Baroness Evans joins CPI Board as Non-Executive Director

Baroness Evans brings significant political and leadership experience to CPI, having served as Leader of the House of Lords between 2016 and 2022 – the longest-serving holder of the role in 70 years and its youngest ever female leader. Prior to that she served as a Junior Minister in David Cameron’s Government, with responsibilities spanning education, justice, and work and pensions.

Baroness Evans’ career has spanned public policy, government, and senior leadership roles, giving her a valuable perspective on how innovation and enterprise can drive the UK’s future prosperity. Throughout her time in government, Baroness Evans championed the importance of preparing the UK for the future – strengthening skills, supporting business growth, and ensuring innovation underpins economic resilience. 

At CPI, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, she will bring this insight to support the organisation’s ambition to deliver impact and value to industry, nationally, regionally, and internationally, aligned to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

In her new role, she is particularly well positioned to help CPI navigate the political and policy landscape, and to ensure that CPI is well positioned to help innovative companies scale-up and drive UK economic growth. She sees CPI as central to the UK’s success in translating breakthrough ideas into world-leading products and services.

Baroness Evans is also focused on supporting small businesses and start-ups in accessing CPI’s world-class expertise and facilities. This will help address the UK’s long-standing challenge of transforming excellent research and ideas into market-ready products. She believes collaboration between government, academia, and industry, underpinned by shared purpose, trust, and clear communication, is essential to achieving this.

She is further looking forward to championing CPI’s role within the wider Catapult Network and to strengthening its contribution to regional growth, particularly in the North East. With her experience of government and policy, she hopes to help CPI tell its story more widely, encourage collaboration across the UK and internationally, and ensure its impact is recognised at the highest levels.

Commenting on her appointment, Baroness Evans said:

“CPI is an incredibly exciting and forward-looking organisation. It plays a vital role in helping innovators turn great ideas into products and services that deliver real impact, and in doing so, supports both our economy and our society. The opportunity to be part of that process – supporting entrepreneurs and businesses to scale their ideas with the expertise and talent that CPI has at its fingertips – is hugely motivating.

“I look forward to contributing my experience to help CPI raise its profile, strengthen collaboration, and continue to play a leading role in shaping the UK’s innovation landscape.”

Jennie Younger, Chair of CPI’s Board, said:

“We are absolutely delighted that Natalie Evans has joined the CPI Board. Her experience and reputation gained within government and Whitehall over many years will be invaluable to CPI as the company continues to play a vital role in supporting UK innovation and its translation into world-leading products and services. UK Government’s Industrial Strategy provides many opportunities for CPI to play a key role in supporting the UK’s economic growth and resilience.”