2018 Speakers

Head of aerospace at consulting group, Vendigital, Paul Adams advises businesses in the sector on everything from cost management to optimising supply chains and harnessing data-based insights to increase organisational value and enhance corporate decision making. In his previous role as head of operations at GKN Aerospace, Paul had responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company’s UK-based wing structures operations and supporting its selection as Airbus Best Performing supplier in 2015. Prior to this he held a strategic supply chain role at Rolls Royce. Vendigital was recently ranked 8th in the Financial Times ‘UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2018’ report for its work in the aerospace and defence sector.

Edwin Bowden-Peters is the principal engineer at MBDA, Europe’s leading manufacturer of missile  systems where his work concentrates on future technologies and system concepts including everything from wireless technologies to graphene and carbon nano-tubes. Edwin graduated from Loughborough University in 2011 with a degree in electronic and electrical engineering and is recognised as the World’s youngest fellow of the innovation institute (IIKE). He’s also a nongovernmental expert at the European Defence Agency and has a number of patents that have either been granted or are currently in filing. 

Mark Cund - Autonomous Vehicle Control Manager, Jaguar Land Rover Research. 

Mark is responsible for research into the development of autonomous vehicle control systems, as well as the "UK Autodrive" project, that is trialing autonomous vehicle technology in real-world environments. With over two decades' experience in the automotive industry, his experience includes the delivery of passive safety, active safety and customer convenience systems. 

Professor Kenny Dalgarno is the Sir James Woodeson Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at  Newcastle University. He has been researching innovative approaches to the processing of biomaterials for more than a decade, and he is also Deputy Director of the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre. His research focusses on the development of innovative bio-fabrication and bioprinting technologies for the creation of next generation medical devices.

Douglas Dawson is a prominent British business leader with a 30-year track record of achievement and success within the UK and international engineering, manufacturing and industrial sectors. Currently Chief Executive of Liberty Industries Group, he is also a member of the Strategic Board of the $13bn a year Gupta Family Alliance. 

Olly Dmitriev is a technology entrepreneur and innovator with 15 years’ experience in software project management and a dual executive MBA degree from London Business Schools and Columbia University in New York.

He came to Scotland in 2012 to start his own manufacturing company, Vert Rotors, and develop a line of groundbreaking new air compressors based on his proprietary conical screw design.
 In 2017 Olly was recognised as Inventor of the Year at the Scottish Business Insider’s Made in Scotland awards, and was included in the Top 100 in UK Manufacturing list by The Manufacturer. Vert Rotors was also awarded as the Best Venture-backed Management Team in Scotland by the BVCA.  
Before starting Vert Rotors, Olly was Director of New Products at MTS, a large telecom company, where he added over one hundred million dollars to the company’s top line.  
He is a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an active member of research community in the UK and the USA, having authored three patents and multiple research papers relating to Vert’s compressor technology. 

Dr Hannah Edmonds has worked at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, since 2012. She is a Technical Specialist in Design and Simulation and currently leads the Thermal Energy Research Accelerator (T-ERA) project exploitation for Factory In A Box (FIAB) Manufacture. Dr Edmonds has engaged with a number of thermal energy start-ups / SMEs in the T-ERA project to identify the technical and commercial feasibility of FIAB manufacture for their products; understanding their manufacturing challenges and the potential benefits of industrial digital technologies for their business. 

She is also responsible for delivering the T-ERA Smart Manufacturing Accelerator, a  framework to enable the rapid implementation of new industrial digital technologies in industry. The framework is a standardised approach using discrete elements developed in the T-ERA project and deployed in two FIAB demonstrators. Dr Edmonds has a PhD in Additive Manufacturing and has previously led the MTC’s Solid State Welding team, delivering friction welding / dissimilar materials joining projects.

Caroline is the acting CTO of McLaren Applied  Technologies. She has experience in developing innovative technology solutions in sectors

including Motorsports, Transport, Health, Elite sports, Manufacturing and Energy.  Caroline joined the McLaren F1 team in 1997 where she worked in vehicle dynamics and spearheaded the development of the McLaren F1 simulator. In 2008, she joined Applied Technologies as the third employee and has played a pivotal role in developing Applied Technologies from a start up to a successful forward-looking technology company. She is also a Visiting Professor in Surgical Simulations at Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Professor Hopkinson spent 20 years in academia conducting research in the field of Additive Manufacturing. His academic research yielded a number of patents that have been licensed widely and are having a transformational impact on the Additive Manufacturing industry.   

