New Directors at High Value Manufacturing Catapult

The trio replace members who will retire during 2018.

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult stimulates and supports the commercial application of new technologies through the development of innovative manufacturing processes. 

Welcoming the five appointments, Bob Gilbert CBE, chair of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult supervisory board, said:

“I am delighted to welcome such a strong group of people; they bring both industrial experience and financial acumen. Their combined insight and experience will enable us to continue the excellent progress that has been made to date and help us secure more of the value of our world-leading research within the UK and shape the support businesses need to turn great ideas into the commercial success stories that support our wider manufacturing economy.”

Dick Elsy, chief executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, added:

“I am greatly looking forward to working with our new members. The skills and experience they bring add to the dynamic of the Catapult at a time of extraordinary technology developments and major change in our economic landscape. Their challenge and input will help the High Value Manufacturing Catapult deliver its mission to grow the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the UK economy.”

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is supported by UKRI to drive the growth of the UK manufacturing sector by helping companies of all sizes incubate new technologies and bring them to commercial reality.

Stephen Burgess

Stephen Burgess has more than 40 years’ experience of advanced manufacturing in Rolls-Royce, the last 13 years as director of manufacturing processes and technology. 

He is the Rolls-Royce Senior Fellow for Manufacturing, a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has a BSc honours degree in mechanical engineering and an MSc in manufacturing systems engineering. In his current role, he is responsible for global manufacturing research and development, including university research, with a particular focus on the development of a global network of cross-sector advanced manufacturing research centres. He has a long association with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, chairing several of the centres’ programme boards and is an enthusiastic advocate of collaborative research and the establishment of strong working relationships between academia & industry. He is also on the board of MetLase, a Rolls-Royce joint venture, and EFFRA.

Mary Champion

Mary has wide-ranging experience of delivery, assurance, governance and commercial leadership, established with both government and private sector organisations. Her initial career was in technology-based management consulting, leading to a role as vice-president of Capgemini UK, with responsibility for delivery of all technology programmes within the public sector, working with clients across a range of government departments. She developed her experience and interest in innovation through her role as non-executive director of the Intellectual Property Office, acting as a member of the steering board and audit committee for nine years. She was also a non-executive director of the Wales Audit Office, recruited as one of a team to establish a new governance structure and with a role on the resources committee. She has subsequently acted as a board-level freelance consultant, providing input and advice on governance and delivery, and most recently has established and led the commercial management function within Royal London Platform Services.

Allan Cook, CBE

Allan Cook was a non-executive director and chairman of WS Atkins from September 2009 until July 2017, when Atkins was bought by SNC-Lavalin. He is a chartered engineer with more than 40 years’ international experience in the automotive, aerospace and defence industries. He was chief executive of Cobham Plc until the end of December 2009. Prior to this, he held senior roles at GEC-Marconi, BAE Systems and Hughes Aircraft. He was deputy chairman of Marshall of Cambridge (Holdings) Limited until December 31 2015 and is a member of the operating executive board of J F Lehman & Company.

Allan is iindustry co-chair of the Defence Growth Partnership (DGP.) Until August 2016 he was the lead non-executive member of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was chairman of UK Trade and Investment’s advanced engineering sector advisory board until October 2013, and chairman of FINMECCANICA UK Ltd and chairman of Selex ES until the end of December 2014. Until March 31, 2017 he was also chairman of SEMTA – the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies. He is past president of the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and past president of the Society of British Aerospace and Defence Companies (SBAC.) He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, where he was vice-president and served as a trustee for the academy until September 2017. He chairs the academy’s employer-focused diversity leadership group. 

Allan became a Fellow of the China 48 Group Club in December 2015 and is a member of the chairman’s forum with the World Economic Forum.

He was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2008, and received an honorary Doctorate in Science from Cranfield University in 2016.

Andy Neely

Professor Andy Neely is pro-vice-chancellor: enterprise and business relations at the University of Cambridge and former head of the institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and of the Manufacturing and Management Division of Cambridge University engineering department. He is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and founding director of the Cambridge Service Alliance. He is widely recognised for his work on the servitization of manufacturing, as well as his work on performance measurement and management. Previously, he held appointments at Cranfield University, London Business School, Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of Churchill College, Nottingham University, where he completed his PhD and British Aerospace.

He was deputy director of AIM Research – the UK’s management research initiative – from 2003 until 2012 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Management in 2007, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2008 and a Fellow of the European Operations Management Association in 2009.

Margaret Wood, MBE

Margaret founded ICW (UK) Ltd to design and manufacture specialist industrial and commercial sight and access solutions. 

That was 25 years ago. 

Now taking a back-seat, she is focusing on her work as a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Parliamentary Committee and mentoring entrepreneurs of the future.

A scientist by learning and experience, she is passionate about ensuring innovation has the backing it needs to reach the market and benefit society. 

Margaret won a GWIN (EU prize for Women Innovators) in 2003 and strives to promote STEM subjects to young women and girls still at school.

Running a company in the supply chain she understands only too well the challenges that many SMEs face and the access to research and development expertise they require. 

She wants to use her time and energy as a director of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to be the link between innovators and the larger companies who can help bring products to commercial reality.

Awarded the MBE for services to business, she is a former winner of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Director of the year and a member of its general council.

Margaret is also aware of her responsibilities to the community in which ICW (UK) Ltd is based and was the chair of Wakefield First inward investment.

Notes to editors

About the High Value Manufacturing Catapult

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult brings together seven institutions of excellence across a broad range of sectors to support UK manufacturing in the commercialisation of cutting edge technologies. The seven centres are:

• Advanced Forming Research Centre (University of Strathclyde) 
• Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (University of Sheffield) 
• Centre for Process Innovation (Wilton & Sedgefield) 
• Manufacturing Technology Centre (Ansty, sponsored by the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham and by TWI) 
• National Composites Centre (University of Bristol) 
• Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Universities of Manchester and Sheffield) 
• Warwick Manufacturing Group (University of Warwick) 

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult was declared open for business by the then Secretary of State Dr Vince Cable at the beginning of October 2011. Since then the Catapult has been operating under a CEO, Dick Elsy, its Management Board (made up of the heads of the seven centres making up the Catapult), and its independent Supervisory Board chaired by Bob Gilbert. It focuses its research and development on key areas of high value manufacture, including use of metals and composites in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing. The Catapult brings together knowledge, expertise and state-of-the-art facilities to help UK businesses innovate to develop novel products and/​or manufacturing processes. 

From its inception 6 years ago, the board resolved that its members would serve a maximum of a six-year term. Four of its existing directors will therefore be required to retire at various times during the course of this year. To secure continuity, the new board members will work alongside the directors due to retire until their departure.