incubation
Andy Yates
Andy Yates is an experienced entrepreneur, business advisor and mentor. He helps a portfolio of businesses realise their true potential. He is a director and investor in a range of exciting growth ventures, a senior consultant with UnLtd developing and scaling some of the very best UK social enterprises, and a business mentor for a range of organisations including Start Up Britain, Seedcamp and Impetus Trust.
Previously he co-founded and ran Digital Look which grew to become one of Europe's largest financial information businesses and was acquired by global financial services group CMC Markets. Prior to this he helped found, establish and build BBC News Online, was a senior financial journalist with the Independent and the FT Group and trained as an accountant with Deloitte.
Professor Bart Clarysse
Bart Clarysse holds the Chair in Entrepreneurship at Imperial College London Business School. Bart joined the Business School's Entrepreneurship Hub in 2007 from Nottingham University business school and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School where he taught innovation and technology management, entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurship. He is a founder of several high tech start-ups in businesses such as digital cinema, mobile internet and venture incubation.
He has over 50 publications in the field of high tech start-ups and managing growth of these companies, including his latest book The Smart Entrepreneur: How to Build for a Successful Business, authored with Sabrina Kiefer.
Bradley Hardiman
Bradley is life sciences Investment Manager at Cambridge Enterprise. He started his career as a life scientist working for the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and from there moved into technology transfer and business incubation. His previous roles include that of Head of Business Incubation at Design London, the RCA's joint venture partnership with Imperial College. It was here that he gained experience of a wide range of industrial sectors including heavy manufacturing, fire suppression, electrical engineering and fashion.
Bradley has a B.Sc. in Medical Biochemistry from Brunel University, a Research Master's degree in Molecular Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA from Cass Business School. He has been an active supporter of InnovationRCA's entrepreneurship programmes since 2010.
Gareth Jones
Gareth is founder and Director of The Product Works design consultancy. After graduating from the RCA's Innovation Design Engineering in 1991 he worked for Dyson Engineering where he held various posts including Design Engineer on the award winning DC01 duel cyclonic bagless vaccuum cleaner, Design Manager and Group Product Development Director.
In 2004 he founded The Product Works whose clients have included BP, DePuy International, Targetti lighting and ACCO.
Gareth is a Design Tutor at the RCA and Queen Mary UCL and Visiting Professor of Creativity and Innovation at Bath University.
Geoffrey Drage
Geoffrey Drage has been a director of Omega (After Alpha) Ltd., Elifar Primary Care's holding company, since August 2006. He is a graduate in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, and having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, worked as an investment banker in the City of London, advising companies on their corporate strategy and undertaking IPO and M&A transactions. He is now actively involved in technology commercialisation, corporate governance, finance and strategy.
Geoffrey is a co-founder director of GKD Technik Ltd., an engineering sensor design company. He is a member of the early stage technology venture mentoring programmes established by the South East England Development Agency and by SETsquared, the incubation consortium of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. He co-founded CXR Ltd., a spin out from the University of Surrey specialising in solid state X-ray tomography and was its chairman until it was acquired in 2003 by OSI Systems Inc., an American NASDAQ quoted technology company.
Geoffrey is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Food and Environment Research Agency and chairs its Audit and Risk Committee. In December 2009 he was appointed as an inaugural member of the audit and risk committee for the European Patent Organisation, headquartered in Munich.
From its inception in January 2006, through to the end of December 2010, Geoffrey served as a member of the Independent Advisory and Oversight Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, a Geneva based specialised UN agency. From July 2000 to July 2009 he was an external member of the Steering Board of The UK Intellectual Property Office and chairman of its Audit Committee. He was an inaugural member of the Audit & Risk Committee of the UK Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills until its merger with the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform in June 2009 to form the current Department for Business Innovation & Skills.
In the January 2009 New Year's honours Geoffrey was awarded an OBE for services to intellectual property rights.
George Vincent
With over twenty-five years of industry experience, George Vincent has worked with high-economic sectors such as high-tech and telecommunications; top-tier academic institutions, inventors and entrepreneurs; and professional client engagement which included senior sales and marketing management; business and strategic development; business process, product and innovation consulting; intellectual property and tech investment management.
George Vincent is Vice President UK at NineSigma and Visiting Coach at InnovationRCA.
Kristien De Wolf
Kristien is a professional venture and business development coach, and has a deep history with the Incubator, contributing significantly to its set-up in the early years, and in structuring the selection process.
Until very recently she offered her skills as an in-house venture coach for the unique Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design Course (IE&D) which runs on all MBA programs at Imperial College, and as a freelance entrepreneurial market research and business development coach for individual entrepreneurs and business students.
At present, Kristien co-heads Clientonomy, a joint venture that focuses on sales and business development of innovative products and services in emerging and fast growing industries.
Mike Greatwood
Mike has been leading, coaching, mentoring and supporting business Leaders and senior managers for over 20 years.
Having acquired, grown, led, rationalized and turned around a number of small and large businesses & divisions, as SD, MD and latterly as HR & PD Director (for a FTSE 100 IT company), Mike has always focused on the development of people within the organisation.
Mike is a trained Cognitive Behavior Coach, MBA educated and a qualified FA coach.
Nick Fitzherbert
Nick Fitzherbert is a Presentations Skills coach, speaker and author, and applies the rules of magic to coaching business people in Presentation Skills and Creative Thinking.
His book 'Presentation Magic' was published internationally by Marshall Cavendish in July 2011.
Paul Rutherford
For over twenty-five years, Paul Rutherford has led a career with substantial expertise in business solutions together with developing and leading teams of 2 to 150 people, across sixteen countries.
Since the beginning of his career, Paul has created campaigns for blue-chip corporations in the technology and business services sector, before taking the role of Director of Communications EMEA in 1992, and then General Manager, Corporate Sales UK, both at Xerox.
After serving as Vice President of Systems Marketing at IBM, Paul was appointed Chief Marketing Officer at Clearswift, the global leader in email security, and then as General Manager and Coach to numerous technology start-ups and turnarounds.
Most recently, Paul was main board director for EMEA executive search firm, Beaumont Karlson.
Peter Town
Artist, Mentor and Investor, Peter Town has an extensive career background in the entertainment, broadcast, and financial industries, and has served in creative consultancy for over 30 years as Design Consultant, and then Managing Director at Town Group Consultancy Ltd before stepping in as Art Director at BBC Worldwide.
Peter is now a Partner at Town & Town Ltd where he's managed projects for over 120 clients including BT, American Express, Honda, IBM and Time Warner etc.
Steve Everhard
With extensive experience in a wide range of technology and media industries, especially within engineering, sales and marketing, Steve Everhard provides broad advisory support. His knowledge and support extend to board governance, organisational design and succession management, remuneration, strategic planning, marketing and sales focus, fund raising and exit.
Steve also provides an external vantage-point on business to analyse opportunities and maximise its economic growth.