In 2016 Neil left academia and became Director of 3D Printing at Cambridge based inkjet printhead manufacturer Xaar where he is building a 3D Printing business utilising Xaar’s world leading piezo-electric inkjet printing technology across a range of 3D Printing technologies including one of his own inventions, High Speed Sintering. 

In her current role, Dr. Lina Huertas focuses on driving the creation of value in the UK through the digitalisation of UK industry. This includes shaping the UK national strategy and policy, leading the relevant activities at High Value Manufacturing Catapult and running the MTC corporate strategy on Digital Manufacturing. In the past three years she has formed and led different engineering and technology teams that offer unique capabilities to develop and mature technological solutions for the UK manufacturing sector. Her experience includes a PhD in the application of simulation and informatics solutions to support manufacturing, and 12 years’ experience delivering industrial projects that generated business benefits on the back of digital technologies. Lina is a Fellow of the IMechE and has a first class honours degree and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.  

Dr Mark Humphries: Management Group PA. Mark is a senior Member of PA’s Management Group and has worked in its Technology and Innovation Practice for c. 30 years. Mark continues hands-on development of new products and manufacturing processes, typically covering the integration of new technologies into practical solutions. His technology expertise covers materials, sensing, detection, optics and imaging, through to advanced micro and macro fabrication technologies. Mark also provides strategic advice to engineering and technology intensive companies, advising on Technology and Innovation Management, establishing Open Innovation processes, and supporting the growth of Hi Tech technology start-ups and spin outs. Mark has worked across a number of Industry Sectors, drawing an understanding of how different dynamics and regulatory environments influence how Innovation processes are implemented.

Martyn is an Economist at EEF – the manufacturers’ organization. He helps to champion the manufacturing sector by developing and communicating EEF’s policy thinking to the government, media and other key policy formers. He does this through producing EEF publications, briefings and blog posts on the state of the economy, UK manufacturing and individual sectors. His analysis and research are used as the basis for EEF’s lobbying. Martyn also participates in EEF’s economic forecasting work. 
 

Martyn studied Economics BSc at Newcastle University. 

Professor Dame Jane Jiang holds a UK Royal Academy of Engineering/Renishaw Chair in Precision  Metrology and is the Director of the EPSRC Future Metrology Hub. She obtained her PhD in measurement science in 1995, a Professorial Chair in 2003, a DSc for precision engineering in 2007. More recently she received a Damehood in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to manufacturing and engineering. Jane is leading the creation of the concept of the ‘Factory on the Machine’ and ‘Manufacturing Infratechnology’ for future manufacturing. Jane is an internationally respected research leader in advanced metrology, involves two major aspects: mathematical models and algorithms for geometrical products specification and metrology, including geometric shape, tolerancing, and surface texture analysis, filtration and parametric characterisation; and optical interferometry technology for embedded measurement, including wavelength/frequency scanning interferometry and optical chip interferometry. Jane is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), a Fellow of the International Academy of Production Research (FCIRP) and the Institute of Engineering Technology (FIET). She has published more than 400 journal papers; was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2006 and the Sir Harold Hartley Medal in 2014.

Sophie Jones is General Manager at Added Scientific, a spin-out of the University of Nottingham, helping companies exploit Additive Manufacturing technology through state-of-the-art research. Having previously worked for Econolyst, Stratasys and 3T RPD, Sophie has a deep knowledge of the AM industry and applications of the technology. With a MEng from Loughborough University in Manufacturing Engineering, Sophie combines technical expertise with a grounded understanding of the commercial implications of AM. 

Leila Martine, Product Marketing Director, Mixed Reality is responsible for Microsoft HoloLens for  the UK market along with the commercial EMEA Mixed Reality Partner Program.  Leila is well placed to discuss Mixed Reality (MR), the intersection between the real and virtual worlds and how this technology is already driving transformation for customers today across a broad range of industries and scenarios. 

Leila has held several senior positions at Microsoft where she has been responsible for leading  business units. This has included leading the Central & Eastern Europe’s Server business and UK’s Windows Consumer and Windows Phone businesses.

