Wednesday 1st October 2014, morning

After 26 years with BP, Courtaulds and ICI, spent in both their corporate centres and business units, Dr David Bott moved into start-ups 10 years ago, but was then diverted into 7 years setting up and directing the programmes of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency.

David is now a non-executive Chairman of Flute Office and Oxford Biomaterials, a non-executive director of Oxford Advanced Surfaces, a Principal Fellow of WMG at Warwick University and has engaged in a wide variety of activities involving materials, design, sustainability and innovation.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, afternoon

Professor John Perkins CBE is the Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Prior to this he was Provost at the MASDAR Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi (2009-10), leading the development of this new institution. His distinguished academic career includes service as Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, The University of Manchester (2004-9); Principal, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London  (2001-4) and ICI Australia Professor of Process Systems Engineering, University of Sydney (1985-88), as well as a period at the beginning of his academic career at the University of Cambridge (1973-7). He has served as President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (2000-1) and as Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2007-10).

Professor Perkins is currently an Honorary Professor at Manchester University, Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and a member of the EPSRC Council.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, evening

Richard Watson is a writer, speaker and scenario thinker that helps organisations to think further ahead. As well as being the founder of What’s Next, Richard is co-founder of Futures House Europe (a specialist scenario planning agency) and is the author of four best selling books about the future, including Future Files: A Brief History of the Next 50 Years (sixteen worldwide editions) and Future Minds: How The Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It.

Richard has worked with, amongst others, Cambridge University, Coca-Cola, General Electric, IBM, Ikea, Imperial College, London Business School, McDonald’s, McKinsey & Company, Ministry of Defence, RAND, Samsung and Shell. Subject matter expertise includes global trends, scenario planning, innovation and creativity.

Friday 3rd October 2014, morning

Lee Strafford was PlusNet's co-founder and CEO from 1997 to 2007, leading it from start-up, through IPO and finally to exit by sale for £67m to BT in 2007. Following the sale of PlusNet, Lee retired at the age of 35 but soon got bored and so became involved in two 'community projects'.

Firstly, Lee volunteered to carry out a business turnaround at his beloved Sheffield Wednesday Football club. Lee modernised the club in all areas and reconnected the fans to the club and the club to its community in a positive and transparent manner. In the second project, Lee helped develop a new approach to collaboration between the public sector, private sector and higher education sector looking at how technology start-ups are developed and supported, and also how the commercial opportunities around Broadband and the Internet can be captured.

Lee became a founding board member of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership in Dec 2010. In 2012 Lee co-founded the Dotforge Accelerator to support digital entrepreneurs in the North of England.

Friday 3rd October 2014, morning

Prof Fiona Lettice is a Professor of Innovation Management at the Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia and a Visiting Research Fellow at Cranfield University. Fiona is actively researching and writing academic conference and journal papers in the areas of green innovation and supply chain management, social innovation, disruptive innovation, new product development, buyer-supplier relationships and innovative diversity management practices.

Fiona teaches on creativity, innovation management, marketing management of new products, knowledge management and PhD research skills.

Friday 3rd October 2014, afternoon

Neil Fogarty is a serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur – having built his first international multimillion dollar company by the time he was 28, he is now running his 11th company, Spark Global Business, providing advice consultancy and training to governments and the private sector.

He is the author of books and articles on enterprise as well as a blogger for Virgin and contributor to ‘Business In Gulf’ magazine in Bahrain.

With clients in Africa, Europe, Middle East and The Americas, he has delivered work to clients ranging from World Bank to Worcestershire County Council.

Saturday 4th October 2014, morning

Mark Champkins studied Manufacturing Engineering at Churchill College, Cambridge and Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art (RCA). Whilst at the RCA he won British Inventor of the Year, for designing Self-Heating Crockery, that featured on Tomorrow’s World.

In 2004, he started Concentrate Design, to design and manufacture products to help pupils concentrate whilst in lessons. In 2007, Mark pitched the Concentrate on BBC Dragons’ Den, winning investment of £100,000 from Peter Jones. The products launched in John Lewis the same year and now sell through retailers across the UK and Europe. Mark also works as a design consultant for clients such as PepsiCo, Jamie Oliver and Samsung.

In 2011, Mark was appointed as the first ever “Inventor in Residence” at the Science Museum in London and he published The Big Book of Celebrity Inventions . Mark is a contributor to television and radio on the subjects of innovation, enterprise and invention. His credits include: BBC Horizon, Tomorrow’s World, News 24, Dragons’ Den, Blue Peter, Newsround, What’s the Big Idea (Discovery), BBC World Service, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, The Simon Mayo Drivetime Show (Radio 2) and The Today Program (Radio 4).

