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Meet the CENSIS team
Our diverse team at CENSIS has expertise in engineering, project management, business engagement, finance, marketing and administration.
You will find email addresses on each profile if you would like to contact a team member directly.
Meet our Board
Our Governing Board plays a strategic role in our aim of increasing technology innovation and adoption across Scotland. Comprising experienced industrialists and leading academics, the Board has accountability for all financial and funding activities.
The CENSIS host institution and administrative hub is the University of Glasgow. Roles in CENSIS are advertised and managed by the University of Glasgow.
All vacancies are advertised by the University of Glasgow and on the CENSIS website.
Paul is an entrepreneurial technologist with a substantial track record for applying innovation in the defence and security sectors spanning academia, government, SMEs and international PLCs.
Paul’s early career was with UK MoD, then with QinetiQ where he held a number of leadership roles including Technical Director of the Sensors and Avionics business and then CEO of QinetiQ Inc. Subsequently, Paul has founded and ran an SME and then was the inaugural Executive Director Innovation and Investment at the UK Defence Solutions Centre.
Currently, Paul has founded and run a private sector incubator and held a number of advisory roles. His business skills include leadership, substantial international P&L experience, capital raising and realising value from technology.
Paul is married with three teenage children. Easy conversation topics are ice hockey, working cocker spaniels and rusty classic cars.
Dr Graham Kerr has over twenty years’ experience in New Product Development and Engineering Management.
As a Post-Doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow, Graham worked on laser interferometry for gravitational wave detection developing laser stabilisation techniques.
His first foray into industry was with Babcock Energy Systems as a Senior Electronics and Instrumentation Engineer developing controls solutions for the Energy Sector. He was a founding member of Motorola Manufacturing Systems in Livingston and spent ten years developing factory automation solutions for manufacturing sectors such as cellular communications, semiconductor manufacture and automotive electronics. As R&D Manager for Texol Technical Solutions he led the development of a number of NPI programmes including a range of gas generators for analytical laboratories.
Immediately prior to joining CENSIS, Graham spent five years managing an R&D team at FMC Technologies developing advanced sensor solutions for the Oil & Gas industry and collaborating with universities in technology development.
He holds a BSc and PhD in Physics from the University of Glasgow.
Dr Cade Wells is a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in the research and development of embedded systems. He holds an Engineering Doctorate in System Level Integration jointly awarded by the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde. He also holds an MEng in Computer System Engineering from Bangor University, Wales.
Before joining CENSIS, Cade founded and ran an engineering consultancy providing technical and business services to organisations developing electronic products and undertook forensic engineering investigations of electrical and electronic systems. He was also the Engineering Development Manager of a Scottish start-up, successfully developing and bringing to market its first innovative imaging product.
Prior to starting his own company, Cade held the position of Lead Electronics Design Engineer at the Institute for System Level Integration. In this role Cade managed the delivery of Scottish and European-funded projects providing technical support to entrepreneurs and SMEs developing new electronic products and services. He was also actively involved in wireless communication systems R&D projects and technology transfer projects introducing new imaging capabilities into companies.
Dr Stephen Milne is experienced in designing, managing, and implementing international research projects for commercial product ideas with a hardware and software focus in the medical technology sector.
Stephen obtained the European MEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Glasgow, and subsequently worked for Agilent Technologies and Freescale Semiconductor. Following this, he completed an Engineering Doctorate within the ESPRC funded Medical Devices Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Strathclyde. Subsequently, his doctoral research was awarded further international funding to test the sensor device he developed clinically and develop further clinical sensing markers. During his time as a Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde he collaborated with a range of businesses, from multinationals to university spin out companies, on a broad range of technological innovations.
Prior to joining CENSIS, Stephen attended Babson College, Boston, one of the top rated US business schools as part of Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Fellowship program. As part of the Fellowship he spent six months with the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre on a number of commercial orientated projects.
