Lead Expert Group
Sir Richard Lapthorne CBE, Chairman of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc
Richard Lapthorne has been Chairman of Cable and Wireless plc since January 2003. Following the demerger of Cable & Wireless Worldwide Plc he continues as Chairman of Cable & Wireless Communications Plc. He was awarded a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s New Year Honours on 30th December 2009. Recently he was also Chairman of the private equity owned fashion retailer New Look and of the McLaren Group. His career started with Unilever where in eighteen years he worked in the UK, Paris, Holland and Africa. He then moved to Courtaulds plc as Group Financial Controller, becoming Finance Director in 1986 as well as Chairman of the US Group. He joined British Aerospace plc in July 1992 and was a key member of the management team responsible for transforming the company into Europe’s leading defence company. He retired as Vice Chairman in 1999, having been awarded a CBE in 1997.
He started his non-executive career with Amersham International plc in 1989, becoming Chairman from 1996 until 2003. In September 2010 he was appointed a member of the PwC Public Interest Body and is now Chairman. In September 2011 he was appointed a director of Sherritt International, based in Toronto. He has held a number of other directorships including Robert Fleming, the merchant bank, Oasis International Leasing in Abu Dhabi, Chairman of Avecia (spun off from Astra Zeneca), Chairman of TI Automotive (spun off from Smiths Group), Chairman of Tunstall, Chairman of Morse plc, Chairman of Arlington Securities and Chairman of McLaren Group. Between 1999 and 2004 he served on the Navy Board. He led the Working Age project in 2000. He is a trustee of Tommy’s Campaign, the charity researching still and premature birth. In September 2009, he retired as the Queen’s Trustee at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Professor Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economic History, University of Warwick
Nick Crafts has over 40 years’ academic experience. Previously he was Professor of Economic History at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) from 1995 to 2005. His earlier career included faculty positions at UC Berkeley, Stanford and Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British academy. He has been a consultant to many organizations including HM Treasury, EBRD, IMF and the World Bank.
Nick is Director of the ESRC Research Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy at Warwick University which has been established to focus research on how markets, institutions and public policies interact to create and sustain successful economic performance and to investigate the circumstances in which economic success is conducive to reductions in deprivation and enhanced well-being.
Nick’s research expertise has focused on the long-run economic performance of the British economy from the Industrial Revolution to the present day in comparative international perspective.
Professor Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge University
Steve Evans has over 20 years of academic experience which includes working collaboratively with leading industrial and academic institutions from around the globe and supervising over 120 PhD and MSc students at Cranfield. His research seeks a deep understanding of how industry develop solutions that move us towards a sustainable future.
Steve Evans spent 12 years in industry, rising to become Engineering Systems Manager at Martin-Baker Engineering, the world leading manufacturer of ejection seats. His industrial experience led to an emphasis on improving engineering performance and provided an excellent grounding for tackling complex, real-life problems.
Professor Anne Green, Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick
A geographer by background, Anne Green has substantial experience of researching employment, non-employment, skills, regional and local labour market issues, migration and commuting, and associated policy topics.
Current and recent research concerns the impacts of labour migration and geographical mobility more generally, the geography of employment and worklessness, industrial and occupational change, employability, local skills strategies, and the role of place attachment in understanding labour market behaviour.
Anne is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the Regional Studies Association
Professor Richard Harris, Professor of Economics and Head of Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, University of Durham
Before joining Durham University Business School in September 2012, Richard held the positions of Alec Cairncross Professor of Applied Economics and Director of the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at Glasgow University. He previously worked at the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne, Durham and Portsmouth in the UK and Waikato in New Zealand. He holds degrees from the Universities of Belfast, Lancaster and Kent. In addition, he is an Associate Director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre (at the LSE), and a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde. He has published some 133 journal articles and other articles, as well as 6 books, during a career spanning over 30 years.
Professor Alan Hughes, Director of the Centre for Business Research (CBR) and Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies at the Judge Business School
Alan Hughes is Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies at the Judge Business School and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge where he is also Director of the Centre for Business Research and of the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC), a joint venture with Imperial College London. He has acted as an adviser on innovation and industrial policy in Europe and Australia and to major international organisations and has been invited to lecture on innovation and industrial policy in the US, Australia, China, Japan and Europe. He has been since 2004 a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology (CST) which is the UK's senior policy advisory body in this area. His research interests on which he has published extensively include corporate governance; takeovers; the financing of growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and innovation and SME support policy. His most recent research focuses on mergers R&D innovation and economic growth; the role of universities in innovation; the nature of knowledge exchange patterns between universities and the science base; and the financing of technology based start ups. He has carried out numerous evaluations of policies designed to assist the financing and the promotion of innovation and the commercialisation of science.
Professor Chris Lowe, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge
Chris Lowe is Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. His principal research focus over the last 35 years has been the healthcare biotechnology sector, particularly in diagnostics and therapeutics. The work covers aspects of biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, electronics and chemical engineering, and the entire range from pure science to strategic applied science.
He is actively involved in numerous collaborations worldwide in various academic, advisory, legal, commercial and entrepreneurial roles. He has spun-out 10 companies, has 345 publications, eight books and monographs, over 100 patents, supervised more than 80 PhD students and won a number of national and international prizes.
Dr Hamid Mughal, Director of Manufacturing, Rolls Royce Plc
Dr Hamid Mughal is the Director of Manufacturing at Rolls-Royce plc and is responsible for the development and application of leading edge Manufacturing Processes & Technologies, Factory Design & Layout, Manufacturing Product Introduction, Quality Assurance & Manufacturing Systems.
His career spans over 28 years in the Aerospace and Automotive Industries where he has held a number of senior positions in a variety of disciplines. He joined Rolls-Royce in October 2001 from BMW where he was Director of New Product Programmes.
Hamid passionately believes in the social and economic value of High Value Manufacturing. He has played a leading role in the advancement of UK Manufacturing Sector by promoting collaborative programmes such as the evolving Global network of Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres, the formation of UK’s HVM Catapult and cross-sector education and training for industrial leaders.
Professor Sir Michael J H Sterling, Chairman of the Science & Technology Facilities Council
Michael Sterling began his career as an electrical engineer in 1964 joining AEI as a student apprentice with a scholarship to the University of Sheffield to read Electronic and Electrical Engineering, graduating with a First Class Honours degree, several prizes and subsequently a PhD in computer control of electrical power system in 1971. He began his teaching career in the Control Engineering department at Sheffield before moving to Durham University and was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University in 1990, a position he held until his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham in 2001.
His research interest in computer control of electrical power systems led to international sales of software, the formation of a spin out company and advisory roles for the electricity and manufacturing industries. He was subsequently appointed to the West Midlands Regional Development Agency, 2002-2009, the West Midlands ICT Strategy Steering Group and the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, a role which is ongoing. He chaired the Russell Group of research intensive universities from 2003 to 2006, retiring as one of the longest serving Vice-Chancellors in 2009. He is currently Chairman of the Science & Technology Facilities Council (2009- ) and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Czech Academy of Engineering.
