently Head of Hit Discovery in Discovery Sciences; the group comprises HTS, Comp Chem, Virtual Screening and DEL coupled with Chemistry, Automation and Machine Learning is responsible for generating high quality starting points for AstraZeneca. In addition, the group works extensively with academic centres of excellence through Open Innovation and strategic collaborations with groups such as MRC, CRUK, Life Arc and many others to help incubate novel biology and academic drug discovery. Garry also chairs the AstraZeneca Global Chemistry Leadership Council, responsible for setting a strategic direction for development of Chemistry in AstraZeneca. He is passionate about innovation and building new transformative capabilities in Machine Learning Augmented Design, Synthesis, and Automation. Garry obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Southampton in 1991, followed by post-doctoral work at UC Irvine California.  He joined AstraZeneca in 1994 as a medicinal chemist and was part of the chemistry team that discovered Brilinta. He has experience leading projects through all phases of Drug Discovery contributing to multiple clinical candidates in the respiratory, inflammation and CV areas. He has a long standing interest in lead generation, hit identification and diversity screening.  Prior to taking up his current position in 2012 he was Director of Chemistry for the cardiovascular group at Alderley Park.