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Keith completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and remained there for a PhD with Professor Richard J. Stoodley working on rearrangement reactions of Penicillins. He then moved to the United States for a Post-Doctoral fellowship with Professor Philip D. Magnus at the University of Texas at Austin focussing on alkaloid synthesis.

On returning to the United Kingdom in 1990, Keith started his industrial career at SmithKline Beecham in Harlow as a Medicinal Chemist. In 1996 he transferred to Chemical Development and became involved with all aspects of reaction scale-up and manufacture. A move to AstraZeneca in Macclesfield in 2002 further developed these skills.

Biocatalysis and its potential had been an interest to Keith ever since his days as a postgraduate student seeing a lecture by Professor Stan Roberts describing the use of dihydroxylation of arenes using bacteria and their application in synthesis. Whilst working in Chemical Development at SmithKline Beecham and AZ he explored the use of enzymes on projects when it could be justified.

From 2011 to 2026, Keith had a full-time role as a Biocatalysis expert within AZ Chemical Development, working on all aspects of applying the use of enzymes for the synthesis of drug intermediate and API’s, from screening of enzyme collections to scale-up and manufacture. Currently, he works as a self-employed consultant in biocatalysis.