Yorkshire Innovation Council Members

Key stakeholders from the region make up Yorkshire Innovation. There are business leaders, vice-chancellors and representatives from regional and national government bodies.

Richard Gregory OBE – Chair of Yorkshire Innovation

Richard is a non-executive director of National Australia Group Europe Ltd and Clydesdale Bank PLC and carries the title of Yorkshire Bank chair on the board of NAGE.
He is also a non-executive director of Imagesound PLC, Chair of Chesterfield Royal Hospital Foundation Trust, a member of the Foundation Trust Network board, and Chair of Science City York.

He is a former managing director of Yorkshire Television which he left in 2001, after a 21 year career in programming and broadcasting, during which time he gained a strong interest in innovation in technology and working practices.

His other previous roles include deputy chairman of Yorkshire Forward, chair of the Yorkshire International Business Convention, chair of Sheffield Hallam University, non exec director of Sheffield University Enterprises Ltd and national board member of Business in the Community and Yorkshire chair.

He has been chair of Yorkshire Innovation since 2006 and represents the region on the Technology Strategy Board’s strategic advisory committee.

Professor Brian Cantor – Vice-Chancellor of the University of York

Brian Cantor is acknowledged as a world authority on materials manufacturing and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Christ’s College, Cambridge University.  He has worked at universities including Sussex, Oxford and York, and for companies including Alcan, Elsevier, General Electric and Rolls-Royce.

He has published over 300 papers and books and is on the ISI List of Most Cited Researchers.  He founded the Begbroke Science Park at Oxford, and led the $1b Heslington East campus development at York.  He has advised organisations such as NASA, the EU and the Shanghai, UK and German governments.  He has been on the board of many companies and agencies, including Isis Innovation, the Kobe Institute, the National Science Learning Centre, Yorkshire Innovation and the Worldwide Universities Network.

Martin Bailey – Chief Innovation Officer, NG Bailey Limited

Martin Bailey, is a third-generation member of the Bailey family.  The family business, NG Bailey, was started by Martin’s grandfather in 1921 and is a major company in the construction and maintenance industry specialising in building services.

After graduating from Durham University in 1980 with a B.Sc (Hons) in Engineering Science, his career began with the company as student apprentice, progressing to Project Engineer and then Divisional Director. He moved into Engineering and IT Departments as Director before being appointed Managing Director in 2002.

Martin’s current role is Chief Innovation Officer for the group, taking responsibility for innovation, facilitating best practice, business improvement, market solutions and new ventures, which are critical to the company’s medium and long-term strategic ambitions.  Martin also takes responsibility for Company Secretariat, Technical, and SHEQ (Safety, Health Environment and Quality).

Outside the group, he is Immediate Past President for Electrical Contractors Association, a Director of Institute of Family Business and a Council member for Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association, Yorkshire Innovation and CBI Regional Forum.

Adrian Belton – Chief Executive, Defra’s Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera)

Adrian Belton has wide-ranging leadership experience at Board level in both the private and public sectors.  His affinity with Yorkshire stems from being educated in Sheffield, and returning to the city 20 years later, as Barclays Director for South Yorkshire.

A maths graduate from Durham University, Adrian joined the fast-track career programme in Barclays and held various senior roles. These included advising and lending money to hi-tech companies, and leading a Board-level strategy review in the mid 1990s on the future of banking in the face of the anticipated digital, chip, and internet revolution.  He remained in the North when Bradford & Bingley recruited him in 2000 to become their first Chief Risk Officer to assist in their flotation and conversion.

His public sector career started in 2004 in local government, as a Chief Officer in a major unitary authority, leading the modernisation of service deliver. He then moved to Natural England where he was Executive Director of Operations, having led the merger programme to establish the new NDPB based in Sheffield. Adrian is also a non-executive director and Chair of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), and a Board member for the Association of Chief Executives (ACE).

Ian Williams – Executive Director of Policy and Representation, Leeds Chamber ofCommerce and Industry

Barry Dodd OBE – Chairman and CEO, GSM Group

Barry Dodd began working life as a graduate trainee with ICI and spent five years within ICI management working in London, New York and Teesside.  He left when the urge to work for himself got the better of him.

He founded his first company, GSM Graphic Arts Ltd as a two person start-up.  Through organic growth and 15 acquisitions within the last 15 years, GSM has grown to become the largest manufacturer of industrial graphic products in Europe. In the UK, GSM Group runs four manufacturing plants and a software house.  GSM has taken part in the Dti Inside UK Enterprise visit programme that showcased best practice.  The Thirsk plant won the IUKE best SME award in year 2000.  The Group has won many other awards and appears in several best practice videos.