Dr Rachael Wakefield’s technical background is in materials biodeterioration and laser and LED based environmental sensing. Her broad area of interest is sensing technologies for remote and challenging environments, and for agritech and marine applications. A specialist in IP and technology transfer Rachael has over 10 years’ experience in the set up and management of collaborative R&D projects, contracts, technology licensing and university spin out company development. She understands the technical and commercial challenges from both sides of the fence as an academic researcher and as a co-founder in a technology start up.
Prior to joining CENSIS Rachael left a postdoctoral research post at RGU to explore the riskier side of technology commercialisation and co-founded a technology start up with an offshore and subsea sensing focus. She left after a few years to return to academia as a member of the research commercialisation team at the University of Aberdeen, managing five of the 10 academic teams that successfully spun out of Aberdeen during her time there. Rachael’s expertise is underpinned by applied academic research in environmental science, laser spectroscopy and optics-based sensing of materials. She holds a PhD in soil pollution microbiology from the University of Aberdeen.
Jim Cockram supports CENSIS activities in the Highlands and Islands and is based in Inverness.
Jim is the founder of a hi-tech Scottish company exploiting technology improve systems integrity. With a passion for technology and innovation, he joined CENSIS to promote the delivery of IoT-related projects to industry.
An ex-RAF Engineering Officer, Jim holds honours degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Design, is a Chartered Aerospace Engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He has over 38 years in the aerospace industry with experience in other verticals including food and drink, oil and gas and rail.
Jim’s expertise includes formulating, planning and delivering complex projects, including R&D activities, across a multi-disciplinary environment. He was an early advocate of applying lean thinking to defence organisations, with mentoring from McKinsey: this lead him to develop maintenance and data-exploitation strategies that have been employed in highly successful private and public sector business improvement projects.
Jim is an enthusiastic member, and former chairman, of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Highland branch, and is a keen advocate for Continuous Professional Development.
Siân joined CENSIS from an earlier business development role in the Scottish Sensor Systems Centre (S3C), an industry-university partnership delivering collaborative research into intelligent sensors and sensor systems. At CENSIS Siân is responsible for outreach and events planning, strategic marketing, and skills development, including CENSIS support of PhD and EngD projects in partnership with industry and universities.
Prior to joining S3C, she was the Manager of the Engineering Doctorate Centre for System Level Integration, a postgraduate research degree programme delivered jointly by the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde.
Lynda supports the CENSIS marketing, event planning and social media activities on a part-time consultancy basis. She studied Business Studies and Marketing and her career over the last 25 years has been in in the advertising, marketing and graphic design sectors.
Prior to working with CENSIS, she managed marketing for the Encompass project at the University of Glasgow and ran an events programme to encourage Scottish SMEs to be more innovative. Lynda also has specialist experience in marketing for construction, new build and education.
With a track record in innovation, Kevin is an experienced systems engineer and has spent several years as a technical lead in organisations within the Telecoms and Oil & Gas sectors.
The bulk of Kevin’s career was spent with Fujitsu as a Principal Engineer, successfully defining and developing WiMAX/4G LTE systems. Kevin was the driving force and architect behind the development of a flexible software platform that was used to host innovative applications for the optimisation of cellular and WiFi networks. At his time with Fujitsu, Kevin successfully led and delivered on many strategically important projects and is co-inventor on a number of patents of which 15 have been granted to date.
Before joining CENSIS, Kevin spent time with Aker Solutions leading the development of a wireless based condition monitoring product for the Oil & Gas sector. He also led the creation of a strategic vision for advanced capabilities of future monitoring products, focusing on overall architecture and technology direction that would best suit Aker’s business needs.
Kevin holds a BSc (Hons) in Electronic Engineering and an MSc in Wireless Communication Systems, both from Glasgow Caledonian University.
John has over 20 years’ experience in the entire product life cycle including R&D and New Product Development primarily within the Oil and Gas industry.
