Emerging Technologies Competition: Judges

John Conti-Ramsden, Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry

John is a senior manager in the Strategy Team at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), now working part time on delivery of materials innovation. Until recently John was director of the Knowledge Centre Materials Chemistry (KCMC) at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and prior to that had 25 years’ experience in industrial R&D, technology and business management.

John started his industrial career in the ICI Corporate Laboratory, subsequently working for a number of ICI and Zeneca businesses in the UK, Holland and USA. During this time he was the technical lead on the Avecia Strategic Research Programme, and led the industry team that established the Organic Materials Innovation Centre in Manchester.

Jo Slota-Newson, IQ Capital

Jo Slota-Newson is a venture capital investor at IQ Capital, investing in early stage and growth ventures across deep technology sectors.
Jo has worked in technology commercialisation for 15 years, in technical, commercial and investment roles. She has experience working with high growth technology businesses in the advanced materials, electronics, photonics, cleantech, industrial engineering, medical technology and software sectors.

Jo started her career as a research scientist in nanotechnology and applied electronic materials at the University of Cambridge, and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she also lectured in biomedical engineering and renewable energy technologies. She has also served as CTO for an early stage photovoltaics company, and director of operations for an online equity investment platform focussed on the Life Sciences and Biotech sectors.

Jo holds an MA, MSci and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation

Jeremy Compton, Givaudan

Jeremy Compton is the Global Head of Science and Technology - Fragrances at Givaudan. With over 30 years experience in the Fragrance and Flavours industry since graduating in Chemistry he has had a diverse global career with significant management positions in commercial, development and research functions and has held senior management positions in the Fragrances, Flavours and the Fragrance Ingredients businesses.

He is passionate about the positive impact Fragrance can have on consumers lives and how research into new materials, formulations, methods and forms of delivery can make this true.

In addition to the UK he has lived and worked in Brazil, Indonesia, France, the United States and Singapore and is now based in Kemptthal, Switzerland.

Kevin Matthews, Scott Bader

Kevin is Group CEO of Scott Bader Company Ltd, a speciality polymers business, and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Vectura plc, a listed specialist contract development business. Kevin has more than 25 years’ experience in senior management roles in the chemical, technology and pharmaceutical sectors.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Kevin has a strong interest in commercialising technology. He has previously held CEO roles at technology companies including Itaconix plc, an AIM listed biobased polymers business, Isogenica, an antibody drug discovery company and Oxonica plc, an advanced materials business.

Previously, Kevin served as a Non-Executive Director and Remuneration Committee chair of Low & Bonar plc, a FTSE listed performance materials business and Elementis plc, a FTSE 250 specialty chemicals business. He also served as a Non-Executive Director of Cellectricon AB, a Swedish biotechnology company dedicated to drug discovery and research in the areas of chronic pain and neurodegenerative disease.

Ellen Norman, RSSL

Ellen is the Lead for Safety and Regulatory Service at  Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL).  As a service provider RSSL needs to be agile and adaptive to the market needs ensuring the capabilities match client expectation on quality and cost. She also coordinates major investigative projects covering a wide variety of issues including contamination, adulteration, developing new analytical techniques and troubleshooting product failures.

She originally joined RSSL in 2007, having previously worked for 10 years at Brewing Research International (now part of Campden BRI). Throughout her career she has had a variety of responsibilities including running training courses, research, surveillance and government funded projects. She has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham.

RSSL: ‘’Reading Scientific Services Limited (RSSL) is a global leader at the forefront of scientific analysis, consultancy, product development and training, serving the food, drink and consumer goods industries as well pharmaceutical and healthcare providers. For over 30 years we have been helping world leading companies and SMEs to develop and supply products that are safe, innovative, of the highest quality and meet the demands of legislation and consumers.

