2018 Speakers

Over the past thirty years the UK has become the world centre for the R&D and innovation needed to succeed in world motorsport. A unique business cluster of 4000 companies has chosen to make the internationally-recognised  'Motorsport Valley ®' it's home.

Chris became Chief Executive of the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) in 1998, since when he has driven it to become the world's leading business organisation for the high -performance engineering and motorsport entertainment industry, Corporate membership includes team from Formula One, NASCAR, World Rally, World Sportscars alongside major manufacturers, service suppliers and circuit operators.

Member's sales exceed £5 billion of which they invest over £1 billion in R&D in their race for success; a ratio double that of pharmaceutical and ten times automotive.

In 2000, Chris created the MIA's Energy-Efficient Motorsport cross-sector programme which has opened significant opportunities for motorsport companies in the energy-efficient, lightweight, low-carbon business in many new business sectors.

Chris, a former Roosevelt Scholar, was a successful sportscar driver, team owner and race-series promotor whilst building his multil-million pound international sporting goods distribution group.

He is  Fellow of the Motor Industry and the Institute of Directors, co-author of 'Motorsport Going Global: the challenges facing the world's  motorsport industry" published by Palgrave MacMillan and a member of the British Racing Drivers Club. 

Please visit the MIA website www.the-mia.com

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. 

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. 

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.

Paul Haimes is the Vice President of Pre-Sales for PTC in EMEA. In this role he is responsible for leading teams of Pre-Sales Business Developers and Technical Specialists across PTC’s major geographies within Europe. 

Experience 

After graduation, Mr. Haimes worked in Product Development for the Power Tool industry.  

Working with customers throughout EMEA, Mr. Haimes has over 20 years of Product Development experience.  His key areas of expertise are Computer Aided Engineering, Product Lifecycle Management and more recently, Smart Connected Products and the Internet of Things. 

Education 

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.

Leigh Holloway has over 25 years’ experience in the field of LCA, sustainable product design and the circular economy. He began his career researching the implications of product design and related legislation and later moved into business consultancy in the same fields. In 2003 he co-founded Eco3, a specialist consultancy that works with both multi-national corporations and SMEs to deliver LCA and carbon foot printing studies as well as sustainable design projects and producer responsibility advice and interpretation.  

Leigh has developed bespoke carbon footprinting and LCA tools for a number of clients as well as undertaking a wide range of LCA and low carbon design studies using both these bespoke tools and commercially available software. The studies have included electronic products, furniture, building materials and packaging systems.  

His work in producer responsibility and related environmental/CSR involves assisting companies to identify which laws apply to them, interpreting the legal requirements, and explaining what it means in practical terms, then developing policies, training and implementation programmes that ensure compliance, whilst minimising the administrative burden and costs. 

Leigh has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Ecodesign. He is a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. 

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. 

Martyn studied Economics BSc at Newcastle University. 

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.

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.