About

A builder, not a bystander.

Crucible Consulting is led by Tom Fleming, who spent a decade as co-founder, COO, and CEO of Arctoris, building one of the first fully automated, data-native drug discovery companies.

Tom is an operator-scientist: a chemist by training who went on to build and run a deep-technology company through every stage, from founding to scale. At Arctoris he co-founded and led an Oxford-based business that automated the laboratory itself, creating Ulysses®, a platform that runs experiments end to end and captures structured, decision-grade data at a scale manual research cannot match.

That work put him at the centre of three converging fields: biology, engineering, and AI. He went on to pioneer the Partnership Research Organisation, a model designed as an AI-ready alternative to the traditional CRO, and to found and lead OpenImmune, a Focused Research Organisation consortium spanning academic, clinical, industrial, and AI partners. Across these ventures he has raised venture and grant funding from public, private, and philanthropic sources, and built the cross-sector relationships that deep-technology companies depend on.

He works at senior levels with UK government on the life sciences, AI, and sovereign capability, and focuses on the Oxford, Cambridge, and London ecosystem he knows best.

In his words

I started Crucible for a simple reason. The hardest technology companies are built by people carrying too much at once, and the advice on offer is usually one half of what they need: strategy without the lab, or science without the cap table.

I have lived both halves. I know what it takes to stand a company up, hit the milestones, manage a board, raise the money, and build something genuinely new under real pressure. That is the judgment I bring, in the room, to the people building what comes next.

Tom Fleming · Founder

Credentials & affiliations

On the record.

  • Training

    MChem, chemistry.

  • Business

    Executive MBA (TRIUM): LSE, NYU Stern, and HEC Paris.

  • Fellowships

    FRSC, Royal Society of Chemistry. FRSB, Royal Society of Biology. FRSA, Royal Society of Arts.

  • Government

    Senior UK engagement on the life sciences, AI, and sovereign capability.

  • Sectors

    CRO, PRO, and FRO models across pharma, biotech, and techbio.

  • Focus

    The UK, with particular depth in the Oxford, Cambridge, and London ecosystem.

Selected experience

What that looks like in practice.

  • Arctoris

    Co-founder, COO, and CEO for a decade of an Oxford-based autonomous drug discovery company.

  • Ulysses®

    Built a fully automated, data-native drug discovery platform that runs experiments end to end.

  • OpenImmune

    Founder and lead of a Focused Research Organisation consortium across academic, clinical, industrial, and AI partners.

  • The PRO model

    Pioneered the Partnership Research Organisation as an AI-ready alternative to the traditional CRO.

  • Funding

    Raised venture and grant capital, structured across public, private, and philanthropic sources.

  • Ecosystem

    Cross-sector relationships across pharma, techbio, government, and philanthropy.

Work with Tom directly.

Every engagement is led personally. Start with a short call to see whether Crucible is the right fit.

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