We are looking for innovative solutions which support our strategic growth needs and to create partnerships where everyone involved succeeds. We are interested in emerging technologies which in can radically improve our analysis offering or give new avenues for our product innovation, especially in the realms of healthy living, for example in helping us develop new rapid methods of analysis, or the next generation of clean label food ingredients.

Steve Dobson, Nexeon Ltd 

Steve is a Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. After a 40-year career in the chemical industry, Steve retired from full-time work last year and returned to the UK, having lived the previous 31 years in Germany, Singapore, Belgium, South Korea and Taiwan.

For the last ten years, Steve was Head of the Electronic Chemicals division of Solvay SA, a business which grew more than tenfold under his leadership to around 250M USD turnover, with 14 operating plants all over the world and in which commercializing new technologies and materials for the semiconductor, display, battery and PV industries played a key role, including working with a number of start-ups and spin-out companies.

Steve holds various degrees and postgraduate diplomas from the University of Nottingham, Manchester Metropolitan University, MIT Sloan Business School, INSEAD and FT Pearson and presently serves in a number of part-time roles including as a Non-Executive Director in Nexeon Ltd, a Non-Executive Director in Tullis Russell Group Ltd, a member of the Governance Board in the IChemE and a Governor and Council member at the University of Chester.

Aldo Guiducci, bp

Aldo is the Discipline Management Lead for Investigational Analysis in bp’s Applied Sciences. The team he leads is responsible for non-routine analysis, providing solutions to complex technical problems for the business.

He helped formulate the materials science strategy for the company, and manages the EPSRC ICASE allocation process within bp. He has a strong track record of developing new technologies within the company, and is a past winner of the bp-Tallow Chandlers’ Award for Excellence in the Innovation and Application of Technology.

Aldo has 20 years’ experience of working in chemical sciences, including chemical R&D (Shell International Chemicals B.V), consultancy work in mass spectrometry and forensic science (M-Scan Ltd.) and a broad portfolio of technology activity within bp.

Mark Selby, Ceres Power

Dr. Selby is Chief Innovation Officer at Ceres where he is looking for the next generation of clean technology leaders to build partnerships that accelerate their route-to-market, improving their probability of success and lowering the barriers to commercialisation.

Mark's goal is to build collaborations with progressive companies to solve hard science and engineering problems to get world-changing science out of the lab and into their products actually changing the world. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Geetha Srinivasan, PETRONAS

Dr. Geetha Srinivasan as an applied chemist with 22 years of research experience is passionate about sustainable chemistry, currently with PETRONAS as a Technical Lead in R&D Chemistry. Richly experienced in leading and directing research and development at the interface between academia and industry with a strong innovation record of technologies.

Recipient of several awards including the outstanding women in science award from L’Oreal-UNESCO-Royal Society in 2012 for her work on ionic liquids in biomedical applications.

This was followed by three Institute of Chemical Engineering – IChemE awards and Don Nicklin Medal in 2013 as a key researcher in an environmental mitigation project dealing with toxic heavy metal removal from petrochemical streams, showcased by RSC as one of the 175 faces of Chemistry, recipient of Rising Star in Science and Engineering Category Award UK in 2018.

She has mentored and supervised numerous doctorates at different stages of their careers.

Rory Back, NSG

Rory Back is the NSG Group’s R&D Incubator Technical Manager. The Incubator is a dedicated R&D resource for building partnerships with start-ups, global companies, and academic institutions. Its purpose is to enable early-stage innovation to find new methods and products for glass technology, relating to Architecture, Automotive, and Solar Power applications.

He joined NSG in 2015 after studying Chemistry at Durham University. He began as a Technologist in the Thin Film Technology department, developing nanocoatings for advanced optical and surface-functional properties.

Jessica Jones, Cargill

Jess is the Applications Team Leader for the Cargill Bioindustrial Energy Technologies team. The UK Energy Technologies application team focusses on delivering tailor-made solutions to complex customer problems within the automotive and industrial lubricants sector.