Saturday 4th October 2014, morning

Dr Quentin Cooper has been described by the Times as both “the world’s most enthusiastic man” and “an expert on everything from pop music to astrophysics” and by the Daily Mail as someone whose “wit and enthusiasm can enliven the dullest of topics”. He’s one of the most familiar and popular voices of science in the UK, writing and presenting many hundreds of programmes including for over a decade fronting Britain’s most listened to science show, the live weekly Material World on BBC Radio 4.

Quentin’s “major contribution to the public understanding of science & engineering” has been formally recognised in the last couple of years with honorary doctorates from Edinburgh University and Heriot-Watt University, as well as by being made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His first degree is also from Edinburgh University where he studied Artificial Intelligence and Psychology, and he went on to get a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Studies from University College Cardiff.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, morning

Pete Rose is an Account Executive for HP Enterprise Services supporting clients in Central Government. He has over 20 years experience of delivering mission-critical, secure services in the Armed Forces, public and private sector. Following 16 years in the Royal Air Force as an Engineering Officer, which included a secondment to the Cabinet Office, he joined EDS in 2007 as a Programme Director supporting the MOD’s IT transformation programme. He then spent an interim period working for an SME consulting house advising Government and blue-chip clients in Defence and Cyber-security market strategy, before joining HP in 2009.

Pete is a Professional Engineer who will look for any excuse to get involved in technology but his current role focuses on client-focused strategic and account planning; programme and services delivery; and exploiting technology and innovation in support of clients’ businesses.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, morning

Gordon Holingworth grew up in Malvern and trained at RSRE (now QinetiQ) as an apprentice aged 16. After four years of learning about electronics he left to pursue a MEng in Electronics at the University of York, following this up with a PhD in Electronics specializing in the area of evolvable hardware (applying biological concepts to the design of electronic circuits). Gordon then spent six years working in high tech consultancy and IPTV companies, before working for Broadcom in the mobile multimedia group where he helped develop the 2835 processor used in the Raspberry Pi.

Gordon now works as Director of Software Engineering at Raspberry Pi, developing computer systems and solutions for education, the home hacker and the world.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, morning

Charles Garfit is Head of Manufacturing at Santander where he is responsible for ensuring Santander has the products and service delivery manufacturers need to drive their businesses forward. He joined Santander in 2010 as Head of Asset Management in the newly created Asset Finance picking up a £1billion portfolio of assets and transitioning the business to be capable of servicing the full range of Corporate and Commercial customers.

Charles has held a variety of roles previously; European Sales Manager for Henry Butcher, one of the worlds premier asset disposal and valuation companies and latterly for Gordon Brothers, the US-based leverage private equity house where he ran their European consultancy business.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, afternoon

Ian Burnett is President of IDB Technologies and Director of JEMI, the UK trade association for semiconductor, micro and nanotechnology equipment and materials suppliers. He is also actively involved with 2 start ups; one UK based developing a novel and very low cost technology to provide moisture barriers to enable the use of flexible plastic films for OLED lighting application, and the second based in Germany who are offering a completely printed solution to the manufacture of Interposers used in complex 3D packaging solutions.

Previously Ian was Chairman of the Scottish Microelectronics Centre and was Sales and Marketing Director at WED Ltd and Oxford Instruments.

Wednesday 1st October 2014, afternoon

Dr John Liverton is a chartered mechanical engineer with a background in design & development and a veteran of the British machine tool industry having worked for TI Group, Jones & Shipman plc, Renold plc, and 600 Group. He is currently Product Manager at Yamazaki Mazak’s European HQ and Manufacturing Plant at Worcester.

As well as investigating new product development opportunities he has responsibilities for the Automotive & Motorsport sector within the Product Management group. Formula Student and schools/university outreach work is another of his areas of interest. John is currently the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA).

Wednesday 1st October 2014, afternoon

Sarah Macdonnell is Principal Mechanical Engineer at Malvern Instruments where she has technical responsibility for mechanical engineering throughout the company and has implemented new process and strategies to ensure the development of innovative and robust designs.

Sarah started her career as a Time and Motions Assessor at a small company manufacturing commercial refrigeration systems and compressors. Her qualifications include MSc (Hons) Mechatronics and BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering both from Loughborough University. She is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Member of WES

Wednesday 1st October 2014, afternoon

Andrew Brock is Manufacturing Engineering Manager at Malvern Instruments where he has had the opportunity to grow the department to form a pivotal hub in the organisation to encourage robust, manufacturable product design with a strong customer focus.

Andrew previously worked at Rearsby Automotive, before moving to GEC Avery Berkel as a Production Engineer working on weighing systems for point of sale. He has a BSc (Hons) Industrial and Business Systems from De Montfort University and an MSc in Manufacturing Management from Cranfield University.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, morning

Rich Palk is the Cyber Customer Engagement Lead for Lockheed Martin UK, with public and private sector knowledge of all aspects of cyber security and a passion for the subject matter. Rich works with Lockheed Martin’s UK customers to help shape future Cyber Security capabilities. Prior to Lockheed Martin, Rich served for over 20 years in the Royal Air Force and enjoyed a variety of roles that included the Head of the Joint Cyber Unit at Corsham, with responsibility for Cyber Defence for all MoD networks world-wide, and setting up the Joint Cyber Unit at Cheltenham.