Dr Phil Reeves is the Vice President of Strategic Consulting within Stratasys and leads Stratasys  Strategic Consulting. Phil has worked in the field of Additive Manufacturing & 3D printing for over 20-years, having gained a PhD in the subject from Nottingham University in the mid 1990’s. Since this time, Phil has worked in a number of AM/3DP related roles including R&D, business development and corporate strategy. In 2003 Phil founded leading AM/3DP consulting firm Econolyst Ltd, which was acquired by Stratasys in 2015.

Professor Rajkumar Roy is the Professor of Competitive Design and the Director of Manufacturing. He is also the Directors of the Through-life Engineering Services Centre and Operations Excellence Institute at Cranfield University. He has over 22 years of academic and industrial experience in manufacturing research and education. His research interest includes through-life engineering services, cost engineering, product-service systems, design optimisation and applied soft computing and has published research papers in over 185 conferences and journals. His research sponsors include BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, UK MoD, Tata Steel Europe, Airbus, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, BOC Edwards, Nissan, Bentley Motor Company and Ford Motor Company. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineers (CIRP), Institution of Engineering Designers (IED), Association of Cost Engineers (ACostE), The Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport (CILT) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Currently Professor Roy is serving on the IET Manufacturing Policy Panel and the Through-life Engineering Services Strategy Board of Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI). He is the founder of the annual National Manufacturing Debate at Cranfield and The Manufacturing Co-operative.

Kieron Salter is Managing director of high-performance engineering solutions provider, KWSP. He is also a key part of KWM, a motorsport business, as well as Sports Aero Solutions Ltd, a joint venture with former Olympic Medallist, Chris Boardman and TotalSim, the computational fluid dynamics specialist. Kieron is also a founding board member of the Silverstone Technology Cluster (STC) and one of the champions of the STC’s Digital & Advanced Manufacturing (DAM) special interest group (SIG). 

Rab Scott is Head of Digital at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). Rab has been a member of the AMRC staff since its beginning in 2001, initially heading up the Virtual Reality and Simulation activities and now leads on the strategic development and implementation of digital solutions across the whole organisation. Rab sits on the High Value Manufacturing Catapult VR and Visualisation Forum, Digital Forum and the Steering Committee of Immerse UK. He has recently been made a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde.

Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Nadine Stech is Principal Integrated Control Design Engineer at Blatchford, a world leading manufacturer and rehabilitation provider with expertise in prosthetics, orthotics, special seating and wheelchairs. After studying Engineering Cybernetics at University of Stuttgart, she completed a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at University of Surrey. She is an project champion of the multi-award winning fully integrated, microprocessor controlled lower limb prosthesis Linx - awards include the MacRobert Award of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2016, German Design Award Winner 2017 and Medical Design Excellence Awards 2017 - Gold Winner and Best in Show. Her research interest lies in prosthetics, orthotics, biomechanics, advanced control and system optimisation. She is project manager of the H2020 research project MovAiD that investigates additive manufacturing, data driven design generation and future service provision of customised movement assisting devices. 

In April 2017, Paul Stein was appointed to the Executive Leadership Team as Chief Technology Officer.
Paul joined Rolls-Royce in 2010 as Chief Scientific Officer and for two years acted as the Engineering and Technology Director for the Company’s Nuclear business. His most recent role was Director of Research & Technology, accountable for the company’s global investment in R&T, as well as fostering innovation and promoting and sustaining specialist engineering talent. 
In his previous career, Paul became the Director General, Science and Technology at the Ministry of Defence in 2006, responsible for the technical direction, prioritisation and out-sourcing of the UK's £500m annual investment in Defence S&T. 
In 1996 he was appointed Managing Director Roke Manor Research, at that time owned by Siemens.

Richard is the Commercial Director for Composite Metal Technology with a background in engineering management, technology commercialisation and strategic market development in fast paced performance environments. Richard is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE). He holds an MBA from Warwick University’s Business School. Previous experience includes niche automotive, motorsport and new technology ventures. 

Graeme specializes in delivering large and complex Value Governance assignments, using Business Architecture, Strategic Governance, Portfolio Management and Benefits Realisation approaches. Graeme has a first degree in Computing Science and a Masters in Business Administration. Graeme has successfully used his experience and knowledge of both business and technology to successfully deliver IT enabled change for many organisations. Graeme is the Fujitsu thought leader on managing Service Orientated Architecture enabled business change programs. Outside of work, Graeme has just finished building his own house and is now starting to train, once again, for the next London Marathon.