Jess started her industrial career at Croda as a research scientist within the synthesis team, subsequently working in a number of roles across the UK synthesis group she joined the Energy Technologies team in 2020. Following the acquisition of Croda’s Performance Technologies business she joined Cargill in July 2022 within the Bioindustrial group. Jess holds an MCHEM from the University of Liverpool and PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Nottingham.

Julie Dimakou, PA Consulting Group

Julie is a Management Consultant Chemist at PA Consulting’s Global Innovation Centre in Cambridge. Bringing 25 years’ experience in manufacturing, technology and innovation in the Food and Drinks sector, she is responsible for leading innovation programs from concept creation to commercialisation as well as advising start-ups and multinational corporations on growth strategies and Intellectual Property.

Julie has invented and patented novel products and processes, as well as novel home-compostable packaging films. She started her career with rheology, cereal science, meat and fat replacers. She subsequently worked for Foss, creating end-to-end analytical chemistry solutions enabling businesses to run intelligent data-driven high yield processes before moving to a start-up as CTO. During her career she has worked with dairy, bakery products, oils, wine, juice, beer, coffee and functional ingredients.

Imran Afzal, Worth the Squeeze

Imran is a free-lance consultant and board level advisor to start-ups in the foods and beverages space.

He has held product category roles at Tesco and at Sainsbury’s, where he helped managed a diverse range of products worth in excess of £200 million annually. He was also at ASDA as their Head of Quality, delivering the largest private label consumer testing program in UK history. He then joined the Board of a start-up creating gluten and dairy free products for retail and foodservice customers, where he led the creation of a factory, and set the R&D agenda resulting in a range of award-winning products. At PepsiCo he led strategic academic partnerships and also led the company’s engagement in the European KIC – EIT Food, an endeavour to transform the food sector, in collaboration with a wide cross-section of partners such as universities, research groups, start-ups and other companies to source and successfully deliver on strategic opportunities in the food and beverage spaces.

He is passionate about scaling start-ups and seeing transformational technology commercialised profitably. 

Tony Gough, Innospec

Tony Gough is Director of Innovation for Sustainability at Innospec and is responsible for identifying routes for making Innospec’s Performance Chemicals portfolio of products free of virgin fossil-derived materials and making their manufacturing processes more efficient to increase their sustainability profiles.

Tony has a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry and has worked in R&D/technical roles for 35 years, mainly within the personal-care product industry, but also spent several years in homecare and industrial products areas. Prior to joining Innospec, Tony held management/senior-management roles at Unilever, Alberto-Culver, COSi, Surfachem and ISP/Ashland; has numerous patents and publications, and has a track record of innovation and successful major product launches. He is also President of the IFSCC, is a past-President of the UK’s Society of Cosmetic Scientists and is also currently President and Chair of the executive committee of CESIO. Tony is also a Chartered Chemist (CChem) and has been a Fellow (FRSC) of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2011.

Susan Brench, Akemi Associates

Since founding Akemi Associates in 2018 Susan has successfully established a portfolio of interests. Building on the foundations of over 30 years' experience in the manufacturing sector; commercial management, stakeholder engagement, marketing and international business development. Throughout her career Susan has worked with clients across the globe including Europe, the USA, and Japan. Her expertise is derived primarily from the chemical manufacturing sector and she has also worked for 2 major UK financial institutions.

A Physical Natural Sciences – Chemical Engineering graduate from the University of Cambridge, Susan passionately believes in the importance of innovation in science & engineering, as applied to the manufacturing sector, for building a more sustainable society.
Mentoring of start-up businesses is a particular focus. In 2019 Susan took on the challenge of driving the former University of York green chemistry spin out, Starbons Ltd, towards commercial success by taking on the role of CEO. She is also on the Advisory Board of Women in Chemicals, and seeks to promote diversity and visibility to attract women and girls into STEM careers.