Starting out as an Electronic Design Engineer, John moved into System Design and Architecture before transitioning into Project Management. He has overseen multiple projects with multidisciplinary global teams covering proof of concept, prototyping, qualification and manufacturing to field deployment and support.
Before joining CENSIS, John worked with FMC Technologies (TechnipFMC) as a Programme Manager; Sercel France as a Lead Project Engineer; and Vibtech as a Principal Hardware Design Engineer where he was instrumental in growing the company from a university engaged start-up to a $60m company bought by Sercel.
John holds a BEng and MPhil in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and a number of patents for his efforts across multiple projects and companies.
Helen is an engineer with research and development experience in the defence and microelectronics sectors. Prior to CENSIS she worked as an Applications Engineer at ST Microelectronics, providing system validation, technical and application support for marketing and customers. She also spent 10 years working for SELEX Galileo developing antenna test and calibration automation process, analysis, calibration and algorithm development of electronically scanned radars.
Helen holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Glasgow and MPhil Applied Physics from the University of Strathclyde.
Dr Shrawan Jha is responsible for development projects related to sensor elements and transductance (pre-processing). An experienced semiconductor engineer and physicist, Shrawan has experience in developing sensors for application in engineering, IT, health, environmental monitoring and defence. He is also experienced in developing other electronic devices including LEDs, HFETs, and MEMS based on micro and nanotechnologies from concept to materials and devices development to applications.
Prior to joining CENSIS, Shrawan worked on a number of industrial as well as academic R&D projects. His research output in past 5 years has resulted in IP generation and contribution to ~50-research papers in top rated international journals and conferences, with a present h-factor of 10 and about 200 citations to his published work worldwide.
Shrawan has proposed, supervised and led a number of projects to success, including some that received innovation awards and interest from business. He has been a member of IEEE and Materials Research Society (MRS). Shrawan’s academic training includes Masters in Physics (Electronics and Nuclear Science), Masters in Technology (Solid-State Materials) and a PhD in Microelectronics (III-V device technology for application in telecommunication and bioelectronics). He has several awards and merits to his credit and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, City University of Hong Kong, and Imperial College London.
Norman has over 20 years’ experience of embedded software development. He started as a software engineer at Motorola Manufacturing Systems, working on robotic systems for factory automation, before moving to Pentland Systems, where he designed embedded software for Analogue I/O modules. At Honeywell Security he worked on intruder detection systems, and at Bitwise he developed software for 3G femtocell access points.
Before joining CENSIS, Norman was at FMC, working on sensing and measurement R&D projects.
He has a BSc in Physics and Astronomy and a PhD in Physics, both from the University of Glasgow.
An electronics design engineer who has spent over 25 years in industry, Steven has a wealth of experience across a range of industry sectors including computer internetworking, data/telecommunications, lab instruments and medical devices, subsea and oil and gas, and land seismic survey equipment.
His key skills are in designing circuits for microprocessor and low-power microcontroller-based applications, low-power digital sensor circuits, WiFi, BLE and NFC based circuit design, battery-powered applications including charging and charge monitoring, PCB layout, design specification and test documentation, and regulatory approvals testing and certification.
Kenny has over 15 years’ experience in embedded software engineering. He joined CENSIS in January 2020 from Honeywell Security & Fire where he worked on software for cloud connected intruder/access control systems and associated devices.
Before Honeywell, Kenny worked for the NCR Corporation in Dundee on the embedded systems that are used in the self-service financial industry.
He holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc in System Level Integration, a Master’s degree jointly awarded by the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde.
Johan is an experienced administrator with more than 15 years’ office management expertise, and joins CENSIS from a training and professional development company based on the outskirts of Glasgow.
After several years in the same post, coupled with the her youngest son starting school, Johan felt that it was time for a fresh challenge professionally. She had developed an office support structure that enables maximum support mechanisms for those working within and out with the CENSIS office.
