Speakers

These are critical issues worldwide as the agricultural sector seeks to meet increasing food demand in the 21st Century. Plant Impact’s technologies deliver global solutions to boosting food production in an eco-friendly way.

He founded Plant Impact in 2003, oversaw its early development and floated the Company on the London AIM market in 2006. Today, the Company is working in close co-operation with some of the world’s leading crop protection and life science companies.

The Company’s anti-stress technologies promote stronger, healthier and more disease resistant plants which in turn increases grower returns by reducing plant stresses caused by temperature, salinity and UV.

As Chief Executive at that time he was responsible for all Plant Impact’s commercial issues, with an emphasis on marketing and sales activities. Blezard came into the agricultural market working with a US based venture that he sought to buy out, when this did not materialise he networked with an Angel network in Manchester raising enough finance to begin trading Plant Impact. Blezard took the company public giving the Angels a handsome reward at floatation.

Peter, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, has received the Bio Entrepreneur award as sponsored by UK Trade & Investment and London First in recognition of Plant Impact’s achievements in its field.

Peters’ background is surprisingly not in agriculture but in international Sales and Marketing with extensive experience in pioneering new products into new markets and in working with major companies on a global basis at board level. Peter is quite used to negotiating long term global licence agreements and collaborations with blue chip clients, His previous roles include General Manager of Pak 2000, a division of Asia Pulp and Paper, between 1988 and 2000, where his core duties were European sales and marketing. His responsibilities also included working with national security agencies and meeting governments in Europe, Asia and the Far East.

He also has experience in the strategic planning of new factories in Indonesia and China, with projects to ISO9000 standards.

Iain Gray joined the Technology Strategy Board as Chief Executive in 2007, following its establishment as an executive non-departmental public body.

Prior to joining the Technology Strategy Board, Iain was Managing Director and General Manager of Airbus UK, whose Bristol operation he joined when it was still part of British Aerospace.

Iain Gray completed his early education in Aberdeen, culminating in an Engineering Science honours degree at Aberdeen University. In addition, he gained a Masters of Philosophy at Southampton University in 1989 and has received Honorary Doctorates from Bath, Bristol, Aberdeen and Aston Universities in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011 respectively.

Iain is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers; a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and in 2007 was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal. In 2011 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a Board Member of Engineering UK, a Governor of the University of the West of England, a Board Member of SEMTA and a Board Member of Energy Technologies Institute.

As Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, Iain is the operational head of the organisation as it assumes its leading role in driving the UK’s technology and innovation strategy.

Iain is married to Rhona and has four children.

Dr Hamid Mughal was appointed as Pro-Chancellor in 2008. His career spans over 27 years in the Aerospace and Automotive Industries where he has held a number of senior positions in a variety of disciplines. He joined Rolls-Royce in October 2000 from BMW where he was Director of New Product Programmes.

In his current role as Executive Vice President of Manufacturing Engineering & Technology, Rolls-Royce plc, he is responsible for the development and application of leading edge Manufacturing Processes & Technologies, Factory Design & Layout, Product Introduction, Quality Assurance & Manufacturing Systems. Hamid passionately believes in the social and economic value of High Value Manufacturing.

He plays an active role in the advancement of UK Manufacturing Sector by promoting collaborative programmes such as, the evolving network of Global Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres and education and training programmes for Industry Managers.

Chris Rudd began his career as a sea-going engineer with the P&O Steam Navigation Company. He became interested in Fibre Composites during vacation work at the National Engineering Laboratory, East Kilbride.

After a spell at GKN Technology developing innovative suspension systems, he came to Nottingham in 1986 to work on lightweight body structures with Professor Mike Owen. He was awarded a PhD in 1989 and was appointed to the academic staff in the same year. His personal Chair in Mechanical Engineering was announced in 1997. He is well known for his work with the automotive industry and for introducing new manufacturing techniques to produce lightweight structures. He has been closely associated with Ford Motor Company and several of their suppliers.

The current focus of Chris’s research is on synthetic bone replacements using resorbable reinforcement fibres. He works with a number of clinicians and medical device manufacturers to refine these materials and to bring devices to market. He has published and lectured widely on these topics.

Following 4 years as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Chris took up the role of Pro Vice Chancellor in January 2008. His portfolio includes Knowledge Transfer and Business Engagement and responsibility for Schools within the Faculty of Social Sciences. Chris has sat on several regional boards including Innovation East Midlands, Nottingham Development Enterprise Ltd and Nottingham Science City. He chairs UoN’s Innovation Park and its intellectual property and spinout board. He is on the main board of the £40M AWM-EMDA funded Manufacturing Technology Centre.

He holds several awards for innovative use of media in public engagement – products of which include Test-Tube , Periodic Table of Videos and Sixty Symbols – online videos which have changed the game in science communication. Chris has been driving UoN’s strategic partnerships in China since leading a Manufacturing Mission to that country in 2008. UoN has since invested in new relationships with several elite Chinese Universities and a rapidly growing portfolio of large private companies.

He is a guest Professor of Jilin University and has toured and lectured widely in China on the topics of sustainability and innovation. He championed UoN’s presence at Expo 2010 where a sustainability exhibit ran alongside 17 discrete seminars (with partners EMDA and ZedFactory) to showcase local expertise in low carbon technologies. More than 1M visitors were recorded at the exhibition and many new business partnerships were struck – including an invitation from the Mayor of Shanghai to establish a UoN campus in Fengxian.

Chris has been the UoN driver of several (ongoing) partnerships with Chinese businesses including research, training and inward investment initiatives. He has led China missions on Manufacturing, Aerospace, Biomimetics, Food Security and Green Pharmaceuticals. He was active in bringing Chang ‘An’s European R&D Centre to Nottingham and is currently engaged with other major initiatives with China’s Aircraft and Pharmaceutical industry to develop similar partnerships. He is also active in exploiting UoN’s physical assets in China to assist UK businesses in accessing the East Asian market, facilitating use of UoN’s Ningbo Campus and providing access to UoN’s business and academic networks in China for local SMEs.

In 2009 he secured funding to establish Nottingham Technologies Asia – a Hong Kong registered company created to take UoN’s sustainable technologies to the Chinese market and bring market intelligence back to western companies via an innovative student internship programme.

Chris also has responsibility for UoN’s alumni relations and philanthropic fundraising. He has led the establishment of formal alumni chapters in Beijing, Shanghai and Ningbo and supported a vibrant meetings programme with attendances of 100+ at monthly meetings. He also has portfolio responsibility for UoN’s Chinese Studies – an academic school, the China Policy Institute and UoN’s Confucius Institute . He has represented UoN at Hanban’s Confucius Institute Conference in Beijing in 2009 and 2010, lecturing on business outreach and fundraising respectively.

He is currently leading efforts to support the creation of a £4M “China Centre” at UoN’s Jubilee campus and, work with UoN Chancellor YANG Fujia, has already secured the lead gift to establish what is likely to become a European icon for Chinese Studies.