Rich has a MSc in Computer & Information Networks, a MA in Defence Studies and a BEng in Communications Engineering. He is also a Chartered Engineer (IET) and is CISSP certified.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, morning

Mike Gadd is Manager of Aircraft Certification at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Safety and Airspace Regulation Group. He has over 30 years experience in the design, certification and continued airworthiness of aircraft, from within industry and in regulatory roles with the UK CAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

He is currently managing the initial airworthiness team of specialists and project work which includes certification and continued airworthiness tasks across the range of aircraft types, coordination of airworthiness activities on RPAS/UAS, the development of policy and regulations and the provision of training and technical support to industry, airworthiness authorities and the MoD for civil approved platforms (CAA MRCOA).

Thursday 2nd October 2014, morning

Prof Harold Thimbleby is a computer science professor working in medical device design at Swansea University in Wales. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering Technology, and has recently been elected honorary fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians.

Harold is 28th Gresham Professor of Geometry and he is a visiting professor at UCL and at Middlesex University. He wrote the book Press On, which won the American Publishers’ Association best book award in computer science.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, morning

Jeremy Laycock is a Chartered Engineer with many years experience working with some of the world’s most challenging datasets. He is currently a Director of Ripjar which specialises in software systems to monitor, analyse and explore blended datasets in a coherent manner.

Jeremy has a BSc in Computer Systems Engineering and an MSc in Geophysics and Seismology.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, morning

Colonel (retired) John Doody is Director of Interlocutor Services Ltd, a company that promotes information assurance and cyber security both nationally and internationally. Prior to this John served at CESG/GCHQ as Head of Information Assurance Customer Services. He was a major contributor to CESG’s move to a commercial business footing and promoted a strong external customer relationship and marketing effort.

John has also had a major role as a Non-Executive Director within two security companies as well as providing Strategic Advice to a number of major UK and US IT Security companies.  His current major role is as the Global Strategic Cyber Security Adviser to Ultra Electronics Ltd where he reports directly to the CEO on Cyber Security matters.

Thursday 2nd October 2014, afternoon

Bob Rose is currently Director Security for ADS Group. Previously he was Director of Public Security for the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers (APPSS) from 2007, prior to their merger with SBAC and DMA in October 2009.

Bob was a former senior police office with Hampshire Constabulary. In 1990 he obtained a BA Honours Degree in Public Sector Studies at Portsmouth University. Bob was promoted to Superintendent and Commander of Central Hampshire BCU. and later he was promoted to Chief Superintendent, and head of Operations OCU. He has also been responsible for chairing the force counter terrorism strategy group; was chair of the regional CBRN forum, and represented the region on the national ACPO Terrorism & Allied Matters CBRN Committee.

Friday 3rd October 2014, morning

Chris Parker co-founded and leads Ordnance Survey’s open innovation network GeoVation. He is a geographer, and land and water resources scientist with over 30 years’ experience in developing innovative uses of geography and geographic information at home and overseas within public, private and civil society sectors.

Chris has presented widely on innovation and geography, is a member of the Innovation Leadership Forum, the Union Innovation network, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Friday 3rd October 2014, morning

Dr Roland Harwood co-founded 100%Open, a specialist open innovation agency that helps large organisations create value by innovating with others. Previously he was Director of Open Innovation at NESTA.

Graduating with a PhD in physics from Edinburgh University, he has held senior innovation roles in the utilities and media industries and in addition has worked with 100′s of start-ups to raise venture capital and commercialise technology. Furthermore he has worked as a TV and film music producer for SonyBMG.

Friday 3rd October, afternoon

David Bott joined the pitching panel having spoken on Wednesday morning. As detailed above, he has experience in technology start-ups and government innovation programmes.

David is currently involved with a number of start-up businesses either at board level, as a consultant or as a mentor.

Friday 3rd October, afternoon

Neil Fogarty is a serial entrepreneur and author who travels the world advising organisations on how to grow and sustain their business. He built his first international multimillion dollar company by the time he was 28 and he is now running his 11th company, Spark Global Business, providing advice consultancy and training to governments and the private sector.

Friday 3rd October 2014, afternoon

Chris Walklett is a tax partner at Chartered Accountants, Bishop Fleming. Having trained with PwC in both audit and tax, he spent several years gaining experience on the ‘other side of the fence’, notably as Head of Tax for easyJet. Chris then returned to practice as a tax partner in 2007 before joining Bishop Fleming earlier this year.

He has advised a wide range of businesses and their owners on tax compliance, mitigation and planning. His clients range from technology start-ups to international airlines, and his particular specialisms include advising companies in the technology sector. Chris is also a regular tax and business commentator for the BBC.