Ken Mulvany

Mulvany founded Proximagen Group plc and served as its chief executive. The London-listed biotech company specialised in developing medicines to treat neurodegenerative diseases and, under his leadership, completed a dozen corporate transactions including M&A, financings, and licensing deals. On August 14, 2012, the US company Upsher-Smith Laboratories completed its acquisition of AIM-listed Proximagen, a deal approved by Proximagen’s shareholders, at a headline value of US$553 million.⁠[1][1][2][2][3]

The experience of selling Proximagen, together with his observation of the exponential growth of scientific information and the difficulty of using such vast and complex data, led Mulvany to found the AI drug discovery company BenevolentAI in November 2013, and he served as its chairman from its foundation until July 2021. Also in 2013, he became chair of the trustees of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust, serving until 2018.⁠[3][3][1]

During Mulvany’s time as chairman, BenevolentAI grew from a small group into a market leader with early commercial success, and in 2018 it was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.⁠[3][3]

On April 15, 2024, BenevolentAI, then listed on Euronext Amsterdam, announced that after extensive discussions with Mulvany, its largest shareholder, he had exercised his right as a significant shareholder to submit four resolutions nominating Peter Allen, Jeremy Sohn, Ian Nicholson, and himself as non-executive directors; four non-executive directors including chair François Nader would resign at the close of the annual general meeting, and it was proposed that Allen act as chair and Mulvany as deputy chair.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

On May 2, 2024, BenevolentAI’s annual general meeting passed all resolutions, and Mulvany and the three other nominees joined the board as non-executive directors.⁠[4][4]

On August 28, 2024, The Venture Room published a compilation of street interviews filmed in London that included a segment with Mulvany. On the show he described himself as the founder and deputy chair of BenevolentAI and explained that the company uses artificial intelligence to make medicines; he said his previous company had been a UK biotech that he sold, after which he felt drug development was very inefficient, so he built a system that could reason across the whole corpus of medical knowledge. He said on the show that the company’s publicly traded valuation was then about 200 million and that he still worked 15 hours a day.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

On October 17, 2024, BenevolentAI appointed Mulvany as executive chairman, and Joerg Moeller stepped down as chief executive with immediate effect; co-founder Michael Brennan became chief strategy and financial officer, Peter Allen became deputy chairman, and the board was made leaner. Mulvany said BenevolentAI had built a leading AI drug discovery platform and achieved the first FDA approval for an AI-identified drug, but that the company had “only scratched the surface” of the platform’s potential.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On February 6, 2025, BenevolentAI’s board proposed delisting the company from Euronext Amsterdam and taking it private through a merger with the Luxembourg company Osaka Holdings, on the grounds that the financial and administrative costs of a public listing were no longer justified. On March 12, 2025, an extraordinary general meeting passed all resolutions with over 95% in favour; the company merged into Osaka Holdings that day, the latter converted into a public limited company and adopted the name BenevolentAI, and the shares were delisted on March 13. As executive chairman, Mulvany thanked shareholders for their overwhelming support.⁠[6][6][7][7][7][7][7]

Mulvany has served on the UK Government advisory board on AI strategies and the advisory board of Oxford Sciences Innovation, and has contributed to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence.⁠[3][3]

“Celebrate your wins.” He said entrepreneurs often move straight on to the next thing without acknowledging what they have done, and that getting something off the ground, making it unique, and having the drive to follow through are all worth celebrating (at 05:48 in the video).⁠[5][5]

“There’s going to be a whole ecosystem around AI agents.” Asked what opportunity he would pursue if starting again, he said AI agents can use large language models to improve processes people carry out, that the meeting of technology and industry opens up a host of opportunities, and that the key is to think about what the market needs will be (at 06:21 in the video).⁠[5][5]

“Surround yourself by people who’ve made mistakes.” He said entrepreneurs make mistakes and build experience from them; if three people tell you an idea is bad, you should be more cautious, and the secret of his success has been having a bunch of really smart people around him all the time (at 07:16 in the video).⁠[5][5][5]

BenevolentAI: Official website: https://www.benevolent.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[8]