Three new members of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) have been appointed and four other members have been re-appointed, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham announced today
27 May 2009
The TSB promotes and supports research and development. It supports the exploitation of science, technology and new ideas to benefit business, increase economic growth and improve the quality of life in the UK. It achieves this by delivering Government support to encourage business investment in technology and innovation across all sectors of the UK economy.
The newly-appointed board members are Sara Murray, Stewart Davies and Christopher Snowden, who will serve for three years from 21 June 2009. The reappointed board members are John Brown and Anne Glover, who will serve for a further period of three years, and Nick Buckland and Joseph Feczko, who will serve for a further period of two years, all from 21 June 2009.
Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, said:
“The TSB drives business innovation in the UK. It is at the heart of delivering our vision of making the UK the best place in the world to run an innovative business, public sector or third sector organisation.
“These appointments provide an extremely strong mix of business talent, insight and experience. They will help the TSB to fulfil its role.”
The Chair of the Technology Strategy Board, Graham Spittle, said:
“I am glad to welcome the three new Governing Board members and pleased that existing members have chosen to stay on the Board and be reappointed. Our 14-strong Governing Board is drawn from business, the public sector and research communities and I am proud to say that we have significant collective strength, which is represented in the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience that we can bring to bear in our field. The Technology Strategy Board is an important organisation that is well placed to make significant impacts on future UK business success and ensure that innovation is at the heart of our economic recovery, and so it is essential that high profile individuals who represent many of the key sectors that we are working within play a central role in the work that we do.”
Notes to Editors
- The Technology Strategy Board is an executive Non Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led non departmental public body that plays a cross-Government leadership role in delivering a national technology strategy and advising on polices which relate to technology innovation and knowledge transfer. It operates across all important sectors of the UK economy to stimulate innovation in those areas which offer the greatest scope for boosting UK growth and productivity.
Working with the Regional Development Agencies and the Research Councils, the Technology Strategy Board will jointly invest over £1 billion between 2008/9 and 2010/11.
For further information: http://www.innovateuk.org.
- These appointments have been made in accordance with the requirements of the Code of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. None of the appointees have declared any political activity in the last five years.
- Board members of the Technology Strategy Board receive remuneration of £9,180 per year.
- Dr Stewart Davies has twenty years experience in general management and strategy including Managing Director roles in Corus, Rugby Cement and Serco, where he is now Strategy Director, Serco Integrated Services. He previously worked for ICI in manufacturing and commercial roles in the company’s Petrochemicals, Catalyst & Technology Licensing and Polyester Intermediates Divisions.
Stewart has been Business Commissioner at the Sustainable Development Commission since 2006 and has led the SDC's input to the Government's Business Taskforce on Sustainable Production & Consumption, Building Schools for the Future, the Government's Strategy for Sustainable Construction, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation & Growth Team and Mobility 2020.
- Professor Christopher Snowden is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Surrey. He is a Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, chairing the Engineering Policy Committee and President-Elect of the IET. He is a non-executive Director of Intense Ltd, an advisor to DMD Ltd and Filtronic plc, a Member of the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Chairs the (industry) User Panel. He is a Board member of Universities UK, chairing their Employment, Business and Industry policy committee. Prior to his appointment at Surrey in 2005, he was Chief Executive Officer of Filtronic ICS, having joined Filtronic plc in 1998 and being promoted to Joint Chief Executive Officer in 1999.
His early experience was with Mullard Ltd and Racal MESL Ltd. He later worked as the Senior Staff Scientist in Corporate Research and Development at M/A-COM Inc. in the USA. He has been a consultant for several major international technology companies and has held a number of non-executive directorships. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IET, City and Guilds of London Institute and the IEEE.
- Sara Murray (M.A. Oxon) is a serial entrepreneur. She founded Ninah Consulting, which uses proprietary software to advise clients including GSK, Diageo, CGNU, Comet and Coca-Cola on marketing effectiveness. In 1999, Sara founded inspop.com. She built and sold the online company with over 250,000 customers to the Admiral Group, and renamed it Confused.com. Sara then founded and now runs buddi, a GPS personal tracker which locates people instantly. Sara was a non-executive Director of Schering Health Care and is a founding board member of Seedcamp – a start-up school for technology entrepreneurs. Sara was a finalist in the 2008 Blackberry Awards for Women in Technology and the Real Business First Woman Awards.
- Nick Buckland has a background of 20+ years in the UK ICT industry. He is a board member and former Deputy Chairman of the South West of England Regional Development Agency. He is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Plymouth, Chairman of Tamar Science Park and DocCom Solutions. He holds a number of non-executive directorships in both the private and public sector. He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Information Technology Practitioner, a Fellow of the British Computer Society, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the Chartered Management Institute and the Royal Society of Arts. He was appointed OBE in the 2009 New Years Honours list for services to technology and innovation.
- Dr John Brown has extensive experience in the life sciences sector. He is Chairman of BTG plc and CXR Biosciences Ltd. a non-executive Director of Vectura Group plc, and Axis_Shield plc, and was a Director of Cambridge Antibody Technology plc until its acquisition by AstraZeneca.
In the public sector he Chairs the Roslin Foundation and the Life Sciences Industry Advisory Board for the Scottish Government. He is an advisor to several private equity and venture capital funds, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Honorary Professor of the University of Edinburgh.
Until Dec 2003, John was Chief Executive of Acambis plc, a leading producer of vaccines to treat and prevent infectious disease. Dr Brown joined Acambis as Finance Director in 1995 and was appointed CEO in 1997.
- Dr Joseph Feczko was, until May 2009, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer Inc, with global responsibility for all aspects of the company's medical, regulatory and safety activities. Following a medical career specializing in internal medicine and infectious diseases, he worked in the UK for Pfizer and Glaxo, where his roles included Medical Director and Director of Global Regulatory Operations. He is a board member of bodies including Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (U.S.), the International Trachoma Initiative, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Accordia Global Health Foundation as well as a member of the Pharmaceutical Drug Forum of the Institute of Medicine, and was recently named to the Board of Directors for Research!America .
- Anne Glover is Chief Executive and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, the European technology investor. Amadeus has £460m of funds under management and has backed over 60 companies covering computer hardware and software, mobile and fixed communications technologies, clean technologies and medical technologies.
Ms Glover was Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) from 2004 to 2005, having been a member of the Council that runs the organisation since 1999, and was also a member of Sir David Walker’s high level private equity working group in 2007. In 2008 she chaired the committee on government procurement from SMEs. She is also a member of the London Business School’s Private Equity Institute Advisory Board, a member of the Women’s Enterprise Task Force and serves on the board of Optos and Glysure.