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“Barcelona has a thriving new generation of ‘start-ups’ and I hope that the funding will continue to be available to grow them”, says the operations director of Lightpoint Medical Ltd, a company focused on cancer surgery
Claire Woodthorpe, 45 years old, married with seven children. Born in London, Claire has also lived in Amsterdam before she moved to Barcelona last year. She is the COO of Lightpoint Medical Ltd, a company that develops and markets surgical tools and technologies for real-time intraoperative cancer detection. Lightpoint Medical Ltd aims to transform cancer surgery by improving surgical precision and patient outcomes and reducing overall healthcare costs.
Why did you choose Barcelona? We work closely with Hospital del Mar on our product development and clinical trials, and when we needed a European base after Brexit, Barcelona’s growing biotech community and Acció’s relocation help made it a obvious choice.
What aspects of the city would you highlight as positive? I love the city. The culture, the lifestyle and of course the food. Barcelona has all the benefits of a big city without being cold and impersonal. People here have a strong work-life balance, something that has been lost from many parts of Northern Europe, particularly London.
What aspects of the city need to be improved? How? It’s not specific to Barcelona, but the Spanish bureaucratic system is very difficult to navigate, we were very lucky to have Acció help us with the move, but it’s significantly more complex to set up a business here than, say, in Amsterdam.
What do you think are the strengths of the city to overcome the crisis caused by covid-19? All the people of Barcelona that I have met are proud of their city and their culture, and I trust that they will come together to be able to rebuild whatever is necessary after the pandemic.
What challenges do you think the city faces once the health emergency has subsided? The next few years are going to be difficult in every way, as the world recovers from the pandemic and struggles to control rising tensions. Barcelona has a thriving new generation of start-ups and I hope that funding will continue to be available to incubate and grow them.
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What do you expect from Barcelona in the coming years? It is an exciting time for Barcelona, with many challenges, but also a great opportunity. I’m interested to see how the city navigates in the years to come and I’m excited to play a (small) role in it.
What do you feel is your city? What do you miss the most? Barcelona feels like home, we couldn’t see ourselves going back to the UK these days. We still miss our older children and can’t wait for the covid-19 restrictions to be lifted to make it easier to see each other.