Matilda Bingham, Concept Life Sciences

Matilda Bingham is VP of Science at Concept Life Sciences and is a medicinal chemist with over 20 years’ experience of working in the pharmaceutical R&D sector in ‘large pharma’ (Organon, Schering-Plough, Merck), Biotech (Redx Pharma) and currently with a CRO (Concept Life Sciences). Her early career was spent working in CNS therapeutic areas where her research focussed on design strategies for getting small molecule therapeutics across the blood brain barrier.

More recently as Head of Research and Operations at Redx Pharma she was involved in the discovery and development of oncology and fibrosis clinical and pre-clinical candidates including the porcupine inhibitor RXC004 and BTK inhibitor pirtobrutinib.

Matilda is currently VP Science overseeing multiple programs covering the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and petrochemicals sectors. Matilda is a member of the SCI fine chemicals group and has authored over 40 papers, patents and publications including the RSC book “Drug Discovery for Psychiatric Disorders.

William Goundry, AstraZeneca

William Goundry is a Principal Scientist in Early Chemical Development at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield Campus. Following his DPhil in organic synthesis at Oxford University and Post Doc at Indiana University Will joined AZ at Macclesfield in 2006. He has developed a strong track record in process design and scale up working from grams to tonnes, including Biocatalysis and flow chemistry.

Will is currently AstraZeneca’s scientific lead for the early phase scale-up of New Modalities, including antibody drug conjugates (ADC), peptides, and nucleotide based drugs. In this role he is developing the commercial routes and processes for ADC payloads, whilst directing the manufacture of clinical trial material.

He has a strong innovation track record including winning an internal AstraZeneca technology competition through delivering a pitch. He is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Manchester in the Division of Pharmacy, and an industrial lead for both the Centre for Biocatalytic Manufacture of New Modalities and the Centre for Doctoral training (CDT) in integrated catalysis. William is both a Chartered Chemist (CChem) and a Fellow (FRSC) of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Victoria Steadman, Sai Life Sciences

Dr. Vicky Steadman is Vice President Business Development and Integrated Partnerships at Sai Life Sciences. A medicinal chemist by background, Vicky has nearly 20 years industry experience in Big Pharma and within CROs. She is named on over 25 peer reviewed publications and patents including a Nature paper, and has worked in the therapeutic areas of anti-virals, antibiotics and neuroscience. Vicky has a BSc in chemistry from Imperial College and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Ian Tooley, Croda

Ian Tooley is Vice President of Chemistry at Croda, where he leads the Global synthesis teams on sustainable new molecule development. He also is a member of the Sustainability Committee, where his activities are focused on increasing the biobased content of Crodas’ ingredients portfolio and reducing downstream scope 3 emissions. Ian has held various leadership roles in Croda, spanning Personal Care and Home Care, as Research and Technology Director. He joined Croda in 2006 from ICI – Uniqema, following 6 years of research into modified nanoparticles for solar Care applications.

Prior to this, he was a Research Scientist at Elementis Pigments. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 2002 for his research on the surface characterisation of TiO2 nanoparticles. He has published in several leading scientific journals and is involved in a wide range of research and regulatory groups.

Simon Turner, Alacrita

Simon has over the past three decades focused on the development and commercialisation of life science technologies in early-stage companies, as an entrepreneur, executive, venture capital investor and advisor.

After an early career as a bench chemist at Eli Lilly and ICI Agrochemicals and 10 years as a strategic management consultant to blue chip life science companies, he became the first CEO of University of Cambridge spin-out Biotica Technology, an early-stage venture-capital backed drug-discovery company based on microbial genetic engineering, which he led for five years.
He has since been involved as an investor and advisor to research-based life science companies and IP owners in two investment firms and more recently as Managing Partner of boutique biopharma management consultancy Alacrita. In the latter capacity, he has been involved in identifying and advancing several bioscience spin-out opportunities. He was also a Non-Executive Director at Green Biologics Ltd, a biobutanol company, and is a founder director of Foothold America, a business which assists UK companies to establish a presence in the USA.

Simon has an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.