Susan is a qualified CIMA accountant with over 15 years’ post-qualified experience.
Before joining CENSIS, Susan worked for three years as an accountancy tutor for Kaplan Financial. Prior to this she worked for seven years at Barclays Wealth where she held roles as Finance Business Partner and Financial Controller.
Susan trained as an accountant with British Telecom in London having being recruited onto their finance graduate training programme.
Diane holds an LLB (Hons) and LLM and has extensive experience working within and for the University sector. She has over 14 years’ experience in drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements between University and commercial partners, including agreements for the supply of research, service, consultancy, confidentiality, secondments, collaborations and has practical experience of state aid issues and UK / EU export controls. Diane has an excellent understanding of the challenges faced by public and private sectors and adopts a pragmatic approach. Diane is an active participant in a Scottish University’s contracts working group, a forum which has been set up to try and simplify contracts, to share best practice and find ways of reducing transactional costs across various activities / various sectors.
Prior to this, Diane worked for a micro SME which custom-designed and built compressor packages for CHP plants where she gained experience in costings, engineering sales, procurement and project management. Subsequently, after the company was acquired by a large engineering and manufacturing organisation, Diane assumed responsibility for the aftersales market including preparing quotations, managing and scheduling commissioning and maintenance activities, sourcing repairs and replacements, procurement through to packaging, customs clearance, delivery and final invoicing.
Jacqueline Redmond has over 25 years’ international experience in senior positions with energy majors, with particular expertise in risk management, business development and innovation.
She graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a PhD in Energy Economics, Jacqueline joined ScottishPower in the mid-1990s. She led the company’s risk management team as it began to grow, adapt to de-regulation, and re-define the role of a utility, latterly becoming director of corporate strategy.
In 2006, Jacqueline was appointed by Royal Dutch Shell to develop its global LNG (liquefied natural gas) strategy. She moved on to become the vice-president of technology strategy at the energy major, working with a $1.3 billion research and development (R&D) budget to find, fund, and mature innovative new energy technologies.
Following three years as Shell’s head of commercial power and senior deal lead, Jacqueline was appointed as chief risk officer at the then-UK Government owned Green Investment Bank. She continued to develop sustainable energy projects across the world with Macquarie, following its acquisition of the Green Investment Bank, where, until April 2019, she helped identify disruptive emerging technologies in the energy sector.
In addition to her role at CENSIS, Jacqueline is currently a non-executive director for the SQN Asset Finance Income Fund and an advisory board member of the University of Cambridge’s Energy Policy Research Group.
Dr Neil Bowering is Director of Professional Services, Science and Engineering within the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow.
Dr Ian Brotherston has been Head of Public Sector Innovation Strategy at Innovate UK (part of UKRI) since May 2019 and he was Head of Government Engagement from July 2017.
Ian ensures that Innovate UK informs and is informed by innovation policy and strategy development across the UK and leads on the relationships with the Devolved Governments and their agencies. His other responsibilities include leading for Innovate UK on relationships with all UK Government Departments and other national stakeholders such as CBI, FSB, IoD, RAEng. Ian has overall responsibility for Innovate UK’s delivery of the SBRI and GovTech programmes and he also leads for UKRI on the BEIS lead Regulators Pioneer Fund and the development of regulation.
Ian joined Innovate UK in February 2015 as KTP Programme Manager. During his spell as KTP Programme Manager Ian led both a major operational overall and strategic realignment of the programme.
Prior to Innovate UK Ian was Head of Enterprise at Heriot-Watt University. At Heriot-Watt University, Ian was responsible for the commercialisation, knowledge exchange, technology transfer and enterprise creation executives and managers responsible for the protection and commercialisation of Heriot-Watt owned IP. Among other roles, Ian also oversaw the creation of a new business development team to deliver the university’s business development across all faculties.
His commercial background includes spells working for defence and security technology giant QinetiQ and Ionic Polymer Solutions, a chemical start-up company which developed novel high-temperature proton conductive membranes for fuel cells.
