Company Board
Rhian was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus in 2017. Rhian came to AberInnovation from roles in Technology Transfer and Knowledge Exchange and several commercial roles in biotechnology-based start-up and scale up companies in the UK. In recent years Rhian has held various public appointments including membership of the Welsh Industrial Development Advisory Board and the Life Sciences Bridging Fund for Welsh Government.
She currently sits on the Welsh Food & Drink Industry Board and the UK Science Park Association Board of Directors. Rhian holds a DPhil in infectious diseases epidemiology from University of Oxford and a BSc (1st class) in Biology from King’s College London and she was awarded the MBE for services to Entrepreneurship in Wales in 2016.
Bill is Chief Operating Officer of BBSRC - the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which is part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).
Having gained a degree in Materials Engineering, Bill began his career in the private sector, spending 25 years working in a variety of small and large (FTSE 100) organisations, initially in manufacturing operations and then in business improvement and project & programme management, before joining BBSRC in 2009.
Bill has been part of the senior team overseeing the delivery of BBSRC’S Research and Innovation Campus development programme since its initial announcement in 2011. This has included the investment, with partners, of over £200m in innovation facilities and infrastructure at Babraham (near Cambridge), Norwich, Rothamsted, Edinburgh and Aberystwyth, alongside the successful establishment and operation of the associated multi-partner campus operating companies.
Colin McInnes is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation) and holds a personal professorial chair in the Department of International Politics. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. In 2014 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for International Development as a Non-Executive Director of the UK National Commission (UKNC) for UNESCO, with special responsibility for the Social and Human Sciences. He was elected Chair of the UKNC in 2019 and works closely with the British government, UNESCO designations and UNESCO HQ in Paris. In 2017 he received the Special Achievement Award at the inaugural Wales Social Research awards, for his ‘outstanding personal achievement in research’.
Colin currently sits on a range of advisory panels covering various aspects of International Relations and is member of a variety of editorial boards. He recently advised Public Health Wales on its development of an international health strategy, and the InterAction Council (a group of over 40 former Presidents and Prime Ministers) on global health issues. He was on the REF 2014 Politics and International Studies panel and is on the REF 2021 panel for both the criteria and assessment stage as well as being an interdisciplinary panel member.
Iain is Head of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. He has expertise in plant, agricultural and environmental sciences with a track record of delivery of research outputs and innovation outcomes. He leads the BBSRC core strategic programme on resilient crops, including developing the science to help agriculture tackle climate change and go net zero. In addition, he is Director of the BEACON Biorefining Centre with partners at four Universities in Wales, and working with industry to translate academic research into new low carbon products and processes. He is also Director of a greenhouse gas removal demonstrator project funded by UKRI and through the Strategic Priorities Fund to upscale biomass feedstocks, and is also topic lead for feedstocks in the interdisciplinary UKRI funded Supergen Bioenergy Hub.
From a family farm in Devon, John graduated in Agri-Science and then joined Genus Plc. working his way through the biotechnology division before his appointment as Managing Director of their Farm Consulting business. John then joined as a partner in Haygrove, growing their Horticultural Technology business from start-up to a £30m global business over a 14-year period. John now works as Chair and Non-Exec Director for a number of businesses across the Agri-Tech sector.
Rob is a solicitor with vast experience in the publicly funded STEM space and leads the only legal practice dedicated to STEM. He has held senior roles with GEC and Courtaulds Textiles. His work on behalf of public funders, universities and learned societies, including Innovate UK, the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, has caused him to advise on some of the more high-profile legal issues that have challenged STEM organisations.
He is a qualified Chartered Company Secretary as well as Solicitor and is also a Non-Executive Director of the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult and the Open Data Institute. Rob is a visiting lecturer in Technology Protection & Management at Warwick University and has worked on two intellectual property cases that were successful in the House of Lords.
