Founder

Dr Nik Kotecha is a business leader and entrepreneur, as well as a philanthropist and influencer. 

Nik is the Founder and Chair of Trustees of The Randal Charitable Foundation, which he set up with his family in 2017. 

Its vision is to directly save lives, help the socially disadvantaged and significantly improve the quality of life for those in need in the UK and around the world with an ambition to save one million lives globally.

As a businessman, Nik is the Founder and former Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, a Midlands-based manufacturer, wholesaler and exporter of branded and generic medicines and healthcare products to the UK and international export markets. He started the business in 1991 from his home garage and grew it into a global business. In 2022 Nik divested of Morningside to concentrate on his philanthropic ambitions.   

 

Since inception, Morningside has exported to over 120 countries and has over 300 Marketing Authorisations in the UK and globally. As well as products delivered twice daily to UK pharmacies and hospitals, Morningside supplies some of the world’s largest aid agencies such as UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Red Cross. The Company also continues to grow in new markets, where product registrations in individual countries offer an opportunity to develop in the private sector. 

 

In addition to Morningside, Nik is a serial entrepreneur with a number of business and investment interests. His entrepreneurial journey has been recognised by numerous awards, most recently in 2022 being named as one of the Top 50 UK Kindness in Leadership Leading Lights. In 2021 Nik was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Regional Champion for Excellence in Sustainability, as well as making LDC’s 2021 list of the UK’s Most Ambitious Business Leaders, as featured in the Times. 

In 2019 Dr Kotecha won the National Entrepreneur of the Year category at the 2019 National Business Awards. In 2017, he was awarded an OBE for services to entrepreneurship, innovation in pharmaceutical services and philanthropy.  

 

Nik is active in public service at both national and regional level. His roles include Department of International Trade (DIT) Export Champion and sitting on the Department’s SME Trade Advisory Group. He also plays a dynamic role on the Board of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), the Midlands Engine Council, CBI East Midlands (Chair) and as Co-Chair of Charnwood Borough Council’s Town Deal Board. Nik is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire. 

Nik is also Pro-Chancellor of DeMontfort University and in 2022 he was bestowed as an honorary Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Philanthropy, for the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences.

  

Born in east Africa, Nik came to the UK as a young child and through hard work and tenacity, pursued an education. After gaining a First Class degree in Chemistry at Newcastle, he achieved a PhD from Imperial College London and then went on to further work at Cambridge University, before switching to work in pharmaceutical drug discovery followed by development, manufacture and supply of generic medicines. Nik is married and has two grown up children.