Caroline Gorski is Group Director of R2 Data Labs, charged with developing the strategy and implementation of data innovation technologies and capabilities for Rolls-Royce that lead to new insights, new solutions and new business models, generating substantial value for the Group. R2 Data Labs was formed in 2017 to be a catalyst and accelerator for Rolls-Royce data innovation.
R2 Data Labs works across the Rolls-Royce Group as federated community of practice. Working collaboratively with Business Units, we identify, test, prove and accelerate new technologies and business models that best position Rolls-Royce to adopt, deploy and industrialise market-leading data innovation, creating change and positive disruption. We develop and mature the new data innovation expertise capabilities and digital first culture needed to achieve Rolls-Royce’s digital strategy.
R2 Data Labs are specialist practitioners, who create vibrant communities of practice in the pioneering capabilities and tools that are critical to accelerate data innovation and raising Rolls-Royce’s digital readiness levels,
Having graduated from Oxford University with an MA, Caroline has spent 25 years analysing, advising and managing strategic change at the leading edge of technology development, including as Head of IoT and Digital Manufacturing for Digital Catapult, part of the UK Government’s innovation support network. Currently, she holds NED and Board Advisory positions for CENSIS and Sensing Feeling as well as roles advising and supporting regional and national governments around the world in Digital Strategy development.
Born in Scotland, Genoffir is General Counsel and VP of Innovation Partnership for the Life Science Solutions Group of Thermo Fisher Scientific and is currently based in Southern California.
Genoffir has over 20 years’ experience in deal making and negotiating with both academic and industrial partners with the intent of accelerating innovation and increasing access to innovative solutions to customers. Her deal experience includes complex M&A deals, licensing, innovation and other strategic partnerships across Europe and Asia as well as the UK and the US.
Digital and cloud enablement technologies are a strategic focus for Genoffir and Thermo Fisher Scientific, in addition to continuing innovation in its core life sciences portfolio.
Prof Stephen McLaughlin BSc, PhD, FREng, FRSE was born in Clydebank, Scotland in 1960. He received the B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 1981 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1990.
From 1981 to 1984 he was a Development Engineer in industry involved in the design and simulation of integrated thermal imaging and fire control systems. From 1984 to 1986 he worked on the design and development of high frequency data communication systems. In 1986 he joined the Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh as a research fellow where he studied the performance of linear adaptive algorithms in high noise and nonstationary environments. In 1988 he joined the academic staff at Edinburgh, and from 1991 until 2001 he held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to study nonlinear signal processing techniques. In 2002 he was awarded a personal Chair in Electronic Communication Systems at the University of Edinburgh. In October 2011 he joined Heriot-Watt University as a Professor of Signal Processing and Head of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
His research interests lie in the fields of adaptive signal processing and nonlinear dynamical systems theory and their applications to biomedical, energy and communication systems. Prof McLaughlin is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and of the IEEE.
Anne is Head of Digital Economy at Glasgow City Council and is focused on ensuring Glasgow is competitively placed digitally to embrace opportunities and confront challenges in the city. This includes attracting and encouraging investment in digital infrastructure as well as working with city partners to enhance and grow digital skills, improving the digital maturity of Glasgow’s businesses, supporting the already flourishing tech sector in the city, and increasing the digital participation of Glasgow’s citizens in economic, civic and social life.
Her previous roles at Glasgow City Council include the City Deal Programme and Programme Manager for the development of the Glasgow Operations Centre as part of the Future City Demonstrator.
Anne is an experienced manager with a background of achievement in management consultancy, business change and project delivery across a wide range of industry sectors in the UK and mainland Europe. Graduating from Heriot-Watt University with a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, she started her career at PA Consulting Group working throughout the UK and Europe with finance, oil and gas and public sector clients. Anne moved to Luxembourg, working for a Eurobond clearing house before returning to London and, subsequently, Glasgow where she worked in financial services and then with Scottish Enterprise.