A typical serial entrepreneur, Barry is also Chairman of Addpower Technologies, a high tech start up which has developed an instantly rechargeable battery and Varlink, a fast growing distributor of mobile computing solutions.

Barry was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to UK business.

Public sector activities include:
Board member Yorkshire Forward.
Chair of  CO2Sense Yorkshire
Chair of Yorkshire Universities Proof of Commercial Concept fund.
Board member of Yorkshire Innovation, the Regional Science Council

Simon Hill – Executive Director, Business Development

In a career spanning 20 years, Simon Hill has worked across the breadth of business environments, from fledgling start-ups to established big players. He’s faced the challenges and enjoyed the successes of being in business, and brings that experience to bear as Yorkshire Forward’s executive director of business.

Prior to joining Yorkshire Forward, Simon was employed by Kostal UK from 1995-2005, progressing from sales account manager to sales manager. He became MD in 2001 and was responsible for a manufacturing, sales and development operation with a £43 million turnover and a 450-strong workforce.

At Yorkshire Forward, Simon heads up a team responsible for delivering business growth across Yorkshire and Humber, including the expansion of European markets and additional inward investment. He believes passionately in the future growth of industry nationwide and has first-hand knowledge of what Yorkshire Forward has to offer regional business after Kostal received grant aid for its initial investment and then expansion in 1995, and along with support for training he has been involved in the RDA’s inward investment role and has given talks to get other companies interested in investing in the region.

Professor Colin Whitehouse – Deputy Chief Executive, The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

STFC is one of the UK’s Research Councils and is responsible for the construction and subsequent management and operation of ultra-large scale interdisciplinary science facilities used by all the other Research Councils, UK and International scientists. Colin is also Head of the STFC Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and also STFC Director of Campus Strategy responsible for continuing to drive forward the strategic vision for the two new national STFC-based Science and Innovation Campuses at Daresbury and Harwell announced in the March 2006 Budget Statement. Colin’s personal field of research relates to advanced semiconductor materials, nano-devices and nanotechnology, and has spent significant career periods in the electronics industry, leading UK Government Laboratories and in senior positions in the University sector.

Colin is also a Board member of STFC Innovations, STFC’s commercial exploitation company, and of Spectrum Ltd, which oversees the allocation of Seedcorn Funding to drive forward very important new company formation opportunities arising from the majority of the UK’s Public Sector Research Establishments. He is also a Board member of the UK’s R&D Society which promotes science and innovation and also on the North West Science Council, Yorkshire Innovation Council, the Oxford Economic Partnership, science Vale UK and Didcot First. Colin also continues as a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Materials, Mining and Mineralogy.

Throughout his industrial, University and public sector career, Colin has been very active in driving forward the UK’s science and technology skills and outreach agendas and has contributed personally at numerous related promotion events over the years. He currently chairs the NW Skills Advisory Group which advises NWDA’s skills policies, and is also a member of the STEMNET national Board.

Helen West – Chief Executive, Business Link Yorkshire

Helen was the Chief Executive of Business Link York and North Yorkshire, from its beginning in 1995 through to April 2008, and was instrumental in leading it to become one of the top performing Business Links in the country.

Born in Harrogate, Helen graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Psychology.  Returning to Yorkshire, Helen worked in a variety of roles in occupational psychology, personnel and training, including working as a Careers Officer in Bradford with the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative and as a Senior Psychologist for the MSC in Sheffield.  Before her work with Business Link, Helen spent five years with North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) as Head of Strategy and Development.

Chris Middleton – Managing Director, EJOT UK Ltd

Born and educated in Leicestershire, Chris has spent the last 32 years working in the engineering manufacturing sector. He began his career working in and later managing an R & D facility, designing, innovating and supplying products to aerospace, defence and general engineering companies worldwide.

In the late 1980’s Chris moved into a Sales and Marketing role, becoming the International Sales Director of the FKI Cutting Tool Division, which included the companies Clarkson Tools and Osborn Mushet Tools.

In the 1990’s Chris moved to Yorkshire becoming Managing Director of the Brooke Cutting Tools Group with four manufacturing sites in the UK and two abroad.

In 2002 he became Managing Director of Gripple Ltd based in Sheffield, a company that invests heavily in innovation, patenting on average ten new ideas per year and exporting 85% of its products. The company’s product profile extends to the construction, agricultural and viticultural markets and in 2003 Gripple won awards for innovation and for the best SME. This was followed in 2004 with the Best Factory in Britain Award, presented by the prestigious IMECHE for Manufacturing Excellence.
Chris now works as Managing Director for EJOT UK Ltd, a company based in Leeds that manufactures and supplies specialised solution based fasteners to the Automotive, Construction and Medical industries.