Stuart is an international business executive who brings 12 years of experience working globally within the technology sector.
He was most recently Head of Vodafone UK’s Regional Business IoT division and his passion for using technology to deliver positive outcomes for society, organisations and our planet will be of tangible value to the CENSIS board.
Howard left Oxford with a First in Engineering, a fiancé and a top 50 finish in the National Cyclocross Champs. He is still passionate about all three; his fiancé is now his wife and he still races a full season of cyclocross every year. He’s just as competitive, only slower. In between, Howard did a lot of control system engineering and project management in a range of industries (nuclear, steel, water, off-shore), as well as management and project engineering consultancy for organisations like British Energy and ScottishPower.
Howard also founded, grew and sold a software development company, where he built a highly motivated team of 13 engineers, skilled in the agile software devops lifecycle of cloud based web apps. Developments included a full logistics platform, a warehouse management product, and various custom applications in a variety of other sectors. Now Howard helps individuals and companies wherever he can best add value based on 35 years of experience; whether that’s simplifying technical complexity, understanding team dynamics and motivation, agile software development processes, or just general business process re-engineering.
Technology interests him, particularly anything to do with the Internet of Things.
Evelyn Toma is Director of Strategy at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt Nanofabrication Centre.
Evelyn spent the first half of her career working in the semiconductor industry for Motorola eventually running the European Business Unit responsible for the design and supply of products to the Industrial and Consumer sector. She then moved on to work for Scottish Enterprise for a few years before going back into the private sector to take on a number of senior management roles including Managing Director of Re-Tek, a secure computer re-manufacturing company that won Scottish Business of the Year at the Women in Business Awards in 2017.
Based in Amsterdam, Sophie is the co-founder of GumCare companion – a tech start-up focused on the dental care market. She previously held roles in the oil and gas industry in Dubai with DNO ASA – the Norwegian operator – and in Iraq, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Japan with Royal Dutch Shell.
Sophie’s skills and experience were recently recognised by her peers when she was included in the NextWomen to Watch 2020, which highlights the 50 most promising female company founders. She will bring a broad set of experience and skills to the CENSIS board, including in business development and innovation.
Dr Andy Ward has designed, built and worked with in-building location systems for over twenty years. He studied at Cambridge University, receiving a MA in Computer Science and a PhD in ‘Sensor-driven Computing’, and led research into location technology at AT&T Laboratories Cambridge from 1998 to 2002. In 2002, he co-founded Ubisense Limited, one of the first companies to commercialize UWB in-building tracking products, and as CTO he now leads technology planning and development for Ubisense. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Chartered Engineer, and was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2015 Silver Medal for his contributions to this field.
Gary is a Senior Policy/Analysis Officer with the Research and Innovation team at Scottish Funding Council.
Research and Innovation at SFC leads on research and knowledge exchange (KE), including the development of the Research Excellence Framework for Scotland, researcher career development and the Innovation Centres. This department also manages relationships with NHS Education Scotland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig and evaluates major investments.
Stuart works for the University of Glasgow as their Head of Finance for University Services. Stuart represents the University as an observer of the CENSIS Board.
Stuart brings a wealth of knowledge of University finances and operations. Since joining the University in 2013 Stuart has held seven different jobs across University Finance in that time. These include roles in three of the five University colleges, financial accounting, management accounting and Finance Manager for the University’s Singapore subsidiary.
Prior to joining the University, Stuart worked for Ernst & Young in their assurance department and Learning & Teaching Scotland as Finance & Project Accountant.
Stuart is a qualified Chartered Accountant having trained as an accountant with Robb Ferguson Chartered Accountants on their graduate training programme.
Mark Western works at Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s national economic development agency, where he leads a team of specialists supporting opportunities in High Value Manufacturing.
Prior to joining SE, Mark spent over 20 years in the semiconductor industry.
